Ron Avery

Hope this post is not out of line, but I used to be a member of an excellent and informative forum run by Frenchways, it dissapeared some time ago when they started to update their site and appears now long gone. Have any members of that Forum moved to this excellent site, if so would like to hear from you, I used to be Brian W

[quote]Heres a twist on one, Our youngest had her friend to tea, she is learning English in school and asked what the various cutlery items are called, so we did glass, plate,knife ,fork......she gasped and ...[/quote] As far as I know, fork is not a swear word in French, well not that one anyway but be careful when talking about kissing people, use the verb instead of the noun and you could be in for a sore face We were near Montpelier recently  in an aquarium, we were invited to come and watch the phoques!! I was please to find that we had been directed towards the seal pool. for feeding time 

Automated machines which are like the Tesco/Sainsbury/Asda  "pay at machine or at kiosk" do not take English bank cards as there is no means of owner verification, they only take CB cards with PIN numbers, this may change as UK cards go chip & PIN.   However in 15 years I have never found a manned Autoroute station  that does not accept UK visa and mastercards including Egg cards.

[quote]When I did my CT, they said the headlamps had to be changed, but they suggested 'borrowing' a pair for the test then changing back. Where would you borrow a pair of headlamps anyway? (now there's a bu...[/quote] Surely the object of having "correct" headlights is that you have the best visibility on French roads and do not blind drivers coming in the opposite direction by having reverse dip, ie pointing towards the left.  As one who used beam deflectors for a while and paid the penalty one night in poor visibility, I would not recommend extended use of either tape or beam deflectors,  in fact as others have said, many CT stations will not pass a car with such items

You must contact the Court's Clerk to the Justices as soon as possible; the address/phone will be on the summons.  Ask for the case to be adjourned whilst you seek UK legal advice.  They may request a fax confirming this.  They will not insist that you attend court for the adjournment hearing.  If the case goes ahead, rather than attend court, you may be able to send them a statement of events in your defence.  See what they say.  From what you have posted here they may not proceed with the prosecution, but seek UK advice on this, as it appears that you can prove that your vehicle was not on UK roads for the period for which you are being prosecuted.  You do not have to have UK road tax if your vehicle is off the UK's roads and all you have failed to do is complete an official SORN statement to this affect, although you did notify the DVLA that your car would be off the UK roads for a year. The DVLA should have advised you that this was not possible, as you would have to either continue to pay UK road tax or export the vehicle and register it in France. Make it clear to the Court that you are resident in France (I hope you can show that) and that to attend court would entail significant hardship and costs with flights and accommodation etc Good Luck

[quote]We took delivery of a new Range Rover this week. From memory the road tax portion (the Carte Grise) was about 680euros and is a one off charge. Given that we will keep the car about 3 years, this wil...[/quote] As far as I am aware there is no road tax in France, so the government cannot be thinking of putting it up for 4 x 4's, they are thinking about a higher rate of TVA for such vehicles and banning them from city centres though due to their relative high pollution and low KPL (MPG) The Carte Gris is the similar to the UK vehicle Registration document and the amount paid for is dependent on the CV or CC , as previously posted some 4 x4's will cost as much as €600 to register, I paid € 154 for a 2 litre, but it is a one off payment, unless you move to another department, in which case within 6 months you have to re register your car in the new department