samdebretagne

Just a few corrections - the law re: declaring taxes together actually changed back in 2005 I believe, and you can now declare your taxes together straight away.  For example, if you get pacsed in April, you will each need to complete a separate declaration for Jan-April, and then a common one for the rest of the year. And the other thing is that both partners need to have the certificat de non-PACS, not just the French one. 

Just a funny story - a friend of mine joined one of these mail-DVD rental programs a few years ago, but eventually had to stop because everyone kept stealing the DVD's from her mailbox!!! (neighbors, the postman, etc).   Which explains why the prices are so much higher than back home, LOL!!

Just wanted to point out that since CA is a regional (and not national) bank, the fees are set locally and will vary according to where you live.

[quote user="Mackyfrance"]My experience of it is that it is rigid, narrow and is  one size fits all. There is no outlet for creativity, the children are not encouraged to analyse or question or debate, just to learn and regurgitate. I don't think the French systems requires much more than a good memory to succeed. He has only just started writing creative stories but they are marked more on grammatical correctness than on imaginative content. The curriculum is very narrow and IT teaching is patchy to non-existent (talking about our schools, not necessarily others). Children are tested to within an inch of their lives with the consequence that French students are apparently some of the most stressed in France. France has one of the highest suicide rates in the 15-24 age groups in Europe. [/quote] As with everything else in France, there are historical reasons for the why the French educational system is the way it is.  After the revolution, they had to come up with a way to get rid of all the religious influence on the population, as well as find a way to integrate the thousands of foreigners that had moved into France.  What better way to do that, than by the school system?  They set it up so that no matter where you came from and where you were in France, you would leave the school system eating, breathing and feeling 100% French.  And they did this by rote learning and by teaching that the teacher was always right, no discussion allowed, so that there was no room for deviation.  And all the references to kings & popes, etc where erased and replaced with the names of revolutionary heroes (just look at the street names of most French cities or the names of French schools).  The "marianne" was invented for that reason also - to give the people something else to focus on besides the cross.   Creativity encourages people to think outside of the box and to question the way things are done, and that's exactly the opposite of what they wanted.  It's really quite genius if you think about it, especially since it also allowed them to create a future army of fonctionnaires who would do whatever their superiors told them, without ever questioning it.  :-)

Thanks Will.  The thing is, I don't really know much of anything when it comes to this sort of stuff!  I've always been employed by companies, so this is really my first foray into looking at being self-employed.

I'm currently being employed part-time by a foreign company through a portage company.  My contract with them is up in April, and I'm starting to think about renegotiating it and registering as self-employed, but I really have no idea where to start or which régime to look in to.  With the dollar being so low, my revenue would only be about 1000€ per month.  I realize this won't leave me with much after all the charges/cotisations, but at least I would recoup the 8% I'm currently paying to the portage company.  Has anyone been in a similar situation, or have any suggestions as to which régime would be the best one to go for?

Not as far as I know, but then again, with the way things are in this country, I'd never say never!!

I work with a bilingual portage company out of Nantes called Challenge & Co - so far, they've been nothing but extremely helpful.

Maybe he/she could go through a portage company?  That's what I'm doing for now, until I get all of this figured out.

I have just started researching the same thing today - I sent an email to the French-American Chamber of Commerce, I'm hoping they'll have some good advice.

They've been talking about this every since I've been here, so for at least five years now, with estimates of it opening in 2015.  Part of the point of the airport is to divert some of the traffic away from the airports in Paris.  It will be located Northwest of Nantes, along the N165.  I drive that road quite regularily, and there are always all kinds of signs of protest - residents worried about increased traffic, noise, etc.  I for one am looking forward to it because of the direct flights to the US that it will likely offer - it's such a pain to have to take the train to Paris all the time with all that luggage, and it would be mille fois easier if I could just park & fly from Nantes.

[quote user="J.R."] Because once the ruin is done up they will not have rent to pay and will have more money to spend on themselves and their family whilst having an appreciating asset to pass on to their children, which is the number one priority of most of my French friends [/quote] This isn't quite true, once the ruin is done up, they'll still have to pay back their loan of 930€ per month until 2025.  They're only currently spending about 300€ per month on renovations.

Rennes is a major student town, and thus has a very active night scene.  The "rue de la soif" is the most famous street, and starts at place sainte anne.

[quote]Obama easy[/quote] Nice try but no cigar! :-)

[quote user="Cathy"]Is this strike nationwide?   [/quote] Yes, it is.  From what I've heard at the two schools I work at, it's going to be fairly-well followed too.