Deauville

Surely it's safer to change the lights if you're keeping the car here permanently?

Sorry to read about the dog's problem Tom but it goes with the breed I guess. Our mutt (who's nudging my elbow even as I type) is pushing 14 and his problems really started to kick in about 6 months ago although he's always been a bit weak on his back end and I've feared the worse for quite a while. Our vet here in 24 (he's Welsh, oddly!) says that if he gets too bad that he could give him anti-inflam/painkillers but in the meantime carry on with the glucosamine/arnica regime. He did say that too much glucosamine can lead to problems of it;s own and that if we wanted to increase anything then it should be the arnica. We're going along with that as it fits in with our healthcare phylosophy but as soon as things get too much trouble for him then, sadly, there's only one course of action. Sorry to have hi-jacked the original thread!

Second point I've just remembered, try arnica. Homeopathic, cheap as chips in pillule form from the pharmacie and also available as a rub-on gel, Our vet swears by the gel and uses it on horses all the time! Healthy Direct are  at www.healthydirect.co.uk

I've been taking glucosamie for years and so have my wife and each of our dogs, it's one of those things that you don't feel any instant effect from. But I have to say that I'm convinced that it's given the dogs more life than they woukld have had, especially our 14yr old German Shepherd who's suffering from Hip-displacia. My wife has just started taking a supplement called 'Inflamol' available, like the Glucosamine, from Healthy Direct in the UK. She swears by it. Their service is fast with a one off postage charge no matter what you order and so much cheaper than here. I'd recommend them.

I made my first visit to a dentist in Montpon (24), nursing a broken and very sensitive pre-molar. He was going to start a root canal there and then! I am the world's worst scaredy-cat and we came to an arrangement which meant that I went back a week later after taking one of his foo-foo pills. The whole experience was - oddly - one of the best dental trips I've had. He was patient, gentle, informative and reassuring, speaking a little English all throughout.

Sorry, I wasn't ignoring the question, just thinking up a convincing answer to cover my mistake! We actually left the UK in October last year to do a bit of travelling and, as we were using a French c/o address we decided to inform Newcastle right from the start. I guess with hindsight we could have kept a UK c/o address and not informed Newcastle till later but hey! life's a bugger sometimes

Thanks to both of you. I read SD's response to someone else's question and I've just sent off P85s that I downloaded and with luck I should be in receipt of the FD5s before I get my first French Tax form. Then I need to decide whether to submit the FD5 ahead of the French form and avoid copperola's point or go with SD and chuck the lot at the Centre des Impot

It's probably a dumb question but I'll ask it anyway. I've got a small private pension payable in the UK that I share (magnanimously) with my wife and a also little off-shore savings account, I'm up to date with my UK tax and we've been living here permanently since May '06 and are above the CMU base threshold. As yet I've done nothing about informing HM Tax Office that I'm not going back, neither have I told the French Tax office that I'm here (and now the question becomes 2!) should I inform UK tax via Sunday Driver's quoted FD5 form and should I also fill in an on-line French tax declaration and try to curry some favour? (and why doesn't this have a spell checker? I hate correcting my own mistakes!)

...........and if you don't like, or find it hard to remember, your 6 digit passcode just follow the links and you can change it

Once more thanks SD, for this and an insurance question. How's the fan club coming along?

Maybe I have been a bit presumptuous but when I phone CPAM about a month ago they said I should contact them at the begining of December, at the time I felt it was a bit ambitious to be able to perform a beurocratic process in less than a month - especially as I also have yet to receive any notice from Newcastle!

In May our french car and house insurance are both due, by that time we should also be ready to insure our bike and camper which are both still currently UK plated (but OFF-ROAD before anyone has a go at me!) Does anyone have any experience getting a good deal for several types of risk? We live in 24 not far from Montpon Merci

There's so much useful information on this site that I keep getting side-tracked, so here's the question - in January we fall off the E106, we have a few years to go before we hit UK state pension age, I have a UK pension (only payable into a UK bank) and we have no other income and no intention of seeking work in France; add to that the fact that we have only been resident in France since May so are not yet in the tax system. I telephoned CPAM in Perigeux to explain the situation and have been sent an application form for CMU - the difficulty (one of them!) is that my pension is above the CMU threshold so I will naturally have to pay into the system in order to retain my Carte Vitale. SO - is this the correct form and do I fill it in and wait for it to be returned, OR - something else? Merci[8-)]

In December 05 we did the France/Barcelona/Alicante route as described (in our aging Hymercamp) and as someone said in a reply it was BORING, but it got the job done (although we somehow ende up driving through the centre of Alicante at some point! A word of caution though, the service areas on this section are notorious for thefts from cars/vans and campers, particularly on night stops - so BEWARE! We came back via the Biarritz route and I have to say that the journey through the Basque was the best we'd had in Spain, great scenery and good stopping places that felt safe

What ARE you people talking about?

Londoneye - Do I take it that you are looking to buy a trailer in France on which to transport a car back to England or am I completely off the plot?

Great info from Sunday Driver (Ride On!) regarding re-registering, but have you any ideas on how to do it with an old campervan which was previously registered in Germany but is now on UK plates? The van is a Hymer based on a Fiat and I'm not sure which road is going to give me the least hassle - Fiat, Hymer or DRIRE - as we are trying to re-register a CONVERTED vehicle which may require different certificats de conformity for both chassis and body. I also want to register a twin axle 2 tonne trailer which was privately manufactured in UK, any thoughts on THAT problem?