5-element
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Posts posted by 5-element
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[quote user="TWINKLE"]
to have French citizenship you must give up your British passport in exchange for a French one. Can't have duel nationality - one or the other. [/quote]
Are you absolutely sure about this Twinkle? Who told you that?
How could it be so, since it does not work like that, the other way around. I have both French and British nationality, although I started off French. I know that once you are born French, apart from rare exceptions, French you will always be..to the French. So surely, there would not be a rule that only works one way?
Which means that I can, and do, vote both in British and French elections.
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Goodness gracious, PdF, I am beginning to see how you are managing to be so unpopular on every forum!
Reading the above exchange with some interest, I actually believe that TV was trying to show his support to you!
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[quote user="Stephen"]
big (1 1/4 inch long, 1/2 inch wide) black bees. They're shiny, with iridescent blue wings.
[/quote]
Stephen, I don't know where in France you are, but I get a lot of those, they are supposed to be Mediterranean (are they confined to this area?), latin name is Xylocopa violacea, length 22mm.
They seem very inquisitive, I have lots in the garden, and they look like they dive-bomb you but they are just coming in for a close look at you. Nesting in dead wood, active April-September.
Sorry my computer skills do not involve posting photos[+o(]
Is that the carpenter bee that everyone has been mentioning?
OOOPS sorry, hadn't seen previous post!
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[quote user="woody"]does anyone know when the new french prime minister is going to be elected, and will they change the country much, i think theres sarkozy and the women from the charente are in the running for it [/quote]
Why can't I shake this feeling that there is some trollicking coming on?
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[quote user="Will"]
there is a distinction between long term invalidity benefit (receipt of which does seem to entitle one to 100% refunds of everything, though apparently only until state retirement age) and short term invalidity benefit, i.e. relating to a condition which is disabling but not necessarily permanent.[/quote]
Thank you Will: that makes sense and confirms our experience, Mr. 5-E is on long-term incapacity benefit, no chance that his condition could improve, it is seen as treatable (palliative treatment) but incurable. That does explain why he gets refunds on everything, except on some dental treatments and opticals for which he gets the same as everyone else. So maybe Peter Owen has got it right after all.
I hope that sheds some light, LL.
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[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"]
I actually have 5 conditions all of which are inter-related and for convenience - and I think because the doctors are pragmatic about that sort of thing here - I usually get 100%
I still have a top up in case a leg falls off and it's not related to the other conditions tho ....................
[/quote]
I wonder: when your medical condition is undoubtedly completely systemic, as leukemia surely is, then virtually everything can be related to this underlying problem. In your case Tony (and in my husband's case too) it is quite straightforward to claim that even a leg falling off (to use your example) is actually due to your ALD. Just like some dental problems would, or a number of aches and pains, digestive disturbances, virtually anything, can be seen as a secondary problem. I am not sure whether it is a case of doctors being purely pragmatic, or realistic.
This being the case, I will try and find out exactly who advised us, in the medical or CPAM world, to only take a top-up health insurance for my husband, just to cover the daily fee during a hospital stay. So far, everything else has been 100% reimbursed, as we can see from the CPAM 3-monthly statements. Those statements are the way you can tell how much you are being reimbursed. Mine are only 65%, and the mutuelle pays the rest (when they remember, but that is another story).
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Tony, this is a little odd, although I believe you. I can only relate our own experience, which is to repeat what I outlined above. My husband is 100% covered for all medical expenses here in France, and this is (according to CPAM) due to him receiving long-term Incapacity Benefit from the UK. I have just checked that with him as you made me doubt, but it is totally correct.
He has TWO recognised medical conditions (recognised, as being on the list that warrants 100% cover in France). One could think that these 2 conditions overlap so much that virtually any medical problem could be ascribed to one of them, but I very much doubt it. Or that his GP and other medics ascribe any of his "other" problems to one or the other ALD, but I also doubt that.
I cannot explain it any other way. It is unlikely that there would be any regional variations, or variations according to which CPAM office one goes to? It is not either a question of our income falling below the free CMU cover, as it does not. So I am quite puzzled why we seem to have a different experience and understanding of the UK long-term Incapacity Benefit rules as applied to medical care in France.
I also heard (maybe this is a slight digression) that COTOREP rules have become very very stringent, that you have to be practically immobilised before you can qualify for the AAH (Allocation Adulte Handicape) here. In spite of his heavily disabling medical conditions, it is likely that my husband would not qualify for a COTOREP AAH at this point. One of the specialists treating him said that you have to be practically tetraplegic before you can qualify now as 80% disabled, with the new COTOREP criteria.
LL - Things are fine in Languedoc, it is pouring with rain today, which we desperately need this year...
Have you visited Languedoc yet?
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I have just read the article in question and stumbled on exactly the same part that drew your attention, LL.
When you are in receipt of UK Incapacity Benefit, you get 100% free medical cover in France, for every condition, not just the medical problem which led you to receiving Incapacity Benefit.
Since Incapacity Benefit ceases when one reaches pensionable age, 60 (women) or 65 (men), you will continue to be entitled to free medical cover for your ALD (Affection de Longue Duree), i.e. the medical condition which is on the famous 100% list. But I do understand that for other medical problems, you are no longer entitled to 100% free care: for those other medical problems, you are just like any other person, ie.reimbursed 65% by the Secu, and having a top-up health insurance to pay for the rest.
My OH has long-term incapacity benefit from the UK. He does not have to pay for anything medical, except for the "board and lodging" part of any hospital stay. He has taken a special top-up health insurance just for that, which is only about 100 euros annually. When he loses his Incapacity Benefit at 65 and his UK state pension kicks in, then he will have to have a full top-up health insurance like I do, for which I pay around 650 euros annually. However, he will still receive free treatment for the two ALDs he suffer from.
At least, that is how I understand it.
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[quote user="Jc"]Just remember that it has been said that most French have said that they preferred to be occupied by the Germans than to be liberated by the Americans!![/quote]
That's not quite what Simone de Beauvoir said in her Memoirs!!!
The French I know who were alive then have never said anything remotely like that, I have never heard this alluded to all the time I grew up in post-war France - it makes me wonder who are those "most French", and who was the author or that stupid little gem.
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RA - Thank you for your apology, I had been puzzled but not over-offended by your response to my comment, which I mistakenly thought was clear at the time.
I don't see myself as trawling through posts to make petty and irrelevant comments, and I would even agree with you that sometimes those are a drag.
I post to help people (or pm them) whenever I can too....with this particular issue, I really believed that due to my repeated exposure and close encounters with hospitals, medics, clinics, CPAM and Mutuelles (including several blunders), my statement that a day's stay in hospital is charged 16 euros across the board was meant to be... informative, and quite relevant. I also believe it is accurate. Isn't it?
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... or pre-sliced Hovis loaf?
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Benjamin, I can't answer that. Even when reading your post upside down, or sideways.
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[quote user="Dick Smith"]
Actually, is it capot (cover) or capote (bonnet)?
"Je voudrais un capot noir"
[/quote]It's definitely "une capote" - not "un capot". Un capot could be the hood for your car...
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[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]Will you let us know how you get on by Letter? a French one?[/quote]
Where I grew up, we called them "capotes anglaises".
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[quote user="victoria"]
We have been told by the local French citizens advice office
Victoria
[/quote]
I have always been under the impression that in France there is no such thing as a Citizens Advice Bureau - could it be that there is one where you live? If there is, I might consider moving there...[:)]
Or do you mean, the CCAS? (Centre Communal d'Action Sociale) which is, unfortunately, not the same as CAB.
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double post deleted..
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Very sorry for being obscure,
I was talking about the daily charge for a hospital stay, i.e. the bed and board part which is not paid for by the Secu, and this is 16 euros per day.Am off topic????.
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Aren't they 16 euros per day, going up to 17 euros shortly???
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Here in very profond Languedoc, it is a bit like what Chessfou describes. Our next door neighbours (extended family) are always shouting at each other, speaking normally. Although I am French (not from this area, London French actually[:D]) out of each conversation/shouting match, I can usually understand at least one word. I thought they might speak Occitan - apparently they do not. Many people here (about 30%) are of Spanish descent (not those neighbours either), and they speak a mix of Spanish, Occitan, maybe Catalan, and French. I have had some interesting conversations (!) with an old guy digging his allotment, although I think he speaks Spanish exclusively (I don't at all).
Otherwise in the shops, it is very much like "veng frang pour le paing, mamaing?" - OH (who is definitely not French) is still trying to learn La Marseillaise - to sing along during world cup times- and when it comes to "Qu'un sang impur" it is "Qu'ung saingg etc...."[+o(]
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[quote user="oglefakes"] "I can understand men doing it, but you would think women would be happy to be left alone"
[/quote][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]
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Iki Stardust.
at least 2 days late, as per usual[+o(]
Now, if only I knew how to do signatures. So much to say, so little skill.[:(]
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Of course, we are meant to learn all those lyrics to pass the "test d'integration" that Sarko is threatening us with.
It's the new Marseillaise.
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[quote user="RumziGal"]
Maybe you need concentrate, 5-E.
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/coke.html
[/quote]
I've never been that great at concentration...
Actually, I hate the stuff (coke, that is)...
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Coca-cola is recommended when one has gastro (food poisoning), as well as Vichy water. It's full of electrolytes and sugar and minerals and very good against dehydration.
I've tried it to clean the toilet, was not impressed by the results. Someone had suggested it is better than hydrochloric acid![:D]
Renting with no French income
in Long Term Letting
Posted
A lot of posters (sensibly) adocate renting in France for a while before leaping into buying. Having enquired about this it looks difficult because agencies require proof of income and if you are moving to France you won't have one.
Am I missing something? How do you get round this?
[/quote]
No, you are not missing anything. Unless things have changed a lot in the past 6 years.
When I first moved "back" to France from England 6 years ago, I had left my OH in our house in the UK with a view to rent something in France for a year and prepare the ground for both of us coming over.
I quickly discovered, going around agents immobiliers, that nobody was prepared to touch me with a bargepole - although I had enough money in the bank to pay for a year's rent and for my expenses. I also had a letter from someone in England employing me to do research for a year. This cut absolutely no ice with any agency, the only possibility I would have had would have been with a guarantor, resident and taxed in France, who could show that their income was 3 or 4 times the amount of my rent. This normally is what happens with youngsters/students, their parents act as guarantors.I offered to pay a year's rent in advance, again this was impossible, as it is not legal!
I had someone in the UK who offered to be a guarantor, again nobody wanted to know. In the end I did find a flat to rent privately, from searching the small ads in the local paper - and through being, in the end, incredibly lucky that the landlady took an instant liking to me and trusted her judgement. (she was experienced and the proprietor of a whole block of flats).
I also heard of whole families where one of the parents was brought in by a company with a job, and the company had to move heaven and earth to secure accommodation for them - even then it was hard.
When you see how difficult it has been for landlords to evict their tenants, you can see that the whole system is completely deadlocked - nobody wins. This is why there are so many empty flats in town centres, landlords daren't rent them out.
Fortunately there are now new measures so that the local council undertakes to pay the rents if the tenant defects, but it is still a new measure and still limited. It is designed to encourage landlords to rent out property, then all they have to do is take an insurance, and they do not have to worry about being landed with dodgy tenants. It benefits everyone, and one hopes that it will soon be widespread, when you consider the number of homeless people in France - some of whom have jobs, and still have to sleep in their car, in garages, sheds etc... just appalling.
So to come back to your question, Albert, I am at a loss to, to know what people do when they come from the UK to rent for a while - unless they come across landlords through the expat grapevine, that would be my guess.