Chas

As I said it is four years since changing to French plates and it too had passed two control techniques in 2001 and 2003. However it now has rivetted plates and the seal of approval my local Gendarmerie, who were quite amused at my major breach of the law.  

Hoverfrog, is that in UK or France? In France rivets are mandatory and I knew I had to change them. When I re registered (4 years ago!) I just used the existing screws and holes and never got round to replacing with rivets. It took about 20 minutes yesterday to fix. Now all I have to do is find an open Gendarmerie to have it inspected. The avis de contravention states - "Non respect des regles sur immovibilite des plaques d'immatriculation. Art R 317.8 Code Routiere". The last bit about code routiere was a bit difficult to decipher and may not be completely accurate

OK, I hold my hands up. They got me bang to rights, guilty as charged. Even the fine of €45 euros is not too bad. However it must have been a very sad policeman with a lot of time on his hands who went along a line of parked cars in the centre of bordeaux to identify that mine had the number plates screwed on and not rivetted. The good news is that if I rectify it and present it to the gendarmes within 5 days I don't have to pay the fine!   PS - Sorry about the other post. Not sure how that happened!

OK, I hold my hands up. They got me bang to rights, guilty as charged. Even the fine of €45 euros is not too bad. However it must have been a very sad policeman with a lot of time on his hands who went along a line of parked cars in the centre of bordeaux to identify that mine had the number plates screwed on and not rivetted. The good news is that if I rectify it and present it to the gendarmes within 5 days I don't have to pay the fine!  

Local paper had a big article a few days ago, forecasting gloom and doom. Apparently it has been the driest winter since 1948. Although bans are considered possible, particularly if there is not a significant amount of rain in April, we are at the moment being urged to be public spirited and limit none essential use.  

[quote]Beware if you file your tax return online if: you have an exempt pension (i.e.govt) or rents in the UK. Last year the website could not cope with this, no available form to fill in the figures for th...[/quote] Myth or not my local tax office says that if tax is paid in UK they appear only on 2047K.

Have a look at the topic "out of date car tax" below 

[quote]Thank you for that Chas, someone also said I might need 2042c, do you get that or does anyone know what it is please?[/quote] Sorry, don't know 2042c. However, I believe all the forms are listed on the tax web site. I have both government pensions and state retirement pension.  I visited our tax office for advice and was assured that 2042 & 2047 was all I needed. They were very  patient with my limited French and very helpful with completing the forms. 

[quote]Forgot to say I pay UK tax on the UK earnings[/quote] We fill in form 2042 which contains all domestic details plus French earnings, if any and 2047 which is for income earned and taxed "en etranger" including UK. They both arrived this week. 

How about a lot of patience - comes in very handy when waiting for the fonctionaires, artisans .........!  

We have lots of beams and have just had ours done professionally by Pellin, a large national company.  Rather than spraying they drilled small holes about every 20 cms and inserted a "beam coloured" plastic plug through which they then injected the liquid.  Everything was covered with plastic sheeting and we did not need to vacate the house. The main mess was sawdust from the drilling, some of which escaped but it was cleaned up fairly efficiently. The plugs are hardly noticeable, we now have peace of mind and the treatment comes with a 10 year guarantee, which is transferable if we sell the house.  Total cost  just under €1900.  

I've just checked my old E106. It was issued on 31 October 2000 and ran until 4 Jan 2003 - so just over the two years. I then had a gap until late Feb when I qualified for E121.

Depends where you are in 17. If anywhere near Cozes Dr Lebon (05 46 90 81 01) and his wife are a good vets and speak English. 

Try the link for some info on driving in France http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2005/01/17/excar.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/01/18/ixportal.html

It may be of interest to some that Michel Thomas died on Saturday, aged 90. His obituary is in todays Telegraph - www.telegraph.co.uk

Prior to completing the sale in UK we arranged to move into a gite for a couple of weeks until completing the purchase in France. It worked out fine and is probably cheaper than the interest on a bridging loan

I re registered a RHD Frontera in 2000. Sous Prefecture in Saintes 17 gave me a form (in English) on which I had to fill in the details from the vehicle identification plate - VIN etc. That went to DRIRE who, I believe, did the necessary checking from computer records. But, as has been said so often before, different departments different requirements.  Good luck. 

Hear, hear. This is now our fourth year using this recipe, which is always highly praised. We have given away many copies.  

Michelin Camping and Caravaning, Le Guide gives a large selection of sites including those open all year round. It is available in the UK, France and on line. Alan Rogers Good Camps Guide - France also gives a good selection.  

We opted for a security cover which we purchased from our pool supplier.  It was a self build kit pool 9.5m x 5m from Waterair. The cover is very effective and cost about €3100. If you look at Waterair's website it is described in some detail. http://www.waterair.com  

It's not always bad news.  We bought a freezer from L'Eclerc which failed to operate.  They responded to our phone call within 48 hours and having confirmed that it didn't work by running through the setting to work procedure that we had already tried they unloaded a replacement from the back of the van and took the u/s model away.  The replacement worked perfectly 

Sorry, can't quote chapter and verse but my understanding is that since January 2004 you have to wear them if broken down on roads outside of urban areas. We were down in Spain in late summer in the camper for about three weeks and a large number of local cars had them on the back of the driver and front passenger seats - but we didn't see any in use. We were also advised that it was an offence not to carry them.  

[quote]Just to add to what I've started.If you don't have a home in the UK (or an address) then how will your DVLA licence be legal??? That in itself in the UK, if not changed within X-many months of moving...[/quote] I queried this very point with DVLA a couple of years ago and posted their response on the "old" forum. Unfortunately I no longer have the Email. However the sense of their response was that it was not possible to have a foreign address on a UK licence and that they accepted that people living permanently abroad may not have a valid UK address on their licence.

We built our own without any major problems. Have a look at http://www.waterair.com

Haven't used him myself but S Dumas midway between Mortagne and St Fort seems to have a good reputation locally 0546499104. Also this guy has put up an ad in Super U at Gemozac: Cullen Stevenson, Kitchens and Bathrooms fitted, 0546489565, 0684318763,  [email protected]