westland

After the euphoria that yesterday's news brought my OH has now set about writing to cancel our PHI hoping that the company will receive it within the 30 days cancellation period and that we might get back our three thousand odd euros.  I however feel that it might be more prudent to hang fire a while still not wanting the uncertainty of being without any cover.  According to the small print we can at any time give 14 days notice of cancellation and may be entitled to a pro-rata refund.  After a few heated words between us I have decided to ask what others in the same position might be thinking of doing now about PHI.  Thanks Kate.

What a fantastic surprise, couldn't believe it when I logged on!  We had resigned ourselves to the situation, taken out basic PHI and tried to push the implications of not being in the health system to the back of our minds. Now we can breath again and look forward to the rest of 2008 here in France. Many thanks to everyone involved. 

[quote user="Deimos"] In my case add to that "And you are not allowed to take out private insurance". So now I'm not allowed to be covered by CPAM/CMU/E106 and not allowed to pay for Private Insurance either. Ian [/quote] Our refusal letter actually stated "Je vous invite à étudier votre protection sociale avec une assurance privée".   Also, in case anyone is interested in sending an appeal,  "Le Secretariat de la Commission de Recours Amiable" at the relevant CPAM was given as the person to whom we should send our letter.

[quote user="Joshua"]   The only glimmer of hope was that we were told that the regulations may still change soon.  [/quote] Joshua, have you thought about completing an application to join the CMU and sending it (with proof of posting and receipt required).  You will most likely get a rejection as we did yesterday but you will have proof of this for the future.  Also as you appear to have stronger grounds that us for joining ie a chronic illness, you could then send in an appeal letter, maybe using one of the ones on the French Health Issues website.  At least you should then be in the queue for appeals when the regulations finally filter through. I did my own appeal letter at the same time that I sent off my application, but that was because other than a minor exisiting illness I felt that I needed to use other arguments to make my case.  I used the google website to help with translation along with some of the points in the letters on the FHI website.   I received a standard rejection but the guy who dealt with it had attached a compliment slip to a copy of my accompanying letter stating that should I wish to appeal on the grounds that I had stated I could do so by sending back the letter within the next two months.  I am unsure whether to take it any further at the moment as I don't want to "muddy the water" for those who's medical conditions mean that they really need to have their cases heard asap.  But at least I have my official refusual and proof that I have applied should anything change in the future.  

[quote user="Goldfish"]  Lac de Saint-Pardoux  [/quote] Yes, the Limousin in great for those who love the country side and all that goes with it. Wasn't sure whether to post this or not, but just check out the above lake.  I remember someone  having pulled out of a house sale around that area possibly in connection with a high radio active content in the lac from local uranium mines being under investigation.  There is something on Wikepedia about this if you do a search.  It would seem that they are going to drain the lake this year, and do so periodically to deal with the situation.  Good luck whatever you decide.

Many thanks for the info.  It is a fact that I am going to add to my appeal letter; that of discrimination against me as I was not allowed the option of joining the CMU after my three month residency period when other nationalities were, and as you now inform me still can.   I am sure that you have already covered all the points that I will be making as an individual, but I have to give it a try. 

I am preparing my appeal for entry into the CMU and to enable me to get my facts right I would be grateful if anyone could tell me: prior to the new rules could those who came from countries other than GB affiliate immediately after their three month residency, if so did that include non EU members.  Presumably at that time no one would have checked as to whether or not they had come into the country with health insurance. Many thanks for the useful website, I have been without computer but will now be making use of some of the text on there.  I have found the English translations a great help in picking out facts to use in my argument. Not assuming that I will have any success but at least we can continue to draw attention to the inequalities within the rules. 

Surely even the French Government cannot get away with "picking us off" from all of the many other nationalities living in France who must be covered by the CMU.  Residents from some of the poorer EU countries who have settled here (can they do so?).   They can't all have been covered by an E106 or their country's equivalent.   How are they going to withdraw cover without discrimination against us?  They would have to change the CMU rules for everyone wouldn't they?

Surely the end of acceptance into CMU would not only affect Brits but anyone from any EU country who has entered France, lived here for three months and completed an application form to join CMU;  possibly with little or no previous income if they are from one of the poorer EU countries.  They could be non-contributing and also be in receipt of RMI.  All this being possible as there has been no requirement for a Carte Sejour in order to remain in France.   There must be many such habitants throughout France who definitely won't have the funds for private health cover.  Are they then to be asked to leave the country along with Brits who cannot afford cover.  This can't be workable for those who are currently resident without discrimination coming into play and people seeking redress in the name of "human rights". 

Many thanks for the tips and encouragement.  I am going to try all the suggestions in these postings; will order the book as mentioned by Jon and concentrate a little more on oral/aural practice.   Hopefully I might be able to help with homework too.  Kate.

[quote user="LisaJ"] they probably won't learn to conjugate verbs in English as they would in French or any other foreign language. [/quote] Yes thanks it does help to know this as I had been making up sentences to be conjugated with the past simple and past continuous tense.   I think that your comments have prompted me to ask her family exactly what they are hoping for when she comes to see me.  It started with her grandma asking for some "help with her English" so we had a few conversational sessions and I did a couple of basic exercises in the present tense about her interests, pets and animals, thinking like you that it was a good idea.  However, she came one day with a list of a few irregular verbs and asked me to explain them.  So that's when I moved onto making things a little more structured and now it all seems heavy going. Ah well, as she is back at school next week I might get a chance to look at her English homework and text books to see what stage she is at and what type of exercises they are doing.  Thanks Kate.    P.S. Just a thought I haven't confused things have I?  Melanie is French. 

Thanks for the replies.  I thought that Melanie was only coming to see me during the holidays, however today she was making arrangements to fit me in around her school timetable when she goes back next week.  As such I don't think that I can continue to spend ages trying to produce grammar exercises myself, which might not even be absolutely correct.   I find it difficult when I ask her to translate a sentence back into French to make sure that she has understood the meaning, I'm never sure if the French tense that she has used translates exactly to that in English.    I did print off some notes in French on how to use two of the tenses that we have done, but she didn't really understand them.  Perhaps I am making things too difficult for both of us, so I think the use of text books is a good idea.  It does worry me that I am not a qualified teacher and although I have my English 'A' level it was achieved many moons ago.  Until I started researching on the internet I couldn't have informed anyone about the different tenses.  However, like you Jon I'm doing this on a voluntary basis and I do keep pointing out to her parents that I am "not a teacher" so I'll give it my best.  Thanks again. Kate.  

I have been asked to help a 13yr old with her English as she missed some schooling last year.  She wanted to look at irregular verbs and I started with the past simple.  I have now prepared some information on the present perfect/progressive but I would like to have an idea which tenses should have been covered over the last year.  I have tried to ask her, but it has taken me some time to remember the different tenses myself and also to make sure that I don't confuse her as I can only relate to the tense titles in english.   If anyone out there teaches, has children in school here or who can help with either the correct tense names as studied in France, or with information as to which tenses Melanie ought to have already studied,  I would be grateful.  Kate.

  Yes l'etrangere we're good copy and already our neighbours are mentioning the articles and adding a few negative experiences/second and thirdhand stories of their own.  Though they don't seem to be equating us with the Brtis in the articles that they have been reading, well not in our company anyway.  Unfortunately I feel that what you say is correct, when we first bought our house there were still several areas in France that had seen very little migration.  Our department started to boom when it became one of the "undiscovered" areas for all those TV programmes becoming ever more desperate to find the cheapest property in France.  Articles such as the ones in the Montagne are understandable and possibly fuelled by fears that migration will become unmanageable.  It's such a shame because I know of many Brits who have come here in the past two or three years and have now returned to the UK or gone further afield.  Plus there seems to be a sense of a slowing down in those coming into our area.  I hope that all this attention will eventually die down without having done too much damage to our relationship with our host country.

An uptdate for anyone interested/having similar problems.  The plumber has been today, tested the pressure which was at 7bar and fitted a pressure reducer.  The buzzing pipes and chauffe eau drip have stopped.  Didn't like to tell him that thanks to research on the forum we had an idea what the problems might be!

To Jane and Danny, it just stated that 80 were "foreigners" from EU countries (including the 50 British).  I have since noticed that the study was at 31st December, 2005 so quite a while ago and of course only covered our department.

Good to see that you two haven't seen much bad  press in your departments.  Especially Tony in the Dordogne as Le Montagne even cross referenced to the "well off but not working" in the Dordogne "who benefit from RMI" in a bid to get home their scaremongering that there might be reason for concern about the "flood" of Brits in the Creuse.    However, the study that was commissioned to verify these concerns states that of the 1,774 beneficiaries of RMI 50 of these were British, how this is interpreted will be down to the individual reading the article.

Having read our local newspaper the Montagne which I pick up once a week during the weekly shop I am upset to see yet another article "brit bashing".    I have only read the one article out of a series of five having missed the others that were published earlier in the week.  This paper has decided to publish a full page of no less than five separate articles which are mainly anti-british; from the blatant attitude of the deputy of Aubusson who " denounces" the Britains "flooding" the Creuse "accusing" them of exploiting the French social security, to the usual article that we have been responsible for putting up property prices. There is a piece which talks of Brits working on the black and not paying taxes, at the end of which we are even being pilloried at the expense of one Brit who accidently forgot he was in the Creuse, drove on the left and had an accident - happily the accident was "sans gravite".  Perhaps they should ban anyone who comes from a country where they drive on the left (my reaction!). An article about banks and estate agents offering "English Spoken" , ends by saying "and then when one walks around London one doesn't see "Francaise Parle" in the windows, something to think on?" I haven't read such inflammatory articles before in this newspaper, but then I only get it once a week.  Do other forum members in other parts of France notice that the press in their area can't leave the Brits in peace?          

Thanks for the replies.. The plumber was suggesting that he puts the pressure reducer just after the stop tap where the supply enters the house, so hopefully this would mean that the shower mixer will be OK.  However, reading your replies it looks as if the problem is more about the GdS.  Chauffe eau and all plumbing was installed in Feb this year, so if/when we get the plumber back we can question whether we really do need a reducer.  The pipework is all copper so think that we will have to reply on him. 

As part of our small extension we have a new chauffe eau which seems to have been working fine for a couple of months.  Recently the water pipes started to buzz almost constantly and after a bit of reseach on this forum we checked the security valve on the chauffe eau and found that it drips all the time.  We phoned the plumber who said that he doesn't know what is causing the noise in the pipes, we asked re. a pressure reducer and he agreed that this might solve the chauffe eau drip - we are hoping that it might also stop the pipes buzzing. However, as we are still having problems getting him back. I am wondering how easy/difficult it might be to fit one myself?  OK don't all laugh at once, what do you think?  P.S.  He did also say that the water company might have turned up the pressure, does this sound plausible?

How many steres in a corde please?   I have been a bit concerned at the increasing rises in the price of the wood that we get.  We were first charged 130 euros a corde in Sept 2005, 150 euros in Feb 2006 and 180 euros a corde in Sept 2006.  We buy two/three cordes for one insert, we have quite cold weather from November to March.   They do have to make two trips with each corde, but the supply is only five minutes away.   Have you all seen similar price rises?  Makes me wonder how much it will be this year.

We have used frontline for the past two years but at a recent visit to the vets he recommended Prac-tic, saying that it was new and that ticks were becoming immune to the frontline.  We have dosed our dog once with the Prac-tic and he hasn't had any ticks that we are aware of this year.  However, he probably already had a build up of the frontline in his system as we dose every month from spring onwards. 

Brilliant, many thanks for the prompt reply cooperlola, I'll go off and enjoy some "scram" and some vin now with peace of mind.   Regards Kate

I would be grateful if someone could look at their recent EDF bills to see if the following is printed in the section that tells you when your next bill or reading is due "votre contrat sera reconduit au ......(date relevant to the anniversary of when contract was taken out), delai de preavis de resiliation: aucun".  I ask to put my mind at rest as if anyone else has this printed on their bill it must just mean that they will continue to supply us at that date and may be related to the opening up of the supply market.  Reason being we had a few probs getting them to connect us eighteen months ago and I am hoping that they have not put us on some sort of temporary contract which might then involve more hassle to continue with our supply. Many thanks in advance. Kate.  

Could anyone tell me what is needed in section 8 "Comptes bancaires a l'etranger".  Many thanks.