Gluestick

Indeed; best to have your house at the top or near a nice hill! Like us... One of the most popular areas near us is Loison-sur-Créquoise: the Créquoise Valley is very nice: all provided it doesn't, err, flood!

Weird... Previously, I have successfully used the edit facility; however, now it doesn't work for me, either! I am also having dire problems with Private Messaging: I try to create a PM, insert the name of the recipient, title, etc but then the damned thing will not allow me to create the message! Clearly a software problem: Mods ad Admin please note! Update: the edit function worked this time round; it seems you are only allowed a tiny finite time space to edit.

If you look at the top of the pane (i.e. the screen layout) on the right, under"Reply to this topic" you will see three large dots. Click on the dots with the cursor and the edit facility should pop up.

As I have suggested previously, such personal differences ought to be aired by PM, not on the open forum.

I cannot see, Alan, how a second Notaire could add any benefit? The Notaire's function in the matter of probate is firstly to register the change of title (and notify The Impôt in order they know who to send tax demands to!) and to collect any inheritance taxes due. Since there is no will, it is actually a very straightforward matter insofar as the Notaire is concerned, as it is dictated by French inheritance law. Whilst clearly not so, for the two siblings! I have considerable professional experience of Contentious Probate under UK law: which is an utter - and potentially expensive - nightmare. Mainly since UK probate law dates back to circa 1890 ? and relies completely on precedent: with the singular exception of the Children and Families Act, 2014, which makes allowance for children who need some financial provision (e.g. physically or mentally impaired and unable to support themselves), even though not mentioned in a will. Human beings at their worst, when greed overcomes moral compass...

OK and thank you. It would seem pretty clear. As your father passed away intestate (i.e. leaving no will) and since he lived in France, then the estate will be subject to French inheritance law and charged to tax in France. Your brother, no matter that there is obvious ill will between you, cannot take a greater share of the estate than that dictated by French law. I would suggest if you are not assured, then you could query the values placed upon the house and contents and demand independent valuations. The Notaire's principle role is to ensure the French state is paid all taxes due, before the distribution is made.

A software glitch screwed up my post of yesterday evening! I will now -try! - to post this again... OK, that's no 1 out of the way. 2. Did your father live in France full time? 3. Did he leave any UK assets, particularly property? 4. Did he pass away in France or the UK?

A couple more questions... 1. Was your late father a French citizen? 2.

Well, for us this year, it will be for the hors d'oeuvre, smoked mackerel with a little horseradish sauce, made using root from the garden and a little smoked salmon served with a dash of sauce hollandaise and some of our Scandinavian bread made with rye, spelt and wholemeal flour. The entrée will be silverside of beef pot roast s l o w l y, in a cast iron casserole, with carrots and parsnips, and served with roast spuds, yorkie pud, sprouts, roast parsnips and lashings of proper gravy based on the juices. Dessert will be mince pies, with the pastry made from a wonderful Carrier recipe for French patissiere's sweet pastry, which melts in the mouth, and served with hot crême Anglais.

One would need far more information to make any useful comment. Where is the house: France or the UK? Did your late father leave a will? Was this an English or French will? Finally it would all depend upon the size of the gross estate. In what is termed a Contentious Probate matter, lawyers' fees can be rather high. Rather than a Notaire, in order to contest the estate, you would need to employ either a UK solicitor or a French Avocat.

I would agree. Yes seen the fish market; lovely old style with small units and dropdown wooden fronts. Have you visited the restaurant built on the beach at Merlimont? Great fish and not uber cher. Sitting outside when the sun shines one could be in Provence. Fresh fish also in Boulogne and I must say the local Carrefour has an excellent wet fish counter. Try this; a dish we sort of invented. Atlantic prawns and fresh sardines. Flour. flash fry with fresh green chillis. Wash down with such as Alsation Pinot Gris. Yummy!

I have always been informed, Woolly, that the French delight in abundant plates of seafood, washed down with a good white wine. I have never forgotten the expression on Mrs Gluey's face, when with friends we were lunching at the wonderful restaurant in Étaples, which is owned and run by the fishing fleet cooperative. She ordered une Assiette de fruites de mer. This had two of most things, on three levels! Definitely seafood in the Loire, however, one of the wonders of la belle France, for me, is the vast regional variety.

Traces of cocaine have been found after wipe tests in a majority of the rest rooms in the House of Commons! https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/drugs-westminster-speaker-hoyle-police-b1970106.html With all the preferential priced bars, it used to be Drunk in Charge of the Country... Now, it seems, Stoned in Charge of the Country is the new norm. I wonder if it is the same in France, Germany and especially the Netherlands?

Ken and Gardian: might I please suggest that you exchange your views by Private Message? When threads become contentious and heated, this can often finish up in a "Flame War". Owing to the very sad and upsetting nature of this topic, it would be a great pity, IMHO, for the Mod to lock this thread too, since clearly, if there are problems with any nation state's child protection services, abilities and care, then something needs urgently to be done. And the volition can only emerge from normal concerned people, not politicos mainly concerned with playing party politics. On a side issue, I was pleased today to learn that at long last, care homes in the UK are going to go under the microscope: and about time, too!

With this itinerary, I would need a long holiday afterwards to recover!

Spot on, Gardian. Psychopaths particularly are often quite charming and believable.

Take away the huge subsidies, Teapot and windpower is not effective, for example.

Gardian: did you look at the statistical analysis I posted earlier in this thread? https://www.statista.com/statistics/303514/child-cruelty-abuse-in-england-and-wales-uk-y-on-y/ Have you followed the appalling information regarding the Northern (UK) Grooming and Rape cases and the recent admissions by both Social Services and the Police Authority on their repeated failures to take any action? Do you remember the dreadful death of pretty dear little girl Victoria Climbié? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Victoria_Climbié Also: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/28/councils-failing-children-at-risk-ofsted-social-care

Not my favourite publication, however, this DM article does provide significant insight, perhaps? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10269281/Emma-Tustins-ex-partner-gives-disturbing-insight-child-killer-convicted-murder.html Poor little lovely poppet: not only raging psychopaths for father and step mother but another raging lunatic for his natural birth mother.

Well, an already rumbustious presidential battle, has becomes even more interesting! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/05/valerie-pecresse-the-bulldozer-who-would-be-frances-first-female-president

Might this have something to do with aberrant behaviour? https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/dec/05/they-see-it-in-corridors-in-bathrooms-on-the-bus-uk-schools-****-crisis

Same here! Mum was the feared pillar of authority and conduct; her favourite admonishment was "letting down the family!" Not a "Rant": I agree totally. In the late 1990s, I was approached by a good friend who was a county councillor and asked to become a Co-Opted County Council secondary school governor. It was then a problem school. There was little or no discipline and if an unusual teacher tried, parents would roll up and threaten to "do" him/her! Perhaps my wake up moment was when a pupil assaulted a member of staff with a baseball bat: and the pupil was a girl! BTW: out of a governing body of 40 it took just two of us and determination to sort it out! It has moved from a place where "Nice" parents refused to send their kids: to a school where parents are now queuing up... A further sobering moment was sitting in a magistrates court for a morning and observing how the young scum treated the whole matter as a big joke! I had been approached with the suggestion of becoming a JP: I passed as it was obviously an utter waste of time. And that's quite a few years ago, now.

Ken; my own experience of social workers is that all too often, they are Lefty Liberal Do-Gooder types who read Sociology at a pretend university and early on decided such moronic conclusions that criminals only become so because they suffered a deprived childhood. The genus social worker, believe in apologism: i.e. "It's not his/her fault because he/she was drunk, under the influence of illegal drugs etc at the time of the offence and so on. Now if they had have read Psychology instead of the mainly nonsense of Lefty Sociology, then perhaps they would recognise any society throws up Sociopaths, Psychopaths and etc. A most interesting book to read is titled Mind Change, written by Baroness Susan Greenfield; who is one of the World's foremost authorities on how the brain works: she is a Neural Scientist not a doctor. Her inescapable conclusions are that constant exposure to mass media, the Internet etc have re-wired the neural pathways and explain how and why younger people suffer increasing incidence of behavioural problems. The dire and growing problems associated with proscribed drugs (Skunk in particular) are clearly yet a further root cause.

Interesting follow up in the Grauniad this morning. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/04/arthur-labinjo-hughes-abuse-cases-being-missed-due-to-funding-cuts P.S I wrote my earlier comment (Immediately above), prior to reading Laming's analysis.

Sociopaths and in all probability druggies too. So sadly, supposed "Social Workers" and Social Services are now (In UK anyway) mostly a waste of space. The furore over the Rotherham et al grooming and rape gangs has clearly demonstrated, at long, long, last, that both the police and social services were frightened to take any meaningful action as they were scared of being labelled "Racists"!