cooperlola

I take your point Chris, and I too find myself doing this sort of thing for friends, but I don't know if that's what the original poster was getting at.  Not everybody knows any locals whom they can ask for help or who have the time to give it.

I guess you have to work out the cost of long-distance phone calls, money lost on time spent away from work, trips back and forth across the channel etc.  You get through a lot of euros just doing that. Surely that's what "value for money" entails?

Regional encoding (common to the whole of Europe - we are all in Region 2) also affects what you can play on DVD recorders.  Also, watch the difference between DVD+R and -R and DVD RAM, not much to choose for recording quality but the costs of the blank discs do vary and are not interchangeable between recorders if you have more than one/change them in the future.  If you can afford it, buy a recorder with a hard drive which takes all 3 types of disc.  It will cut down your consumable costs enormously and will allow you to archive the stuff you really want to keep onto disc, and you can cut out any ads before doing so.  If you go for a switcher box as recommended above, get one with a remote as it's a faf jumping up and down all the time to change from one device to another. Pioneer Plasma TVs have had excellent reviews and mine is superb.  It has 4 scart outlets so services both my UK and French satelite boxes, plus DVD recorder and the video camera all at once.  Also, makes transferring video to DVD very simple, if that's your bag.  I do not concur with the above estimation of cathode tube tellies.  French friends of mine have one and the picture quality is awful after my Plasma, and the screen is 2/3rds the size (it also takes up loads of room).  But if you buy Plasma, do get long-term guarantees as the technology is still relatively young.

Yeah, Trailfinders.  Quick internet service and good value although I have never had to claim.  They were recommended to me by my insurance broker here even though he got no commission.  He warned me off French travel insurance as it's so expensive!  European addresses are acceptable to them. www.trailfinders.com

Dotty, I agree, but as I said, I was busy in the UK and only had a limited time to set things up (didn't have the luxury of being able to take time off to get utilities sorted) because the sale and purchase was happening simultaneously.  It was good to have somebody here in France whom I could get to do some of the legwork.  I have a couple of friends who moved here at the weekend.  I found them a place to rent while they are looking to buy, have fixed up visits to the right people (I hope) and am doing a bit of translation for them on bank charges, contracts etc as they are in the early stages of learning the lingo.  It's more time-consuming than you imagine. Can be worth it for some.

[quote user="Cassis"]Leclerc Alençon open from 9.00 to 18.00h (ish - can't remember exact hours). Shame - it used to be mildly infuriating as a foreign visitor if a public holiday caught you out, but one of the things I used to admire about France was it's stalwart defence of Sundays and Holidays as days for rest and reflection.  11th November everything used to shut down and everyone would gather at the war memorial for the laying of the gerbe and a glass afterwards.  But there's no room for that now. [:(]  Ah, well. [/quote]Quite.  On another site (you know the one) we have been discussing how little attention is paid to this occasion and how the UK is one of the few countries where this is not a public holiday.  A pity when commerce gives way to the respect we owe to those brave soles.

[quote user="booboo"] [quote user="cooperlola"] Does anybody know where I can get hold of a basic French version of such a thing as the bank needs proof of residence and don't understand the English contract! [/quote]   Hi, you can buy tenancy agreements in stationary shops. [/quote]Thanks, that's all I wanted to know. Ta.[:)]

Both parties are friends of mine - that's the thing.  Bit more head-scratching required (for me, I mean)!

Depends on the shop!  Auchan in Le Mans is open; InterMarche in the local village open until lunchtime.

I paid 1500 euros for : Connection of phone, water and electricity, opening of  a french bank account (basically meant they came with us and translated where necessary and told us what papers to bring), plus accompanying us on property visits, notaire visits (for document signing etc.)  I would probably have done this myself if I hadn't been trying to hold down/wind up work, property sale etc in England but it was worth it given our circumstances at the time.

Without going into all the details, they intend to get a notarised French document sorted in the near future.  However, in the meantime, the renters need to open a bank account just to sort out the basics, such as getting a telephone installed, getting a bank card for petrol etc.  I spoke to the bank today (I'm the official translator!!) and have set up an appointment for them next week.  However, the bank needs proof of residence and said the basic agreement between both parties was fine, but needed to be in French.  I just thought if I could find a "pro forma" french agreement it would make my task of producing a french version look a bit more authentic and prevent any translation mistakes.

First of all, apologies if this is a repeat (bound to be) but a search yielded nothing useful.  Friends have entered into a 6-month rental agreement while the renters look for a property to buy. Both couples are English (the cottage owners and the renters), so the contract is in English.  Does anybody know where I can get hold of a basic French version of such a thing as the bank needs proof of residence and don't understand the English contract! 

When we bought our house, the tax d'hab amount was declared on the estate agents' particulars for the house.  Should give you a clue about the amount if  you still have yours.  Otherwise, ask at the tax office what the previous owners paid.

Right lads, time to get your toys back in the pram I think!  Seriously, my friend and I nip down to the local twinning group once a month and help them brush up their English.  There's no doubt that they appreciate it and get something out of the whole exercise.  However, I'm sure that - as with everything - if we had proper training as teachers, we would be better at it and our pupils would learn even more.  Whatever your profession, if you spent a long time being trained, and are qualified and experienced, it can be a bit galling to think that the world at large has the "anybody can do it" attitude when you know there's so much more than just "instinct" involved.  I have a marketing background and spent my entire working life defending my profession to those who thought anybody could just do it.  Of course they can do some of it, and many of them quite well, but it's insulting when people just rubbish years of study and experience as unnecessary. I'm sure that Annie's pupils, and our twinning group, know they are not getting professional help - if that was what they wanted, and could afford, they would seek it.  But they are learning something and are better off than they would be if they had nothing at all, and everybody is enjoying the process.  More power to Annie's elbow, I say. And yes, Dick, I know I've started a few sentences with prepositions! (the study of the fudamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence, btw.)

Mr cooperlola and I have a pc and a laptop each, plus one of the pc's went bang a couple of month back.  I have therefore reloaded my Office xp 5 times now and it has never objected in spite of the 3 computers only warning - updates and everything work fine. Like Dick, I don't know about educational ones though.

Leaving a door open (in the room, I mean) sometimes helps to get the thing going more quickly, I suspect well insulated rooms stop the natural draughts.

Do you have a Castorama in any of those towns?  They have a big equipment hire choice, may include a floor buffer.

We had the same trouble (blush - embarassing in the shop) with CA when we moved here.  However, a quick phone call to the bank and they upped the limit. No probs since.

cs, I don't know what the problem is with maintaining a bank account in the UK.  We are in the same position and my accountant here has no problem declaring our UK income over here.  We have no children and our French Notaire advised strongly against the Tontine clause for us and recommended the CU instead.  He also seemed to indicate that you can't alter it - I take it that's still true - does anybody know?  We went to Siddells before we came here and all they seemed to be interested in was handling our investments (no doubt to get a bit of commission!).  Don't know about BF.  You might try an English speaking French accountant - we use SFPN, or talk to your Notaire. Their website is very useful http://www.notaires.fr/notaires/notaires.nsf/V_TC_PUB/FRANCE-ACCUEIL

We live here permantently.  The heating is on all the time from October to the end of April.  We cook, use tellies, computers, hi-fi's etc the rest of the time. (Just one electric ring on the hob, three others are gas).  Having said that, the house is very well insulated with the modern reflective type insulation on the entire roof.  Walls are about 2 feet thick too! Also, it's double glazed throughout.

[quote user="Spg"][quote user="cooperlola"] However, we have five electric heaters in our home, which consists of five rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom.  We expect them to run at 19 during the day and put them up to 22 on cold winter nights.  Our entire electricity bill is 1200 euros a year. [/quote] I would be interested to know what sort of electric heaters these are, and if they were expensive to buy, as there seem to be many different kinds available. Thanks in advance Sue [/quote]They are what I believe are known as "panneau" heaters - very slim and attach to the wall.  They were in the house when we bought it so I cannot tell you about the price.  The thermostat works by remote control so no extra wiring needed.  The previous tennants had plugged these into wall sockets but my electrician has since connected them direct to free up socket space. I'll see if I can see something similar in a cataglogue to point you in the right direction. Found it.  Here  http://particuliers.edf.fr/article59.html

I was faced with the same decision when I moved here.  I decided in the circumstances to take no lump sum, but a bigger pension and got round it that way.  Is this option open to you?  If you need the lump sum to purchase a propery then your only alternative, unless things have changed as suggested above, is to move here the day after you get your lump sum (which is what my husband did!) Ours are  railway pensions, which I think are treated in the same way as teachers' (ie they are not civil service pensions, and are taxed here.)

It's all a matter of choice as had been said.  However, we have five electric heaters in our home, which consists of five rooms, plus kitchen and bathroom.  We are chilly mortals so expect them to run at 19 during the day and put them up to 22 on cold winter nights.  Our entire electricity bill which includes water heating, cooking plus all the other electricals in the house is 1200 euros a year. We don't think that's bad especially as we are retired and are here a lot.  Looking at an earlier post, I think we're right! On the subject of solid fuel central heating, we had a heat exchanger on a multi-fuel burner back in the UK, which heated a 3-bedroomed house perefectly well (6 radiators).  It would burn anything, including smokeless coal and wood (provided the latter was properly seasoned).

These are the cartridges I am referring to.  Genuine Canon and 7 euros each from Amazon. http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B000075ALQ/ref=pd_cpt_gw_1/402-2237256-5310552

This is one of the reasons why I love my little Canon (above) - sorry 2.  The bubblejet cartridges are dirt cheap and it doesn't mind if I don't use it for a month or so.  How much do you friends use their copier? - that seems to be the burning question here.