Pommier

It's worth working out how much it's going to cost to return the item before deciding if it's worth it, or whether it would be easier/cheaper to re-sell on Leboncoin or AI or similar.

Thanks for that information Paul - it's interesting to know.

It's worth shopping round the pharmacies to find one who will take your mutualiste, because it makes everything easier in future as you'll only pay any excesses (stuff not covered by CPAM or the top-up). In France it's expected that you stick with a pharmacy - when my husband was taken to hospital I was asked which was our pharmacy and which nurse we used (none until then!)

[quote user="PaulT"]I have an under active thyroid and that gives entitlement to free prescriptions. Paul [/quote] I've also got an under active thyroid (it seems as if it's affecting half the population these days!) but it's not classified as an ALD in France. Can I ask, do you just get your thyroxine free in the UK, or all prescriptions?

That is so funny!

I didn't try to access this forum earlier, but I just tried to look at another French forum and can't open it!

When we had walnut trees we used to wait until they fell before gathering them, then let them dry a bit before peeling off the outer coat (WEARING RUBBER GLOVES!!!) then letting them dry out. We never pruned our trees, but there's a rhyme you might have heard 'A dog, a wife and a walnut tree; the harder you beat them the better they'll be' from which I'd assume that a hard pruning wouldn't hurt! 

Years ago we had a stone cottage in Cornwall with low ceilings and beams. We wanted to emphasises the cottagey look, so in the dining room we had a quite darkish red ceiling and in the living room a green ceiling, then wallpapered the walls in flowerly, chinzy paper. I thought it looked great (and the ceilings never needed re-doing!

I'd have thought he would have enough money to live in either place so it depends where he would prefer to live.

Have you got a pool? That was the only relief we found from the extreme heat when we lived in Lot et Garonne. You need to get your body properly cooled down at least once a day, although hot nights are still a misery. We moved further north.

[quote user="KathyF"]My young (30s) German GP in a 7 doctor practice covering my bit of Mid-Wales chose to come and practice in the UK after he qualified because he was so impressed by his experience of the NHS during a student placement here. No-one had to go out and recruit him from abroad as our small canton here in South Manche had to do a couple of years ago, when the local GP retired and the canton couldn't find a French doctor willing to come and practice in the medical desert which is our bit of deeply rural and rather poor France Profonde. A lovely Romanian doctor is now happily ensconced here with her family, but the fact remains that the distribution of medical personnel, especially doctors, is very unequal across France, far more unequal than in the UK. As I said - a postcode lottery.....[/quote] I'm not surprised that the NHS has no trouble recruiting GPs as they receive a really good wage in the UK, wheras in France (as I understand it) they get just the consultation fees of (usually) €23, and out of that they've got all their expenses to pay.

Idun, do you think that £107.45 a week is excessive? Is that more than your French pension? From what I've read the UK state pension is very poor in comparison to other European contries (eg Ireland has a non contributory pension of €219 per week, or €230,30 if a person has paid full contributions). The vast majority of occupational pensions in the UK (which aren't funded by government) are a small amount of money for all except those fortunate few retired from very well paid jobs. We were also stuck in the mortgage trap, paying at one time 15.5% interest which took up most of my wages. I didn't/don't think we were greedy; we started with nothing and worked and saved until we'd achieved a reasonable standard of living, our own house and (usually) one inexpensive holiday a year. Now we're lucky enough to have some savings, their value is constantly eroded by inflation whilst the interest earned is negligible.

I've got doubts about when or if I'll get a state pension. First it was going to be at age 60, then 65, now it's 66. Will it be the flat-rate (£140) pension or  will that be for UK residents only or maybe means tested, or maybe the age will go up again...........best not rely on it I think!

We had a combination oven/microwave years ago. Maybe they've got better since then, but we were never happy with it. It didn't bake as well as a mini oven (which is what we use 90% of the time as it's not worth heating up the big oven). I was quite glad when it packed in and we could replace it. 

Is everyone enjoying the sailing? http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/07/spoof-irish-olympics-sailing-commentary-fran-higgins_n_1750996.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

This is starting to sound a bit like the thinking on school sports days where there can no longer be winners or losers! I'm glad that the UK is doing so well. I'm glad that the athletes, the audiences and the commentators are enthusiastic and I'm glad that the UK is putting on such a good Olympics.

I think I must have been watching a different Olympics to a lot of you! I've been impressed by the way the crowds have behaved - especially noticeable in the 3 day eventing, where every rider got lots of applause, and todays marathon with enthusiastic (wet) spectators cheering on the non-UK finishers . The only slightly 'off' thing today was the number of Scottish flags displayed at the tennis final - not seen any England flags at other events. Of course the commentators get excited by UK success; they're British and they're commentating to a British audience, but they certainly give unstinted credit to good performances from other nationalities. I think Britain is putting on a great show (and I don't even like sport!)

A few months ago I read an article which said that there are far too many music festivals in the UK with not enough good bands or paying customers to go around. I'd expect that this cancellation is one of many.

It's my understanding that chauffe eau are lower powered than UK immersion heaters (because lots of people only have eg 6kw of supply) so I think it would take longer than 2 hours to heat the water. I'd experiment with 3 or 4 hours. If you're resident in France have you considered paying the slightly higher standing charge and having heures creuses - you can then fit a connection into your fusebox to automatically switch on (and off) the chauffe eau.

We had a gîte when we first moved to France and had a phonecall asking if it was suitable for a disabled person. I replied that it wasn't. There was a step into the house, steep stairs to the bedrooms, a gravel drive which would be hard work in a wheelchair and no pavements on the twisty lane to town. On hearing all that, they booked it!

[quote user="stan"] In effect this would be forcing me to return to the UK and lose about £25K in capital gains tax (as the house would no longer be my primary resdience) and currency conversion costs. Nightmare.[/quote] You wouldn't need to worry about CGT on your French home as, so long as it's been your primary residence for the last two years (tax returns completed etc), you get a period of time after return to the UK (I think it's two years) to sell the house before CGT is payable, providing you haven't rented the house out after you leave France. 

Will it soon be Sir Bradley Wiggins, sportsman of the year?

Glad to hear that it went well - and you didn't have too long to wait to have it done.

Have a look at the thermostat on the chauffe eau. Does it look like this? http://yfrog.com/f3dsc0916lj If it's set on 5 that's the highest temperature, so try turning it down to 3 or 4.

I think that it's all down to location. We've just sold our house in under 4 weeks for over 16% more than we paid for it, even after notaires and immo fees. The 'net vendeur' price rose by just under 25%. We bought the house just under 3 years ago. If a house has been for sale for 2 years then it's overpriced.