jojo

Hello Kandy, Yes, I'm afraid this appears to be the usual scam booking enquiry  However our's are usually received from very obvious suspect countries such as  the Ivory Coast and are requests from  a 'Dr Ethannual Kymoto' who wishes to book 3 rooms for 12 weeks for himself, his wife and 6 children, as he will be working at a nearby hospital doing research into yellow fever! Just push that 'poubelle' button straight away and bin it!!! Jo        

I too agree that you should wait until she is 18 and able to decide herself whether to come to France with you or not. The area you are looking to move to is a beautiful part of the country, but there is not much to do for teenagers. Its very rural, mainly farming, and so many young families have moved out towards the bigger cities like Toulouse, Tarbes and Pau, mainly for employment as there's so few opportunities for work in this area, except at the local supermarket, or in the building trade.  At Boulogne sur Gesse there is only a cinema and a very small nightclub, but most social events are in the summer months with local village fetes, hardly what would appeal to most 16-18 year olds who have lived in town or city in the UK all their life. Your daughter will have a problem learning the language if she is not at school or able to socialise with the local French on a daily basis, full time. We moved from the UK to this area 3 years ago with our 14 year old daughter who was not particularly happy about the idea. She went to a local French school, but unfortunately, she seemed to be held back rather than helped by the growing number of English students as they tend to keep together and not integrate much. She became so unhappy and withdrawn because the lack of a social life which most girls of  her age need, that she decided, after passing the Brevet this year, to continue her education at a college back in the UK. We were not happy about her decision, but felt that it would be unfair to try to stop her. Fortunately she was able to stay with close family near to where we used to live in the UK, and she still had plenty of friends in the area, but the difference in her attitude and outlook now is such a weight off our minds. Of course we miss her dearly,  but she visits us each holiday, and she is so much more confident and outgoing now, and above all, happy. Please do not make the same mistake we did, you will only give yourself and your daughter a lot of pain and heartache.    

Hi Pauline, We have lived very near (4kms) Boulogne sur Gesse for 3 years now, in the Haute Garonne. The sceney is beautiful and everyday life is peaceful and pretty slow here and the local people are very helpful and welcoming. If you are looking for tranquility and good food then you will not be disappointed, however if you prefer a very social hectic life,  then think again! In the UK we lived in the SE where there are plenty of shops for retail therapy and lots of restaurants etc, but we wanted a more peaceful, rural life. We love it here, and each time we go back to the UK to visit family etc, we can't wait to get back. The traffic, the fumes, the pace of life and the awful rainy weather, makes us feel so lucky that we de decided to make such a big move. We do have a social life here too, as we have made many friends and there is always a local fete or concert, exibition or something going on. There is also an English library at St Blancard where you will be able to meet up with lots of local ex-pats who wil be only too pleased to let you know what is going on around the area. However, in your message you do not mention if will be bringing any children with you. We brought our 14 year old daughter with us and although she attended 'college' and recently passed the Brevet, she has decided to continue her education in the UK. She really missed the social life and her friends there, also she wanted a more 'hands on' education, which seems to be lacking in French schools as they are much more academic. If you do have teenage children, then be prepared for a rough ride. If they are younger, then they will probably adapt very quickly and enjoy a much more outdoor life. I hope this message has been useful , however, if you want to PM me about anything, please do.   Jo .

We are submitting separate forms as we are not married. The first year (2004) we sent in a joint declaration for myself and conjoint, but my partners information was disregarded as we are not married or PACS. The same happened with our friends who were not married at the time, so last year we sent separate declarations. Also, I mentioned this at the impot office when our taxe habitation was calculated, (the house is own solely by myself) and was informed that as we are not married, only myself and our daughter would be taken into consideration i.e. 1.5 parts and not 2.5 parts, although we obviously all live at the same address. Our only income is interest an account which is held in my name only, my partner not having an income, so it seems it would be advantagous to either have a joint bank account, split the amount invested into two accounts, or get married!

My partner and I have a joint savings account and so we need to declare the interest on our seperate tax return forms. Do we simply divide the amount of interest 50/50 and put this figure on each form or does the whole amount have to be declared on one of the forms only and nothing on the other? Obviously we will not put the whole amount on both forms or we will be paying twice. Also, does anyone know this years euro conversion rate?

Yes, it would be nice if there were any exemptions from taxe foncières for those under 75, but I assume if you own a property , then the authorities assume you have the means to pay for it! Although it doesn't work for those who have inherited,  but perhaps that's why there are so many properties which have been left to become inhabitable which we foreigners seem to make a bee-line for. Unfortunately , lots of these 'new' property owners are finding that after they have made the properties habitable again, and  being re-assessed for taxes etc. are having a big shock when the taxe foncières bills are received.[:$]

Hi again, Thanks everyone, for your comments, Yesterday, our English neighbours (who are of similar ages to us although married),  told us that they too had received a reduction in their taxe d'habitation.The original bill was substantially more than ours, but after the reduction is substantially less than we have to pay!  We did not discuss their personal income but they do not have any persons in charge and are both stated as occupants on their avis. Perhaps the problem lies with the fact that my partner is not included on our avis, therefore the tax authorities presume that the RFR relates to 1.5 people when it actually relates to 2.5. I will be visiting my local tax office  next week to 'hopefully' sort it out'!!! (fingers crossed)[+o(]

I am 48 and my partner is 57. Last year (2005) we had a slightly lower income than this year, but submitted our impots des revenus too late so received our  avis taxe d'habitation for the full amount which we paid. After our impots des revenus were calculated and were advised that no impots were due, we received a refund of the whole amount of taxe d'habitation. I assumed that was because of our low income. Have the rules changed this year to only allow exemptions to the over 60s?

I too have just received my taxe d'habitation avis for 2006 which is very confusing. Firstly there are 3 occupants, myself, my partner (we are not married) and our 16 year old daughter. Both my partner and I submitted our impostions des revenus, with our daughter included on my form, yet when we received our taxe d'habition avis, only myself was named under occupants but as 1.5 parts which obviously takes our daughter into account. The revenue (RFR) is quoted correctly as 9354 euros which according to the information on the last message is less than the ceiling for 1.5 parts which works out at 9398 euros (7417+1981). Comparing this years figures to those of 2005 we have only received a reduction of 35% of the gross figure, whereas it seems we are entitled to complete exonoration even taking into account that my partner has not been included in these calculations. When we received our avis d'imposition des revenus, both stated that there were no impositions due. I would be grateful if anyone can make any sense of it at all.        

Thanks for your feedback. The weekend has been sleepless for all of us, trying to persuade our daughter to continue at her present school. At first she refused flatly to return to that or any other school in France and would only consider distance learning GCSE courses, but then realised that she really needed to pass her brevet to be able to be obtain any sort of employment in france. We then tried the CNED avenue which she reluctantly agreed to although this would not help her with the language and would not help her make new friends. With this in mind we arranged an appointment with the school principle who convinced her that this was not the best way forward. He has agreed to move her into the same class as her old schoolfriend although they will not be permitted to sit together, and the students responsible for the harassment etc are to be severely reprimanded. We have asked her to give this a trial period of 1 month, which she eventually agreed to (under protest), but she must be prepared make an effort to integrate more. Hopefully this is the answer, but I'm sure we will have more problems to overcome in the future. After all - she's a teenager and it's an unwritten law to make your parents life a misery, isn't it?[;-)]

We have been living in France for 2 years now and our daughter attends a private Catholic run school. We decided to enrol her in the school which was recomended by our neighbour as the local school did not have a good reputation. The school has a large intake of foreign students i.e (mainly)Spanish, German, Dutch and a few English so at least we thought that she would be okay. The first year was very difficult as she struggled with the French language but she now understands everything but is not always confident enough to speak French. Last year she was in a class with new English student and naturally they paired up  and became the best of friends but unfortunately the French students became insulting towards them. This year the school decided to split them up to encourage them to integrate more but now our daughter is alone and being 'picked on' by the same students from the previous year.  Before the rentree we gave her the option of taking an apprentissage and continuing her studies at a lycee professionnel which she did consider for a while, but she wanted to pass the brevet  first so decided to continue at her existing college. Unfortunately now she is refusing to go to school at all. We cannot afford to send her to the International school at Toulouse, and there is no one that we would trust to look after her in the UK to continue her studies there. We have looked into the option of on-line GCSE courses but each costs at least £150. does anyone know if there are any distance learning courses available at a reasonable cost for young people of 16-18 who have not yet managed to to get any qualifications to Brevet/GCSE standard. Any other ideas would be very welcome.