More2Learn

I contacted Peugeot in UK before departing to settle in France regarding changing my headlamp units on my 407 Executive which has halogeon headlight units. The local dealer was not as helpful as I would have liked. I was advised by HO Customer Services that there were adjustment levers behind the headlamp unit which enabled the light to be set for Continetal Touring. I moved the lever according to instructions and have passed the CT in France twice with no problems. I believe the lights are self leveling and do not have an offset but have a lower spread in front of the car. I had made enquiries as to the cost of replacement headlamp units and needed emergency recucitation as I was quoted btwen 2500 to 3000 pounds. Peugeot UK were also very good in supplying me with a Certificate of Conformity FOC after I emailed them.

I contacted Peugeot in UK regarding changing my headlamp units on my 407 which has halogeon units. I was advised that there were adjustment levers behind the headlamp unit which enabled the light to be set for Continetal Touring. I moved the lever according to instructions and have passed the CT in France twice with no problems. I believe the lights are self leveling and do not have an offset but have a lower spread in front of the car. I had made enquiries as to the cost of replacement headlamp units and needed emergency recucitation as I was quoted btwen 2500 to 3000 pounds.

When we moved here some eighteen months ago, the estate agent arranged the connection of the phone on our behalf, I was in the office when she did. My understanding is that you will get a different number when you are connected up, FT seem to do this automatically. I don't know if it is possible to transfer the line as you can do in the UK, then most people seem to move away from the area to other parts of France. You may need a French Bank account in order to have the direct debit applied, we did all this after purchase of the property, a couple of weeks before we moved across. It all went well and the number and an internet connection were all set up before we arrived to kick off on the day we moved in. I paid to have calls to our old number in UK redirected to my mobile number. Seems to me that all this is so easy when you speak the language and know the system. More2learn.

I have been trying to replace my Orange A box with an old BT Voyager 2100 modem router I brought across from the UK.  The A box has worked okay for the last year running a couple of laptops on wireless but lacks outputs on the router side, only one usable one. The wireless side is a little bit hit and miss too, I just brought a wireless enabled printer and want to get that working, it refuses to talk to the A box but will connect to the Voyager in wireless mode. The Voyager worked well in the UK connected to BT but I am having great problems in trying to reset it to connect it in place of my A box. In the UK you used your user name and a password to sign onto the ISP, I cannot seem to decipher how to do this over here, every attempt and combination so far has failed. I originally installed the A box using the supplied disc from an old wired PC which is just a stand by machine. Any assistance or ideas would be most helpful, my French isn't too great so reading menu's is a bit difficult at times. More2learn.

You will find the WEP Code on the white stick on label with the serial number under the livebox near to the power input, its a 26digit alpa numeric code, specific to that box,  you will also find the correct SSID code for the box as well. It is case sensitive as well. These both seem to be specific to each box unlike other routers where you can set the codes yourself. Hope this helps. More2learn.

With the recent changes in the Health Insurance coverage by CPAM, there seems to be a number of people lookinhg to sell up and return to UK. I was wondering what tax liability might exist if  they hadn't been resident for much over a year and were just looking to get back what they paid for the property including Estate Agents and Legal fee's. MOre2learn.

La Vette bless her sat down and scribed a simple post to put those people minds at rest who are living or coming to live in France.  'Hey people, the health service here isn't that bad and it functions very well'. From the replies and flames you would have though she has committed a mortal sin, she has expressed her opinion and that's that, why has everyone got to get on her case. My exposure to the system is about the same as hers, an injured and scared loved one taken in and sorted out with calm efficiency and not a long wait. It might not be the same elsewhere in France but happily thats how I found it here. I don't speak French either, but muddled through with patience. My exposure to the NHS has been vastly different over the years, as far as I am concerned my best memories were in the days of Emergency Ward 10.  Matron, Sisters and Nurses in clean starched uniforms and you could eat off the floor. Now they don't stay clean because of all the managemnt and efficiency experts walking around with clipboards doing exactly nothing to the front end service do not help the place run properly. IMHO the NHS is mortally wounded and will now never  be able to provide what it was set up for,  as long as the tiers of management remain in place the beast is bleeding to death through dire inefficiency. More2Learn.  

Hi all. I am 62, my good Lady 66, we have just taken on the Swiss Sante Medical cover at P4 level. See www.soficas.fr who was the agent in Bordeaux who we went through. The cost nearly Euros 1700 a year covers us both and is payable monthly but we do get  200% on Dental and quite a high recovery on other things. We didn't used to go to Doctors in UK, seemed to be pretty healthy, here we seem to be using Health Service more. Have to say this was not a cost I took into account in working out our living costs as it makes a dent in our pension income. Have just got a Dental estimate for a crown replacement as one just fell out, it's one tooth and costs are Euros 900 and we both need to have an examination and possible work done. More2Learn.      

I am a 62 y/o retired male with a Peugeot 407 HDI Auto 2 Litre, car is now just over 2 years old and was imported from UK. My insurance is 644 Euros PA with AXA including my 50% NCB. I brought letters from UK Insurance to effect I had no claims in previous 14 years. More2Learn.

Hi There. Know how you must be feeling having moved with our 12 year old male Siamese here four months ago. We are around 30 mins from Bergerac on the D936 to Bordeaux. No known illnesses as far as I know, vets are very good, better if you find an English speaking one. Found one practice at Montpon where one of the partners is actually English. Some treatments like 'Drontil' are available over the counter at a Pharmacy, so no need to go to vets for these. Also a good cattery close to Sainte Foy le Grande run by an English couple, started up at beginning of the year. If I can be of any further help, feel free to PM me. Regards. More2Learn.      

Have you got the right numbers as there seems to be different ones. 0191-21-87777 was one I used for MOH's E121 0191-21-81999 was the one on my letter head when I got my E106. Originally we were issued with one E121 for my wife and another one piggybacking me onto her form. I am 62 and just retired from Civil Service, she is 66 and has been drawing an old age pension since 61. When we tried to register with CPAM in Bergerac, her's were all okay, told I had to have an E106. Phoned DWP and it was quickly sorted out and proper forms were here in around 2 weeks. As mentioned earlier, if you don't get a reply and get treated properly, complain, complain, complain. All Gov departments and Agencies have published performance standards and complaints procedures, keep notes and copies of letters and don't be afraid to quote previous discussions and to ask to speak to a senior manager, go up the line if you don't get satisfaction. Always ask, who am I speaking to and get the surname as a record, end up confirming with them, you will do what...and by when. More2learn.    

Folks. Just a note regarding so called piggy backing on anothers E121. Prior to leaving UK, I spoke to DWP in Newcastle. I'm 62 just retired from Civil Service, MOH is 66 hasn't worked for years but now recieves a retirement pension. DWP said no problems, would issue her an E121 and it would cover me, a so called piggy back situation.  Great got all the forms and went to register with the CPAM in Begerac. No problem with MOH her registration went okay but I needed to have an E106 in my own right. Got onto DWP again, no problem it was sent out pretty quickly. Haven't got any further than both having our Carte Vitale sorted out, looking at the top up insurance situation right now. I found DWP to be very responsive when I called them. Being an ex civil servant I know that all Gov departments and agencies work to a performance code especially for complaints. Never be afraid to go up the chain and quickly too if your not getting what you think you should be in the time you should be. P.S for approximate costs of top up health insurance look up Exclusive Health Care, they have a brochure showing costs against differnet plans and ages. http://www.exclusivehealthcare.com/ More2learn.

Thanks to everyone for such a rapid response. The English help form is such a boon. I whole heartedly take onboard the advice that filling it in with various details in advance is a great idea, wish I'd thought of that one first. Thanks again. More2Learn.

Can anyone help. I am sure I saw a link to a copy of the above form to be completed in an accident by both parties somewhere on the forum in English. I have tried to search for it and it doesn't seem to find the post. Has anyone got a link to a copy I can download and print off. I have insurance in France and just getting better half mobile so thought it good idea if we both carry a copy of the English one too. More2Learn

I'm trying to find out the costs of parking long term at Bordeaux Airport. I know there is a long term parking section but cannot find out the costs of parking for a 3 to 4 week period and if it's safe to leave a newish car there for that long. Has anyone got any ideas rather than get a taxi or train from Bergerac.   Regards. More2Learn.

If you are still in the UK, I obtained my Cert for my 407 as below. Very quickly and with no charge. You will need to show proof of ownership as well. Regards. More2Learn Certificates of Conformity can be obtained from: Ms Anna Heaphy Homologation Engineer Peugeot Motor Company PLC PO Box 25 Humber Road Coventry CV3 1BD tele: 02476 884000 Alternatively please e-mail your request to Ms Heaphy, giving vehicle details including full chassis number, to - [email protected] Regards Peugeot Export

cooperola. With most new deals from Sky one is required to have a UK phone line connected to the box for a period of a year, even when upgrading an existing service. (After that it doesn't seem to matter.) I moved location in the UK some 15 months ago and it was cheaper to upgrade to a Sky+ box on a revised contract and have a free installation and new dish than to have Sky supply and fit a new dish for my old box. I have brought the box to France and expect to get it connected up in the next week or so. Still unpacking boxes so it's not the highest priority right now. The Sky+ set up is a dish with two LNB's feeding the box. We found the viewing one programme while recording another very handy. I understand that you can in theory record two channels on Sky at the same time while watching a third terrestial channel if your connected to an aerial. The freeze and recommence facility is great for those phone calls right in the middle of something interesting or that cup of tea during a long film. If you connected two LNB's to two seperate boxes you would need to have two cards,  one for each box or use one box for the free channels only. They wouldn't have the hard disk that allows the recording of programmes. More2Learn.

I have reloaded the same copy of MS Office 2000 on my PC's a number of times and have no problems other than having to note down a new service number. I have even allowed the PC's to advise MS of the new installations. I don't think you will have many problems, as I have this on one desk unit and one laptop. I have had to do complete software reloads for a number of reasons, viruses and also system problems. I understand that it would be different if I was trying to load the same copy of the O/S onto different computors as the system loading tells MS what the processor and component ID's are and MS will refuse to enable the package which then shuts down in 7 days as a pirate copy. More2Learn. 

Wils. With most deals from Sky one is required to have a UK phone line connected to the box for a period of a year, even when upgrading a service. (After that it doesn't seem to matter.) I moved location in the UK some 15 months ago and it was cheaper to obtain a Sky+ box on a revised contract and have a free installation and new dish than to have Sky supply and fit a new dish to my old box. They have lots of deals but look out for them wanting you connected to telephone line so you can buy advertised material as part of the subsidisation they have. More2Learn.  

If your only going to be in UK for a short while, you could think about using a wireless hotspot. As others have said, once your logged on line, Outlook Express or your mail account should try to connect you and then download each mail box you have. They are in most airport lounges and a lot of hotels now. I have had good results from a number of hotels that I have stayed in at various times, using a local WiFi connection, varies from something like a £1 for an hour to £10 for 24 hours connection time. I can usually pick up all my mail and save the cost of using my Vodaphone 3G card. I also used to run a small dial up account which for £5 a month gave me 15 hours a week access without any call costs. If you go to a hotel you can use a dial up ISP account but the hotel will usually charge you a £1 fee for each connection. My job then took me away quite a lot so I was trying to cover as many angles as possible. More2Learn.

In general you can access data such as your mail account or the details of your account by going to the appropriate home page and then logging in with the correct user name and password. Having had BT broadband at home and then used either Vodaphone 3G, V21 dial up or often a local wireless connection when in a hotel or other hotspot, I haven't found any problems getting my stuff so far. I have just found out from BT that it is possible to retain your email address with out having to pay out for a connected service, you just pay for a 'Premium Mail Address' and that is it. What has always put me off moving from one ISP to another has been the loss of my mail address and the break in services. Now I am moving to France full time,  I'm hoping to overcome this by keeping my own mail accounts open back in UK even if I have to pay for them. More2Learn.  

If thinking about moving on a more permanent basis in the near future it might well be worth looking at your present Sky set up if any or taking out a new Sky HD contract. This way you have all the UK channels and films etc if you subscribe to them. the Sky HD set up looks as if it will be offering the most coverage of channels on HD format. As with all Sky deals to get the low price there is a period where you have to be connected to a phone line and at least as with the Sky + box this is normally for a year. Once the initial year is over then you can disconnect the phone line and just  continue to pay the subscription,  in theory if you keep a UK address for the subscription the box and dish set up can be anywhere. More2Learn.

I have an older 20gb Phillips mp3 player picked up on ebay for £40 along with the player came a software package called Musicmatch Jukebox and I thinks its available as a free or pretty cheap download. I just pop the cd in the drive on my laptop and it converts the music to mp3 format. Its handy to keep them in the library of the programme on the laptop as well as putting them on the mp3 player. Have converted over 100 cds with no problem, in fact its easy, even for a technophobe like me. This is the link to their site and I think you might find a free evaluation programme of an earlier version. http://www.musicmatch.com/home.htm More2Learn.

I was looking around my local Brico, the DIY store in Sainte Foy La Grande. In the section on TV and phone connectors I saw the French male telephone sockets with different leads and outlets as well as a variety of extension leads of differnet lengths. There were some that came out with a lead to that tiny plastic connector, think it's known as an RJ45. That is the one that seems to be in the body of my BT phone in the UK. Also there were some adaptors that had the RJ45 as a tiny socket in the French male connector. Looks like connections are getting easier to obtain in France. Does any know of any problems trying to connect phones in France especially the mobile ones with a base station and multiple handsets, do they all ring properly for instance. More2Learn.

From memory don't the French run on the SECAM system? I know UK is on the PAL system and the USA on the different NTSC system. My recently brought UK set is compatible with NTSC for video playback though no mention of SECAM. Of course just as the HD stuff looks like getting sorted out the Blueray thing appears, can you really win on emerging technology. Has anyone brought anything from the Internet and had it delivered to their address in France? Maybe that would be the way forward. I know people order and have things sent to UK addresses ready to pick up but its a long haul just for a television. Hope you get it sorted out soon, even if its to pick up a second hand one locally for the time being. Regards. More2Learn.