Bob T

Vern, did you not have a username of Fat Albert on another forum? I think that mine was madman on that forum. How long have you got to go before the queen offers to support your life in France as she has with me?

Oh come on Chez, he has given them the C of C which states the bhp and the UK logbook which probably does the same. Cut him some slack. Would you prefer it if we all kept our bikes on UK plates and stayed within the grey zone?

Mike, well done. I know how you feel, I felt exactly the same last Thursday with my new French plates on. I am so proud of them that I have put a picture of them on my blog,

Looks good, does he also supply the evacuated tube panels? I cannot see from his web page. Do you know roughly what his prices are like?

Sound inrteresting. What do you mean about grants? My French tax form says that I have no tax to pay as I have a military pension and it is too small to be taxed here. Is the grant tax deductable or is it taken off the price of the installation. There will be no problem with the roof as it is south facing on a south facing hill. Do you have supplier/installer details?

Has anyone fitted this in the Dordogne area? I am interested but would like others experiences.

I think that we both have the same opinion, but it is not true about the 30 day insurance. My bike now has French plates on it but my wifes has UK plates and French insurance and has had for 18 months now. It has the insurance sticker prominently displayed but has no tax, they won't send it to my French address, and no MOT. CTs are not required for bikes here. We are not trying to buck the system and as soon as we can sort out a C of C for her bike it will also go onto French plates. I know of a German electrician who bought a van of a Brit with UK plates on it and has been using it here for his work for over 2 years now. How can he, as a french resident, drive a van with UK plates on it? I also know of a Brit just north of Cahors, who has had his car for nearly a year and has still got plates from another department on it and an out of date insurance sticker that belongs to another car in hte windscreen. When he gets caught, and I hope that he does, the locals will think that all Brits are doing it and we shall be tarred with the same brush.

First of all, I don't use internet explorer, I use Firefox. When I want to print anything from a web page I find it best to highlight just the information that you want and then go to 'FILE' 'PRINT' and then click the print selection button. That way you don't try to print the banners and all the odds and ends on the page, which may want to print in HTML. Give it a go and see if it works.

WJT, What politics? I have tried to aviod any on the blog, have I missed something? Please tell me.

 But to be fair to the many UK plated cars that you see (and mine is French plated) most of them have a French insurance sticker and some also have a CT sticker in hte windscreen. I would doubt if the French insurance would require a tax disc or an MOT too.

I was in Sarlat today and saw nothing about the film festival. But there again I was looking at the market stalls so might have missed it. Sorry that this is not much use to you.

Why 4X4s? Just because you have not got one. I could say the same about Volvos, or Fords. My 4X4 uses less fuel than my mates Renault Twingo and so pollutes less. I can also get out when it snows, in Feb I was snowed in for 3 days! I think that people should have the choice to drive whatever sort of car they want to. European legislation covers the maximum height above the ground that headlights should be, so one would assume that all vehicles sold here are within limits.

I believe that the rules for Road Fund License as the correct name is, is that you must have one for any vehicle used on the UK roads. As the bike is not on the UK road then you should not need one. Go out and look at the lack of tax disc on many UK registered cars here in France and you will see that loads of other people see it like that too.

[quote user="shimble"]i just wondered why peopleare willing to go through all this complicated administration to maybe be able to registerer a right hand drive car in france. seems stupid all that stress and administration yes cars in france are more expensive than the uk but still you can find cheap cars youll even be able to see to overtake the mot will be done and valid for two years. it really isnt that difficult. if you buy from a garage local to you it will gain you a mechanic and help you intergrate with the french. yes you might save some money it also encourages the administation to think of more forms and regulations that need to be adhered to. we already have far too much of that here. remember you are in france not england after all [/quote] I would agree with you. To drive a RHD car here would be more hassle then it is worth. To think that a RHD French plated car would be worth more than it was in the UK most surely be wrong. A cars value is directly dependent on the amount of people looking to buy that car, and I would not have thought that there are many people in France who would want a RHD car.

Gail, I think that you will need to get your name on the UK logbook before going about importing the bike. I have never bothered to de register mine in the UK, they did send me a fine for having no roadtax but I phoned them and told them to stuff it. They told me to pop down to my local post office and get a form, I then asked them if the post office in Rouffignac would have this form! They cannot impose a roadtax fine here as it is required for a vehicle used on the UK roads. The prefecture is at the top end of Perigueux, if you park in the tree lined car park and walk away from the town it is on the right. Do you have a Certificate of Conformity? Is the bike less than 100 bhp? If not I think that you may have the same problems as Julie had with the 'busa, and will find that the insurance will cancel on you. Do you have skype? give me a call on the username "madmanbob" and I'll explain the prefecture location. Chez, does that mean that you can swap the chip over? Do you have any more information on the restricting of BMWs? I can feel a new K1200S coming here, 170bhp, thats what I want.

Must admit that my post was very tongue in cheek. I ride my motorbike around with standard exhaust, (I would love a noisy sports one), as I don't want to think that I would be upsetting others in this fantastic country. I must admit that I am also a smoker, and I will smoke in a cafe if I didn't think that others were sitting too close. I consider myself to be a tolerant person, but what gets my goat is the do gooders, and my sister in law is one of them, who would deliberatly sit close to a smoker so that she can wave her hands around at the smoke and complain loudly.

I use a Netgear 834 modem router with good range through walls etc. I bought mine from www.cdiscount.com for around 80 euros.

As the Highway code has been quoted here, I thought that it also says that dipped headlights must be used in reduced visibility. How come so many Brit drivers drive on side lights then? The proper name for them is parking lights. By switching them on you are admitting reduced visibility so you should have dipped lights on. Many people still believe that it wastes the battery, but on a modern car (since the 1980s) the battery does nothing but start the car and the alternater supplies the power for the headlights.

You can buy different aerials for normal WiFi modem routers, but I think that the livebox has the aerial internal. Get rid of it and buy a modem router, they are better anyway.

You can do the same with a secondhand sky digibox from ebay (around £25) and a french dish pointing at 28.2 degrees east of south. With this you will get the same TV as you do in the UK.

I use either Nero or Creative Media Source. As said before the key word is RIP from audio to MP3. I have tons of MP3s on the PC and on CDs and DVDs. They can be copied onto any media from there.

Well, what a result. Went into the prefecture at 14:10 with the same documentation that they had refused twice before, but this time with the printout from their website as advised on this thread. I kept the printout in my pocket ready to produce it, but this time there was no problem with the C of C. I walked out at 14:30 with the Carte Gris in my hand. I was so pleased that I did not bother to ask why it had been refused on previous occasions. Good result and thanks to all here for the information.

No surly not, only those interested need click, it is optional.

And whilst on the subject of the smokers who pollute the air for the rest of us, what about dog owners who let their little darlings pollute our pavements with their doggy dodo. And for that matter people with children who go into cafes and let them make tons of noise pollution, oh, and the moped riders who race around the roads making noise. And then there are the women who wear strong cheap perfume which can cause breathing difficulties. Ban them all! If I don't like any of the above I would just avoid them and not worry. Everyone to their own.

Does anyone know why the blog address in my signature does not show as a clickable link? Am I doing something wrong?