Peekaboo

I am actually sitting with my friends now so they are very grateful for your responses.  On expiry of the E106 May this year, they went to the CMU and they took all their health records and relevant documentation from UK .  It took until September for the CMU to turn them down.  Can they contest this?

Their company is in its formative stages and therefore they have not yet made any contributions yet.  Ultimately they have been told they still require private health insurance to top up the state cover.

My friends have a health cover dilemma.  They have lived here for over three years and no longer covered by the British healthcare system and their application for a French carte vital has been turned down. Until now they have not worked in France, but have recently set up in business here.   They now cannot get private medical insurance because they do not have a social security number and just to add to the complications their third child is due any day. Does anyone have any suggestions for a way out of this?  Help would be much appreciated. Many thanks

Have just been reading some of the contributions to the forum in respect of house buying/selling - some of you appear very knowledgeable and I am hoping you might be able to throw up a useful contact for me. I am currently working with a French Immobillier here in the Alps and have been bringing British clients to them, they in fact came to me asking if I would help market their property in the U.K.  They as an organisation do not have their own Carte Professionelle but have a silent partner who does and to whom they pay a small commission on property sales. This is common practice here (according to my accountant).  At some point in the not too distant future the silent partner is going to retire, he's already very wound down in respect of any business interest and I am looking to replace him.  Having looked at the practicalities of getting my own carte professionelle I have ruled this out for the moment. Does anyone know of anyone who would want to pursue this business opportunity?  Location is irrelevent, our current partner is based some distance from us (I am in 74). Many thanks 

My brother is about to purchase a ferme alpage and have the renovation work project managed by a local architect.  The architect has experience of working with French nationals and has informed us that TVA is reduced to 5% for renovations such as this but is not clear if this is true for people buying a second home and not living in France.  Can anyone answer this question for me?

Thank you for your swift response.  I think we might have a problem with putting in a liner.  We have an integral jacuzzi effect set into the main steps of the pool, lights and a water jet mechanism at the far end of the pool (I think you are meant to be able to swim against it, so far only a gentle doggy paddle keeps you from banging your head at the other end of the pool).

We moved to France in August and inherited a Fibreglass salt water pool.  Having just emptied it in readyness for the winter we have noticed several blisters appearing.  We are not sure how old the pool is (at a guess over10 years old), the colour looks faded and the surface is quite marked. Can someone advise on whether the blistering is a problem and what can be done.  Also, if there is a paint that can be used to rejuvenate the colour. Many thanks Peekaboo

Thank you Gluestick. Your findings are very helpful, I would be grateful if you could share your chums borehole geo-thermal installation results, once known - I have just begun reading up on this and it could be the answer. However, I am still looking for firm evidence that these systems work in minus 25 degrees or possibly more. With all these "alternative" energy supplies it seems the initial outlay costs far more than the savings !  Our renovation won't start  before Spring 2007 and I suspect we will install underfloor heating (wet system) anyway and can change the power source at a later date. Thanks to Will too.

Having just searched for any exchanges on this subject, I see that this was last discussed back in February 2005.  ( Forgive me if I am wrong and you are all bored to death on the subject.) Does anyone have any updates or recent views?  We are buying a property in the Alps at an altitude of 700 m with 1600 square metres of land, this has a small swimming pool a three bedroomed chalet and a larger 6 bedroomed house - not a massive amount of land left but bigger than you would imagine with that lot on it.  Recent investigations in the U.K. has led me to believe that you no longer require acres of land for chauffage geothermie and I would love to know if anyone has installed one, successfully using it and what contacts they have made in France (department 74 Haute Savoie would be great news). News on grants etc would be good too ! The entire property is typically electrically heated - ouch !  The small chalet is already underfloor heated and we are intending to radically alter the large house and install underfloor heating there also.  We will also install a wood burning stove in the main living space (can't have a house in the Alps without a log fire).  Looking forward to some good news !  

Hi there.  No I haven't tried a long journey.  The most is 2 - 3 hours and they seemed very content.  They are very laid back by nature and affectionate with each other.  I am off to the vets today a one hour round trip so we can try the cage for size then.  For the journey to France I think I will take a litter tray on the journey and give them access to it on a pit stop or two but enclosed in the boot space.  With that and a bed wet pad on the base of the cage I should have covered all angles.  I am fussing more about the cats than the kids.

Thank you.  I had thought of this and having now set the cage up will place it in the house for the cats to get used to along with the drinking bottle I have attached.  In fact the cats are off to the vets tomorrow so I might give it a proper trial. Both the cats are used to a lead, being half Persian they are more like dogs anyway and very manageable.  The kids took them for walks around the garden from a very young age, although we no longer use the leads it wouldn't take much to reintroduce them, however, I wouldn't like to chance their escape during the journey to France. Thanks again everyone.  Lots of ideas there.

Hi Miszter Thank you. Our UK school system can be very inflexible, hopefully the French one will be a little less so. Good luck with your move.  

[quote user="Robbos"] Convinced they can hold it in if your journey is less than 2 days!  the dog was much more conventional!!   xxx K [/quote] Very like my children then!  I know more about this than I thought.  My daughter refuses to use the loos in the Motorway picnic areas and my son will go anywhere !!!  I am sorted.  Thank you.

I am liking this forum more and more.  Thank you so much.  Love the idea of a nappy for puppies!  I will look out for equivalent here. Danielle

Can anyone answer a really silly question?  I have looked at advice re. what type of carrier to use in transporting two cats to France and today been out and bought my plastic coated metal cage with a shallow tray in the bottom.  It's not really deep enough to put a useful amount of cat litter in and the cats will be in this thing for a minimum of 12 hours. Do I starve them the day before in the hope they will not need to be too active in the toilet department or let them sit in it !!!!   

Hey Debra, we must have been typing at the same time!  Thank you and clearly you echo my thoughts, I will put it to the head when we next get in touch before term starts and see what he has to say on the subject. Danielle

Thank you.  The head did explain that there could be 2yr groups in one class, much as you described - an interesting concept as this could put both my children who are 15 months apart in the same class !  "Not on your nelly!" says Daniel and "Yuck!" says Simone.  They are a seperate schools currently.  Challenging times ahead I fear.  Ideally I would like the children placed in appropriate classes to commence with giving them a better chance of settling as quickly as possible.  Also, far more confidence building to start them off a year below and then promote them as they progress.  However, I am willing to chill a little and go with the flow.  The Head was a very young and personable guy who has already told my son he will be in his class and that seemed to go down well with Daniel. Another question!  I would like to enlist a private tutor to help with the childrens French, obviously the school might be able to point me in the right direction, but I wondered if there was a national website that connected tutors with clients (there are several here).  We have been boosting their school French with tutoring here and will have a month in France before the start of term. Danielle

Hi, Does anyone have experience of putting their British children into French school a year below their age group?  Wknow this is possible and indeed the very fact that the French school system allows this is an attraction to us.  We have two adopted children, the youngest of whom is now almost nine and just completed year 4 at school here in the U.K.   From the age of three (when she came to us) we knew that she would benefit from more time in nursery and have struggle since with the knowledge that she is simply out of step with her peers by a year emotionally, her early years development had been delayed.  She has made fantastic progress and does not have any major educational needs, but still, certainly from class test results in a private prep school, getting the lowest results. When we visited our childrens new school in France earlier this year the head seemed keen to keep the children with their appropriate age group.  We were surprised by this as friends who have now been in France two years with kids of similar ages were encouraged to allow their children to drop a year until their French was well under way. They have since been moved back up a class - well done to them !  We would very much like our daughter to do the same.  Our son who is a year older and right on track with his education here in the UK, is also young emotionally and if he stays with his age group in France will only have one year to tackle the language and enjoy the local village school before being sent down the valley to the scary college !  He would probably benefit too by being allowed to drop back and take things in his stride. For both children the gentler the introduction to school in France the better.  We have worked so hard together to build their confidence and it's very fragile ! We have a friend who has asked why on earth would we want to do this.  The kids have priviledged life here, why would we want to risk tipping the balance we have found the wrong way?  Somehow it still isn't enough for us !  We want them to have the opportunity to grow at a slower and more natural pace and firmly believe that we can offer them this in the Alps along with a healthier lifestyle.  They are both very sporty and social children with enormous energy and don't watch TV out of choice.  27 days to go and terrified !  Any pearls of wisdom would be much appreciated or we will cancel the whole thing !!!  

Thank you.  Your answers were a great help. Having just had the kids vaccinated for travel in Africa before moving to France I might leave the BCG for a month or two - give their systems a rest!  However, I will do as you say and go armed with my list to a doctor as soon as we get to the mountains!    

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my predicament.  Some useful points made.

Thank you Chris.  We are just weeks away from our move and it's the little things that seem to worry us!  

Anyone out there commuting to London from Haute Savoie, specifically Samoens, Grand Massif?  If so, do you have any tips on places to park a car near Geneva airport without paying airport prices? [blink]

My daughter is part way through an orthodentics treatment. Due to her lack of dedication to keeping in her brace her treatment will run into the time we move to France in August. This realisation has provoked a wider question - is the French equivalent of the NHS as underfunded for dental treatments as the U.K. and how do I go about finding out about transferring her treatment to a practitioner in our area? 

Has anyone any experience of this?  Having identified the house of our dreams in Haute Savoie, we were several months into negotiations when we discovered the delays were down to the vendor being declared bankrupt.  Both our Nottaire and the vendors Advocat have been exchanging dialogue with us and the resulting conclusion is that an agreement be drawn up that we can proceed with our move to France in August (in order that the children start school in September).  We can stay in the house rent free until such time (supposedly September) that the courts release the property to us.  In an ideal world we would walk away from this altogether, however, we are dazzled by the perfect match the property is to our needs and have found nothing since that comes close.

Great to read your story and others like it.  We are weeks away from our move to Haute Savoie 74 and the nerves are setting in.  A piece of advice we were given by friends who are 2 years into their new life in France was to envisage the worst and the reality will be a pleasant surprise.  We are over actively envisaging the worst now !  Our children our 9 and 10 and registered with the local school in Samoens.  Do you or anyone else know if the BCG is given in France at age 12 as it is here?   Also, how do we go about organising personal liability insurance for the children, is this something the school organises?  Many thanks, Peekaboo [blink]