heather

Hi A bit of advice would be helpful. I'm selling a car privately and hoping to get a fairly big chunk of money for it.  can anyone advise on the safest way to accept payment from a buyer before allowing them to drive away. Thanks Heather p.s. I found copies of the necessary certificates for selling on the ever useful  www.service-public.fr/formulaires/index.html  

Does anyone know of a good printing firm around this part of the Gard capable of doing a smallish print run to a good standard and at a reasonable price. I am planning to self publish a book. Heather

Hi Virginia Can I suggest looking at the Vallee Borgne for inspiration on finding a place. There are lots of gite places in and around the villges here and you would be able to find some some through the tourist office. I've been staying here for almost a year now and hope to get set up soon as a working, earning artist. I've been toying with the idea of setting up some sort of group of artists with similar themes in the area. Best wishes Heather  

Hi My daughter has moved to France with me having gained a decent set of qualifications from her school in Scotland. She is now thinking about applying for a course of further education here in France. She speaks french very well and is interested in studying art/animation or perhaps music. Some general advice would be most welcome about the best places to look (we are in the Gard area), how her school qualifications would be recognised here, sources of funding available in France or from Scotland. I'd be pleased to hear from anyone who has experience of an older teenager coming to france to study. Heather  

Hi Our village house in the Cevennes had a traditional slate floor in the ground floor room which I think must have been the original kitchen of the house. At some point before we bought it this floor was torn up and a big hole dug, possibly because underground pipes needed fixed. now we are about to start filling in the hole and replacing the slate and wonder if anyone has any tips. These are natural slabs of slate, all different sizes and shapes, and it will be an interesting jig-saw puzzle. Does anyone know of any web sites which feature restoration of these old houses, or just information about the traditional architecture of the Cevennes? all the best Heather

Can anyone recommend a english/french translator? We are waiting for a date for a tribunal session in Nimes and need a good translater to assist at the hearing.

Thank you all very much for your ideas about this. I now have plenty to think about. We have had the house for nine months now, so are getting a good idea of how it behaves in different weather conditions. Part of the problem in the last month has been the natural reaction to keep all the windows and doors shut and hold in the heat, so of course no ventilation. with the new year we are making plans to get all the necessary jobs done in the house and sorting out this heating/ventilation balance will be a priority. Thanks again for your advice Heather

On the subject of heating systems, I've seen ones which run on little wooden pellets and wonder if anyone has tried this. are they economical to run?; expensive to install? Heather

We are having a problem with condensation in our house. it is a traditional village house in the Cevennes with an interesting layout. Imagine a  long rectangular house built of drystane with no internal staircase. this is the original house. like many houses here it backs on to a cliff-face with the land level with the second floor. On the ground floor a  cellar is built into the cliff and a stair runs up the rock to the door on the first floor. above this is a gap between the original house and the cliff. In more recent times ( somewhere in the 20th century! ) the stairwell has been extended upwards and narrow rooms added, a WC, kitchen, shower room and store. this has been done in concrete and glass bricks and most of it roofed over with fish-scale slate. Because the outside wall is natural bedrock there is always some moisture and in the summer this is not a problem as there is adequate drainage from the cellar. Now that the winter has arrived and the outside tempreture is below freezing, condensation from the kitchen and WC is running down the walls and dripping off the ceilings. The WC is the worse affected as it is at the top and is basically a concrete box with a flat roof. We are experimenting with different forms of heating; so far with little success. Has anyone out there had similar problems to deal with? Any tips would be very welcome. Heather

Hi  I'm wanting to call someone in the UK who only has a mobile number. I'm really worried though at the thought of a huge bill. Does anyone know the cheapest way of doing this?

Sorry if this has been covered before and I just haven't found it. I have now moved to France permanently and, although I intend to to start earning money as an artist and by renting out another small house I own here, at the moment I am living on savings. I know that some form of health insurance is compulsory here and I want to be covered in the event of illness. What steps do I have to take to enter the French system?

Thanks for your replies. I did eventually dig up an e-mail address via the e-mail they sent to me when I ordered the service. For anyone else who may need it - [email protected] They sent a tip in reply - when the connection to the phone line disappears, unplug the Livebox then plug it in again. It seems to work! By the way, I've connected to first the telephone and now the internet via france telecom's english speakers line - 0800 36 47 75. Pretty much problem free. The only hiccup was the line wouldn't come on at first and I'd to wait a week for an engineer to come out and replace a wall socket. We are pretty remote here though. All the best        Heather

Does anyone have an e-mail address for customer services at orange? I've trawled all through their site and can't find it! I've just subscribed to their internet service with the unlimited telephone option. The entire village lost all things orange last Thursday - internet, mobile phones, the lot. Although the internet and the phones came back on the next day, I've had telephone "non disponible" since. The English speaking line of france telecom can't/won't help and my french really isn't up to complicated phone calls yet. I can take my time over composing an e-mail if I could only find that address.