samdebretagne

I admit I didn't read through this whole thread (there's something about reading through three pages of posts on brioche that doesn't appeal to me...*S*), but here's my recipe for bread machine brioche: 1/3 c milk 3 eggs 1/4 c butter, cut into pieces 3 1/3 c flour 3 T sugar 3/4 tsp salt 1 pkg yeast Put all of it in in the order suggested by your bread machine.  Once the machine has gone through the rising processes, and starts baking, mix together 1 beaten egg and 1 T sugar and brush gently over the top of the loaf.

I admit that I haven't read through all three pages of posts, but I make a fairly decent bread machine brioche 2-3 times a month, and MOH (who's French) eats it right up.  Granted, it's not as heavy as a regular brioche, but it is quite nice fresh, or even toasted with a bit of butter and jam.

Try doing a forum search, I asked this same question a few months ago and got some excellent answers.

I moved here three and a half years ago not speaking a word of French, and I'd say it took me a good two years to reach a level that I felt was fairly fluent.  And this was by doing intensive French classes at the University for 20 hours per week for both of those years.  But my goal was to have the highest level of French possible so I could work in a technical field and not have people notice I was a foreigner, not just so I could buy flowers at the market or say hello to my neighbor once a week, so I really think it depends on what your own personal goals are.  I now work as a translator, doing mostly oral intrepreting from French to English and English to French, but sometimes written work from French to English.  Even though I feel that I speak French fluently, it will probably be years (if ever) before I feel comfortable enough to translate texts from English into French - there are just so many expressions and whatnot that you can only learn by spending years in a country.  I mean, I could probably do it now and have it make sense, but it just wouldn't be written the way a French person would. PS. MOH is French, but unfortunately we never speak French together unless in situations where it would be rude not to (for example, when we're with other non-English speakers).  Funnily enough, it's him that has the problem speaking to me in French - he just can't do it, he says it doesn't feel natural.

I believe minimum wage is higher than that, somewhere around 8.27€ last time I looked. 

Are you sure they're cameras and not radars put in place to detect cars and help the lights work more efficiently?  Most of the lights in my town are equipped with them....

I have shredded mozzarella in my fridge now - I started seeing about 7 or 8 months ago.  It's the Santa Lucia brand, and comes in packets of 150g.  It's available in all of my local grocery stores (Carrefour, Leclerc, Monoprix, and Intermarché), though we all know that French supermarkets never stock the same thing because they're franchised. Incidentally enough, in Spain, the store brand of Carrefour offers shredded mozzarella, so there's no reason why they couldn't sell it in France too....

Or even longer, my first one took 6 months!  This might not be any of my business, so feel free to ignore this, but can the person you're moving to France for not help you with a lot of this (housing, paperwork, whatnot)? 

I agree with Lori, I just looked and there are several "résidences" suggested on their website.  I'd start contacting them right away and see if they have anything available.  Or why not try looking on anyone of the roommate sites (craig's list, etc)?  You might have a hard time finding logement before you leave - in that case, you're better off booking a hotel or a hostel for at least a week.  Finding an actual apartment will also be hard because landlords normally insist on you having a French garant, ie someone in France who will write a letter saying they will pay your rent in the case you cannot.  Another thing to think about is that with an apartment, you will need to put down three months rent before you even move in (two for the deposit and one for the first month), so you're looking at already 1000€ minimum before you've even set foot in the place.  Not to mention all the furniture and whatnot that you will have to buy.   I really think you're better off going with one of the résidences. As for the CAF, that's a process that you start after arriving here.  Once you have a place to live, you will need to go see them and fill out an application and have your landlord fill out some paperwork as well.  Then, everything will be on hold until you get your carte de séjour.  Just so you know, it can take up to 4-5 months to start receiving help, but like I said before, in your case it probably won't be much anyways.

Non-EU students are unable to get a bourse from le CROUS (as there are residency requirements of at least two years), but you are able to claim the CAF, ie housing assistance. Are you the same Stefan who's been emailing me? If so, you should know that how much money you get from the CAF is based on your age (and not only your income), and it starts dropping significantly after the age of 26.  So if you're 30, I wouldn't count on getting much more than 50-75€ or so per month (let's say for a rent of 300€ per month), while someone under 25 could get up to 200€.

But when you phone them, don't you have to pay 32 cents per minute (or however much it costs)???  I don't want to have to pay to phone them, when everything should be able to be done for free online. I agree though, their website is terrible, I can't even count the number of times it's frozen on me and I've had to start all over again from the beginning!

My friend had to pay about 45€ in import tax last year on a box of clothes her dad shipped over to her from the US - the worst part is that they were not even new clothes, just some sweaters and clothing needed for winter!!  At the time, FedEx told her the limit was $80, and that anything over 80 would be charged.

I use a combination of skype and Télérabais.  Télérabais costs 1.4 cents per minute nights and weekends and 2.8 cents per minute during the day. Another option you might want to consider with skype is that besides being able to call a landline from your computer, you can also get a UK phone number for your computer, so that people can call you at national rates, just as if you were back home in the UK.

[quote user="Dick Smith"]My point was, Joan, that you may find it difficult to find a new French VCR, certainly most electrical stores in the UK have stopped selling them. [/quote] I'm sorry Dick, but I disagree - I don't think she will have any problem finding a VCR here.  Granted, DVD players have started to take over, but there are still definitely VCRs for sale.  I was in the electronics sections of Darty and Carrefour yesterday, and they both had some for sale - the French are not as technologically advanced as the English.  Just look at how long it took them to give up the Minitel....

[quote user="PossumGirl"]Joan, they'll only work if your VCR is multi-standard, and, of course, your television has to be as well unless the VCR has a signal output converter.[/quote] But PossumGirl, aren't both of those now standard on French TVs and VCRs?  I mean, as I said, both our TV and VCR are over six years old, and we are able to play American tapes just fine.  I also used them at the schools where I worked last year, and have lent them to friends and whatnot, and no one has ever mentioned anything about not being able to play them, so I would imagine they would work fine for Jane too.  But it's true that DVDs would take up a lot less space! And nope, I work as a translator for an American company, so I was up there last week interpreting for their technician.

Their frozen corn is delicious too, so sweet yet still with a little bit of crunch at the same time.

They work on most VCR's - ours is six or seven years old and can play them, so I would that imagine newer models would be able to no problem. PS. How funny that you're moving to Uzel, I was just there for work last week!

I'm constantly surprised by how off the weathermen (or women) are here - for example, they forecasted rain all day today, but there's a bright blue sky outside and not a cloud in sight!  Anyways, fr.weather.com is the most accurate site I've found, it's a division of the American "Weather Channel" site.

I thought it was hilarious, and laughed out loud several times while reading it.  I've probably lent it to 10-15 people by now, and I haven't had any complaints.  I've also read the sequel "Merde Actually", which was not quite as funny, but still okay.

 You might have a fairly hard time figuring this out, as I don't think gov officials are legally allowed to ask or to even keep track of one's ethnicity.

I agree with Chris - it's best to check with the Ministre de la Santé in Paris before getting to far into this.  I'm not sure if psychology falls under the medical profession or not, but it's worth checking out as they don't accept very many foreign credentials in this domain.  Many foreign doctors were just on strike because of this (ie. the fact that they are not allowed to practice here).  I am also in the medical field and found out my own diploma is worth nothing here and that if I ever wanted to practice in France, I'd have to redo everything and pass the French exam.  Either way, to practice legally, you will need to have the approval of the proper French authority, and not just URSAFF.

Was last year your first time filing in France?  Because my first year, my tax return only listed the FIP # (which is not the same as the TIN) - subsequent years however, my TIN was listed.   I ended up stopping by the tax office and they wrote it on a post-it for me.

This happened to me once, and I had to buy new tickets and then send a letter plus the old tickets to an address in Paris and I was refunded about two months later.

The strike had planned hours, from Tuesday at 8pm to Thursday at 8am.

[quote user="tetley"]another thing to try is using less salt than stated......my bread used to come out heavy, but I read somewhere about salt making the bread dense....and in my case it seems to have worked.[/quote] Salt acts as a balance for the yeast, so too much salt and you'll kill all the yeast.  Put too little salt and it'll rise too much.