Panda

Rainy Charente

it's peeing down here.  At least the lake is full and the ducks are enjoying it, everything else is moping about, even the goats won't brave the rain today.  I only agreed to this caravan lark when I knew it would only be for one summer, what beeing summer?   

Sorry Russethouse, I think perhaps on this rainy morning I am being a teeny weeny bit provocative for fun. Can't resist with some people. Sorry All..  will stop now..

  If she is your dependent then she is entitled to have one on your social number, this is how we are set up, my OH is on my number.  The agency that you are with might have someone who could help you sort this out, do they have a HR kind of function. Thinking about it if they registered you then they should have asked about dependents or did you do it yourself? Panda

Hi Thanks for the information pickles, I have requested a simulation from the agent.  You are right about the future prospects, we have compared a second hand property and we could buy cheaper but not significantly so, the Alps attract ridiculous prices now and our love of ski-ing means that the return coupled with the guaranteed personal usage per year makes it an attractive option as a package.  I realise there are risks, the property is 4*, they probably all are these days, it's in a place we like and we have every intention of living one day in the Alps and this gives us a foot hold in a market which has grown almost out of reach in recent years. So, if the tax work in our favour I think we will take the plunge...

Hi Tourangelle Some great advice there, he currently has to help the teacher when they study english, the teacher has him up at the front of the class and then he has to say certain words for the class to copy and then he has to come up with sentences using words etc. which he quite likes now but will soon get to be a bore and a waste of time. I think dropping English would be a great idea, I have a friend who was once an english teacher in the UK and if I did that I could arrange private classes for him in English to ensure he was up to the required standard for his age. Bordeaux International school doesn't seem to be too expensive at first glance, it's 8500 euros a year if I've read the site correctly which is a lot less than a private school in the UK would be.  With this option he would be taught in English so a complete departure from his education so far. I've got time on my side and I intend to seek out the classe europiene options. Thanks very much for the response, great food for thought. Panda

Deby I can see why you get yourself into such situations if you truly believe I was lecturing you, I was merely saying I found your post a bit OTT, no one should even talk about punching anyone in the face for any reason in my opinion. The analogy which I used (not tried to) was the vision of two women fighting, not a pretty sight and one that I have only witnessed in Newcastle, hence it's use. Now take your own advice to Ron (his input to this forum is appreciated) and take that chill pill. Panda  

Hi Anyone have any experience of leaseback property and off setting the difference between the set return that you get (around 4.5%) and the actual cost of the appartment (mortgage being higher than annual return) against your tax bill: Furnished apartment purchase: the practice of redemption reinstatement allows to erase partly the operation’s income; two possible orientations: a) LMNP status (LMNP: non professional furnished renter =CA<23000 € TTC/yr): the operation’s deficit will be transferred to the same nature’s income. b) LMP status (LMP: professional furnished renter =CA>23000 € TTC /yr): the operation’s deficit will be transferred to the global income. We are looking at a development in the Alps with a 10 year fixed annual return and they have mentioned this in passing, I am going to look into further but wondered if anyone esle was doing this at the moment.  It seems that the losses can be offset against your tax bill which may make it even more attractive to us. Panda

Personally I find your comments Deby far more disturbing than Ron's, if you had 'punched her in the face' as you so delicately  put it, how would that have looked to the children around you.  When I said I would have acted , I was thinking along the lines of speaking out against her actions and telling her on the spot it was wrong not making the playground look like Newcastle on ladies night!  The teacher in question needs to know she was wrong to act in anger, I personally think this should be done without your child knowing that you do not support her 100%, making them think at any age they can question a teachers authority will not help them in the future, this is I think what Ron was getting at when he talked about lack of respect.  I feel it is important for kids to learn early on that adults should be respected, there is a general lack of respect of authority in the UK today and whilst I believe in encouraging children, leading them to think that they can question everyone and everything is not the answer.   It's a whole other subject but I have witnessed young adults starting out in the work world and failing because they can not take being told what to do, their parents never did it and their teachers were restricted from doing it.  Panda  

Hi I have started to think about schooling options for my 7 year old son when he finishes primaire in 3 years time.  I am happy with his primary education, he is doing very well and finished at the top of his class in the recent round of tests for the end of this school year.  The problem is the local secondary school is not that good, we live in a fairly poor area and the last thing I want is for my son not to reach his full potential simply because of choices I made when he was just 3 years old.  I have spoken with a few people and they all tell tales of poor results from this school, as has been reported a few times on the forum, poor areas with low employment can lead to low aspirations from teachers and students alike. So what are my options, can I ask that he attend a different school,  the next closest town has a school with a good reputation, does anyone know how the zoning works? Should I seek out a private school, does anyone have experience of Bordeaux International school? Lots of time to plan, but planning is my thing.. so thoughts anyone? Panda

Hi On reflection I do agree Opas, the teacher will think twice next time if  something 'formal' is done. I also agree with the post that stated you were calm, I too would have probably had it out with her there and then, easy to say sat here typing, a lot more daunting in amongst all those parents though. I do hope you don't let it get to you, have your say in what ever means open to you and move on, it will be for the best for both of you, it's a bad experience but not one I hope that will have any long term affect on either of you. Good luck with it, Panda

Hi All My son has been in school here for 4 years now and I would say from my experience whilst this is an overly strong reaction you should be prepared for fairly strong handling of misdemeanours from the teachers.  In my sons maternelle you would have been called out in front of all the other parents and would have been told in no uncertain terms what your son had done and how they had handled it, this would leave you embarrassed but perhaps less annoyed. In primaire the normal punishment which is highly effective is to punish the whole class if one child misbehaves, I strongly support this method and believe it is much more effective than staying behind after school (and certainly better than physical punishment).  The child in questions gets it in the neck when all of the class can't play football or go swimming just because he/she played up and this group pressure and the unpopularity puts a quick halt to the behaviour. I really feel that if you complain nothing much will happen, just my opinion. Panda

Hello Having had a look a while back at where they've gone, judging by some of the posts over there I would have thought that they would leave screaming ......the one I recall was about bidets, I can't describe it in detail it's too horrendous but it was about bidets and why some of them need to use one, it was not nice at all and bought up images of the less than young washing their bits pre .... The only sane person was trying to say 'how romantic is that, hold on whilst I just go and have a swill around....' ... Some of you on this thread post over there as well so come on, did that thread make you reach for a bowl too?? EDIT, just logged in again and it's not there, had to sign up as a new member think it's been updated and old threads are gone, what a shame, NOT Having said all that, from the searches I've done for info, contributions from Will and Dick were good, so can I say I miss them too! Panda

Hello Am I completley mad, I though a pergola had a roof but no walls.  I thought it was a shady garden space, just with 4 pillars type of thing, what's that then? Panda

Hi I agree with Ron and Sunday Driver and not only because they are always right about such things but because I have just been through all this myself.  When I sold my principal residence I was asked to give a copy of my income tax statement of liability (Avis D'impot) to prove my residency, I was never asked for my tax d'habitation, I'm wondering if the OP misunderstood that request.  I have paid tax d'habitation on my secondary residence but still had a CGT liability,  the notaire did make it a very small liability but I paid none the less regardless of my tax situation, as one would expect, as it was not my principal residence.  I think you will struggle to prove it is your primary residency if you've never paid income tax, as has been said you have income from savings and this should have been declared.  However, assuming you have not already sold and as the market is so slow and houses are often taking more than a year to sell, why not get straight down to the tax office and declare for 2006, you will then have the required document in a few months time. Panda

Hi When we moved departments we filled out the address change on the gov site and received a request form CPAM in the new department stating we had to send all the docs again including any justifications etc.. For us it was a mistake because we are not under CPAM but RAM and they haven't asked for anything, with RAM I think it's different because they appear to operate centrally, our office is not in our old or new department, where as CPAM is localised. Sorry not sure if that helps with your decision. Panda

Hi All the ISP's are getting much better at handling spam and about time too, not surprising really when the current level of spam is around 75% of all email traffic on the web!  From my experience the automated filters are quite accurate and you have the choice of marking something as spam of course , if they miss it, you just have to be sure not to mark something as spam by accident and forever block messages from a client or friend! Panda

Hi Mikey The course I did was not in Paris although I know of other Unis that do the same course and so finding one in Paris should be possible.  In the meantime, follow this link, this is the course I studied, http://cfle.univ-poitiers.fr/en/index.asp this tells you all about the course, charges etc.. (and it's helpfully in english on this link). Have a look and if you have more questions just ask.  As for fluency, I can speak freely (although would not class mysefl as fluent as my written work is still questionable) I did about 17 weeks 2 years ago, so I did 1 full term and started the next but had to cut it off early due to work commitments.  To be fluent from scratch it's hard to say, depends on how dedicated you are and how quickly you pick thngs up but 4 terms and you should be flying at your age! Panda

Small world and totally off topic, I lived about 10 miles from Stroud and worked in Nailsworth for a few years before the move out here 4 years ago.   It is, as you imply above, a lovely rural place, but if I still lived there I would be working 10 hours + a day and living in a very small cottage with a postage stamp garden and never getting to enjoy being there.  So for me it's not just about the countryside, although I love it.  It was the opportunity to be able to walk my own land each day, own my own lake and work permanently from home! Panda

Hello In that case you will either be registered under your husbands Social Security number or you will need to contribute in your own right.  This has been discussed before and some, like me, have just the one income in the family and so declare their partner as a dependent which works fine for us and was set up by our accountant.  Others register in their own right and pay contributions, others again register as a contributing somehow  to the business of the partner and pay that way.  Which is right for you I have no idea. Panda

Hi Just checked out the Alliance Francaise website, I can not believe the price of the course 285 euros per week for the 32 hour intensive course!  The course at a french university that I described is about 680 euros per term, less if you sign up for more than one term, a term is 13 weeks so the difference is huge!   The other big advantage is that you can be coached for your entrance exam to attend the main stream courses that you mention, most of the class I was with did just that, took 3 terms studying french and at the same time gained the required qualification to study at the university in law the arts etc.. Worth thinking about if it's not too late. Panda

Hi I presume from what you describe you are taking french as a foreign language at Uni in Paris.  I did this for a similar amount of time and after the course I could converse fairly freely, I had already been in France for a year though so was probably a bit further down the line.  Writing is another matter, I still struggle with this (and not just in french today!) and I think you should consider taking more than the 3 month (1 term) course, at your age you will be fine and you will meet lots of people on the course.  My class had 12 different nationalities, the only common language being french so you either start learning quickly or you sink.  I think if you did at least 3 terms you will find that at that level of immersion (40 hours a week my course was nearer 25 hours), along with taking the others advice and seek out lots of french friends you could be near to fluent in under 2 years. Good luck with it! Panda

Hi The ecole maternelle that my son attended was really good, lots of the tiny ones only went for mornings (8.45 - 11.30), is that not an option?  My concern would be that without starting this year  she will find it more difficult when she does come to start as she will be in the second class and most of the other kids will have already gotten over the separation, the routine etc.. It's a personal thing, as for free creche for working parents, the high unemployment in most areas means that you can often see both parents picking up the kids so that is certainly not the case where I've lived. Panda  

Hi Asbestos in roofs over here is quite common (according to our notaire about 60% have some somewhere).  We had some in our last purchase and we took them off ourselves, carefully!  We were able to take them to the local tip as there were not huge numbers of sheets.  Each tip here can take 'some' but not 120 metres squared worth.  As I understand it, if you get someone in to remove it you must ensure they are fully informed and take necessary precations etc.  You can legally handle it yourself but you will  then need to find a place to take the sheets for disposal. With such a lot of sheets and the possible health risks involved I guess it would be best to get someone in to do it, as to costs, I've no idea. As for vineyards being close I have no experience but would suggest you ask if they are organic, if not perhaps there would be more of a problem from insectisides etc, than insects!  Having said that we are next to a farmers field and I would guess he uses some insecticide on his crop but we have every bug imaginable climbing about, and lovely they are too, good for bringing in birds etc.   Panda

Hi Emma Where are you out of interest? Panda