cdorrell

In our part of the world the way to do big invites is the Apero (how do you do the accents on English keyboards?), which means you can invite lots of people and serve them nibbles and copious amounts of alcohol. When we did our first big Apero last year at Christmas, I invited people 'a partir de 19 heures', thinking that it would all be over and done with by 9.30pm at the lastest. Well, I was wrong! We ended up with 50 people in the kitchen all talking at the same time and they were still there at 11.30pm. It was great! We are going for the Christmas Apero again this year and I am already preparing myself mentally and physically.... Christiane

I am just posting a quick addition/correction. I checked today how much I paid for my licence and it was'only' 36 and NOT 75 as I mentioned further down. I got confused between my licence and the cotisation, i.e. club membership. So, there you have it, licence for adult 36 and below, I think it was 29. Christiane

Hi Peta, If you click on the folloeing link: http://www.livingfrance.com/dcforum/DCForumID43/45.html that should take you on to another discussion a while ago regarding the Galop exams. Just scroll through the answers and there is a very detailed one from RichardBK about the way it should be done. At the end of the day it will depend very much on your riding centre and the examiner. In my case I was awarded the first 5 Galops because of my obvious experience and I only had to do the 6 last winter, which is the last on to test all the disciplines. I never had to do anything other than the practical bit. This winter I am doing the dressage Galop7, and maybe the jumping, as I am essentially a dressage rider and terrified of jumping! You will need the Galop7 in order to compete at an official competition, equ. to affiliated in the UK. Regards, Christiane

If I am not mistaken, any International School would have to be private, but recognised by the French authorities. I don't think that it is very easy to set this up and the reasons the schools in Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse exist is to provide schooling for children of expats who have been posted there by big companies for a limited period of time. This doesn't apply in , lets say, Poitou Charente, and I can't see British expats, who have moved there in order to escape large school fees and high cost of living, forking out large sums of money in order to provide their children with an international school. Moreover, where would you locate the school? It would be inevitable that some people have to travel a long way in order to get their children to the school. The other reason for sending your children to a local school is that it helps your family's integration, which is a good thing unless you want to isolate yourself. We moved to France when our children were very small and they integrated into the system here without any problems at all as they don't know another system. I don't think we would have made the move had they been older, as we would have caused them too much heartache and anxiety, i.e. losing their friends and having to learn another language quickly. Now they have lots of local freinds and speak better French than Mum! Regards, Christiane

We've got an electric chauffe eau and we are just about to change to a Solar system. After the installation of that we will heat the water through solar power in the summer and gradually decrease towards the winter, when the boiler (oil) cuts in to do the rest. We have calculated that the electric water heating currently makes up between 60 and 80% of our EDF bill, and oil, though more expensive than in the UK, is still cheaper than electricity. Christiane

As far as I know, it is not possible to have seperate injections. They also use the English vaccine here as they have decided that it is a better vaccine than the old French one. I had a very long chat with my GP (French) about it and he told me that there are no problems in France with this vaccination, as far as he knew. If you want the injections seperately, you will have to do it in the UK. My sister in law is just going through this in Essex. Christiane

The French Franc, just like any other currency that went into the Euro, is still a valid currency. You might find that there are only very few banks in France that will still exchange them for Euros but you will be sure to find one, even if it is the central bank! Good luck, Christiane