allanb

I have a dictionary that says recharger can mean to recharge (e.g. a battery), or to refill (e.g. a cigarette lighter), or to reload (e.g. a gun).  So I think you're on safe ground. But it is recharger, with no accent. I think remplir just means to fill, not necessarily to refill.

[quote user="Chancer"]If anyone knows a way of having my number listed as liste rouge in the annuaire while I am with Free.fr I would love to know, the only option they give me is ex-directory which I dont want.[/quote] Sorry for my ignorance, but what's the difference between being on the liste rouge and being ex-directory?  I thought they meant the same thing.

Pierre ZFP: unfortunately we are about as far away from Luxembourg as it's possible to be in France, but thank you for the offer.  If we ever make the trip, mine's a Bofferding. (It's the Luxembourg pensions office (CPEP), not the tax office, that I'm dealing with, but the experience is probably similar.) Here in France, the Mairie (when it finally opened its doors) was very helpful.  They suggested that what I need was a certificat de résidence, which they not only produced and signed on the spot, but faxed direct to Luxembourg for me, free of charge.  But when I called the CPEP later in the day, to confirm that they had received it, the Luxembourg telephone experience continued.  The nice lady on the switchboard said she would put me through to department that dealt with my file.  It rang for a few seconds, and then I will swear that someone picked up the phone (I could hear office-type noises in the background) but nobody said anything.  So I hung up and spoke to the switchboard again and exactly the same thing happened a second time.  So I hung up again, and called a third time, and told the switchboard lady what was happening.  "Well," she said, "I wouldn't be surprised if there's nobody there; it's after four o'clock." So the question is: who picked up the phone?

Thank you all for the replies.  The question may seem a bit peculiar, and I didn't want to bore everyone, but it's the state of Luxembourg that's asking for this certificate, and until I provide an acceptable certificate they've stopped paying my pension, and I need my pension to put bread on the table.  I've called the pension office in Luxembourg to find out what is acceptable, and a very nice lady on the switchboard has given me the extension numbers for the department I need, but I've been been trying for 3 days and there is simply no reply.  The switchboard lady can't answer my question, for which I don't blame her. In case you wonder why I didn't just go to the local Mairie and ask: a French Mairie may not know what Luxembourg needs, and in any case the Mairie in our village is only open two half-days a week, and time is a problem. So in the brief time tomorrow when the Mairie is open for business, I want to go prepared, if I can, so I can say "here, sign this" and come out with a document that will do the job.  So that's why I posted the question, and I appreciate your input.  If all else fails I will just take whatever the Mairie gives me, send it to Luxembourg, and hope.

I need to produce, for a foreign administration, a certificate or attestation of my residence in France, signed by the local maire.  It can be in French.  On the internet I have found what seems to be a suitable form, but it offers the following two options: Monsieur X est domicilié … or: Monsieur X réside … … depuis le xx/xx/xx dans notre commune, à l'adresse suivante: Does anyone know the exact distinction between those two phrases?

Good question.  My robot's handbook tells me not to leave it in the water overnight, but it doesn't say why. The only reason I can imagine is that in time it might develop a "flat" on the rollers.  But I don't really think that's likely.

Thanks for the comments.  The car owner has found the supplementary cover from an on-line insurer, although he described it as hideously expensive for two days' insurance.  Very annoying that the car's principal insurer can refuse me just because of where I live – although of course AnO is right; they can refuse me if they want to.  In a brief fantasy I thought about writing on the application form that I am black, Jewish and resident in France, and then challenging their decision.

I know the forum is supposed to be about driving in France but this is about driving in the UK – I hope I will be forgiven. I live in France and have a normal French motor insurance policy, which refers to a particular car (my own) and does not cover me while driving any other vehicle (except in strictly defined circumstances, which aren't relevant here). I am going to the UK soon and will be visiting a family member, resident in the UK, who is in the throes of changing jobs and moving house.  We have agreed that one thing I can do to help is to drive his car from his old address to his new one.  (My own car plays no part in this story.) He has spoken to his insurers, who told him that they could not add me as a named driver on his policy – not even at an increased cost – because I am not resident in the UK.  That's the only reason: they didn't query my age or health or insurance record. Now I will, as soon as I can, ask my French insurers whether they can provide suitable cover, even if it's only third-party liability to comply with UK law.  I'm not very hopeful, because French policies seem usually to be attached to the car, not to the driver.  But I need to make some plans during what's left of the weekend, so I wonder whether anyone has been in a similar situation and what response they got.    

Quillan, I don't understand your point about turnover limits.  Suppose that you became internationally successful in the hospitality business: imagine "Quillan International Guest Houses", with establishments in a dozen European countries.  If your style wasn't attracting much business in Germany or Holland but became wildly popular in Spain, why on earth should anyone have the right to limit the growth of your business in Spain? This has nothing to do with the fair measurement of profit in each country – which, I still believe, is more complicated than you think.  Maybe less difficult in a service industry than in manufacturing, but still difficult.

[quote user="Quillan"]I think it's simpler than that RH. First you need to set a sensible monetary limit on turnover in a country... Next you bring in a law that says if you sell your product in a specific country then you must pay tax on your profits in that country which you target your sales activity and to where your goods are sold and sent... [/quote] Quillan, I'm afraid it's not as simple as that.  Your suggestion is based on the idea of profit, but measuring profit in an international group depends on the price at which things should be sold from one company to another, and that's a pretty complicated question – the subject is called "transfer pricing" and it creates lots of work for tax lawyers. Anyway, who would set the "sensible monetary limit on turnover"?  Some bureaucrat?  If you built up a successful business, would you reach a point where someone would say "sorry, you're over your sensible monetary limit, you have to reduce your sales now"?  I can't see how that would work, but if it did, it would keep potential investors away like the plague.    

PS, much later : problem sorted.  Thanks for the help. I now realize that it would have been wrong to shunt 5 and 7 anyway, because my car – like many others, I think – not only has a fault detection system, but also gives me the option of turning on the side lights on either side only, for parking in the dark.  So if the system detects two bulbs where it expected only one, it will see it as a fault.

Thanks for all the information. [quote user="AnOther"]Why complicate a very simple job by working in French and translating...[/quote] Only because the first such diagram I found when googling happened to be a French one.  Believe me, my problem is not ignorance of French, it's ignorance of electricity. I now know that the fault is not with the tail lights, it's with an indicator.  But I had replaced everything, and although it wasn't difficult to guess the English for shunté, I needed to know whether the shunting was supposed to take place in the trailer or in the car.  My car does have a dashboard warning system, and I certainly didn't want to mess that up because I don't know how it works. By the way, confirming what Dave said, when I asked for standard trailer cable I was given the 5-wire stuff – without comment – and didn't realize it until I got home.  Rather annoying.

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]To bite off more than one can chew.... I've also seen "avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre"... [/quote] FWIW, this is supported by the big Robert-Collins dictionary.  It also gives "viser trop haut" but that doesn't seem quite as forceful. By the way I also had some trouble with italics while quoting you in this reply. ETA: like you, I found that some of the italics (but not all) changed back to normal type when I posted.  Fortunately there are more important things in life than italics.

I'm trying to sort out a peculiar fault in the wiring of my trailer.  I've found the ISO codes for a standard 7-pin connection, but there's something I'm not sure about. The standard diagram shows that the brown wire (no. 5) is for the side lights (feux de position), and all it says about the black wire (no. 7) is that it is "shunté" with no. 5).  I take this to mean that the nos. 5 and 7 pins are connected in the vehicle's own wiring, and that either of them could be used for that particular pair of lights on the trailer.  Is this correct?

I don't know the complete answer to this, but it looks as though the phrase used by your bank is a quotation from the SEPA rules, and if you look at the entire rule it makes it a bit clearer, I think: le délai d’exécution ne peut excéder 3 jours ouvrés à compter de la date d’acceptation de l’ordre par la banque du donneur d’ordre It would seem that the 3-day SEPA clock starts ticking on the day when your bank "accepts" the instruction.  I suppose there could still be argument about exactly what that means, but your bank should be willing to tell you.

I'm with NormanH on this.  Those statistics on their own mean nothing. 75% (or whatever) of accidents involve male drivers?  So what?  Maybe 75% of all drivers on the road are male. Only 2% of accidents involve an accountant as the driver.  Does that show that accountants are safer than other drivers?  I think not. And here is one which is intuitively difficult to accept: suppose that 35% of accidents involve drivers who have been drinking.  So what?  Perhaps drinking increases the risk of accident, but that particular statistic doesn't prove it.  For all we know, 35% of all drivers on the road have been drinking.  I do not condone drinking and driving.  Nor do I say that accountants shouldn't drive.  I only object to the misuse of statistics.  

For several years we have used a German company, ERV (Europäische Reiseversicherung). I am over 70 and my wife is not far behind.  Currently we pay 177 euros for two people for a full year's cover (no limit on the number of trips), and that includes unlimited medical costs and unlimited geographical cover (no exclusion for the USA).  I believe that their policies can be "tailored", e.g. if you just want cancellation cover and nothing else, they have a tariff for that. Their standard policy contains a 20% deductible on cancellation claims, which I think is reasonable.  Their other deductibles are mostly fixed amounts, quite modest even on medical claims. Last year we had our first experience of a claim, which of course is the real test of an insurer.  We had to cancel at the last minute because of a medical problem.  The claim was handled perfectly.  They asked (quite reasonably) for various documents, including a note from my doctor, and they said the claim would be paid within 15 days of getting the documents.  And it was. Until recently I would have said that you probably have to speak German to deal with them – at least to understand the policy conditions – but I notice that they now have a subsidiary in the UK, and if they follow similar standards then I would recommend them strongly. Their websites are: in Germany, www.erv.de; in the UK, www.erv.co.uk. Good luck!

[quote user="Chancer"]…the seller wants £9 for me to collect from him…[/quote] Maybe it's a special offer.  He normally charges £18 but he's giving you 50% off.  Don't miss it.

[quote user="cooperlola"]Ah, Sunday, the eternal optimist.  We're actually going to deal with it this year, are we, not just bicker about it?[:)][/quote]We can't deal with it.  The only people who could deal with it are the tax authorities, and they apparently can't be bothered.  So we can look forward to many more years of happy bickering.

[quote user="AnOther"]Glad you're sorted.[quote user="mogs"]lucky for her she has a solution.[/quote]And an opportunity to provide here fellow travellers with £'s - and a rate advantageous to all. Good to get the entrepreneurial spirit going at a young age.[/quote] But you are depriving bankers of their hard-earned income!  How can you bear to do that?

[quote user="WendyG"]Always find things like that difficult in France - Post Office, any Bank etc in UK will happily change euros to sterling.[/quote]But that's the other way round.  In order to do that, they don't have to keep a stock of foreign currency; they only have to be willing to buy it.

The trouble with this sort of discussion is that we don't know which region the writer comes from. The English word "tray" as pronounced by someone from the south of England, or the Midlands, is not much like the French très; as Norman said, the vowel is a diphthong, rhyming (more or less) with French soleil or bouteille. But I think Norman was wrong to say "typically British."  In most of northern England, and in Scotland, the vowel in "tray" is not a diphthong.  Most Scots pronounce it as the French would pronounce tré, if there was such a word.  And in Cumbria or Lancashire, "tray" sounds quite like the standard French très - apart from the "r" sound, which is a different topic.    

There's at least one other option that might help: if your Kindle is registered to 'Amazon.fr' you can re-register it to 'Amazon.com' through the "Manage your Kindle" menu, without doing anything about your address; the website says quite openly that this is so that you can buy Kindle content from the US store even though you live in France. Your purchases will be priced in dollars, which may make them a bit more expensive if you have to pay from a non-dollar account (although if the price is zero the exchange rate doesn't matter).   But you may have more choice of English-language books.  If it doesn't work as you want, you can always change back.

[quote user="Russethouse"]... one of those padlocks that customs can open ...[/quote] I have some of those too, because I was told that my luggage might not get past US Customs with any other kind of lock. This may be true, but I have absolutely no faith in the system.  When you think about it: if there are tools that will open these locks, and every customs agent in every US airport has access to one, I can't believe that they are not available on the black market. Or am I missing something?  

[quote user="Chancer"]I am gobsmacked to be watching Capital on M6 and to learn that the Euro was abandoned by all the member countries last night.[/quote] We should be so lucky.