Aly (used to be Charlotte3)
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Posts posted by Aly (used to be Charlotte3)
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[quote user="londoneye"]
I agree, it really depends who you talk to. Go into your local Bricocolage and see how many of them would struggle if it weren't for Brits .... every second voice you hear is British. Watch what the French buy - a couple of nails is a good day's shopping for a lot of the French in there. Not so the British, trolleys laden with stuff for their complete renovation project !! ......
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Most of the French round here can't afford to spend money unless they really have to. If they only need a couple of nails then that's what they'll buy....why buy more than you need?
Locally, the Brits are seen to be unreasonably affluent, ie. reasonably young "retirees" with no visible income who love to show off how much money they have. Given the very low wages here they come across as "bourgeois" and showy and are resented by many of the hard working and low paid younger French. To be quite honest I can perfectly understand their attitude (but then I am part French myself and also fall into the same working group).
Aly
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I'm with you on that littlemouse......if you have talent, determination and are willing to work hard you CAN succeed, whether you speak the language or not.
I know, I've done it and I'm sure I can't be the only one!
Aly
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I greet everybody with "ca va?" without thinking about it, also tend to automatically speak to people in French rather than stopping to think if they are English or French. Lots of others but I can't think of them now (red wine again)
Aly
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J.R.,
"I was not sure what it was so didnt want to post, it looked too thick for crepi and more like chaux based enduit de renovation applied by projection."
That's more or less it....not sure that it's chaux based, but a team of guys comes along with big machines and basically spray the whole building, leaving a nice even coat in your choice of colour (and a lot of mess!).
If well done, it'll last for years and years before needing tidied up.
Aly
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You can buy their bacon at SuperU, Gorron.
Aly
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"Here's shot of the external wall in question showing some of the flaking and underlying damp which is visible externally from the damp cellar. Crepi (as the agent referred to it) or enduit?"
It's neither.....it's called "ravalement" and is done by a specialist company at the time of building. It should certainly last longer than 10 years and I would have thought they would have insurance to cover this.
We frequently re-do ravelement but normally after 15 - 20 years when stains etc have set in.
As the problem seems to be damp rather than bad standard of ravalement, I would guess that they would not be responsible, but the builder?
Hope this helps,
Aly
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Nothing to fear,Wooly. I'd rather be integrated than be forever an outsider trying to buck the trend!
Aly
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Woolybanana said:
"Unfortunately Angry Aly who metamorphosed from Charlotte3, whatever rigid system you are in and are pleading for, I feel it is a thing of the past or will be very shortly. France has to change and fast if it is not going to atrophy even more. Rigidity is out, flexibility is in. There are no guaranteed rice bowls any more, but hard work will be its own reward. But then, I'm sure you have a full order book as do most of the people round here as far as I can see. So perhaps you might live and let live."
The rigid system I am in is called employment, so I doubt if it will soon be a thing of the past!
As an employee I don't prsonally have an order book, but our firm has 2 years of work on our books at the moment.
It's not a quaestion of live and let live. I wasn't allowed to register as a painter and decorator. I didn't find the first loophole in the law and dive headlong into it, I found a way to do what I am QUALIFIED to do legally. That's what this is all about, BEING QUALFIED, and doing the legal and decent thing, nothing else.
(I find it acutely embarrassing when we do work at British clients houses and meet a procession of British "black" workers coming and going. This is invariably accompanied by loads of excuses from the client as to why s/he is employing them rather than a legitimate worker. Of course my French colleagues see all this and it only serves to widen the gap between our two countries.)
My colleagues just can't understand why les Anglais can't just do what they are qualified to do. I can't either, perhaps I've become more French than I realised!
Aly
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Nice one, JR.....decorators of the world unite!
Aly
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oooooooooooh!
Aly
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I WANT YOU!!!
Aly
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Thanks, Coops, X
Aly
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Personally I wouldn't go there.....just send them a cheque then you know exacly where you are. This looks to me as if it will all end up in a complete muddle!
Send a cheque,
Aly
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Thanks for that Gardian.
I think it's so sad that people on this forum are more interested in "black" working than in the brutal massacre of the most gentle and holy men on this earth. Shame on you.
I'm in contact with some people close to this situation, and am waiting to hear if there is anything we can do to help in any way...difficult to know how we could do anything worthwhile, but I'll post any feedback I get.
I'm (perhaps wrongly) assuming some of you give a .....!
Aly
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[quote user="woolybanana"]
And how do we know the people mentioned above are not highly experienced tradesmen who cannot get the requisite certificatiuon in france because the laws here are so protectionist. This is supposed to be a Common Market for labour but France restricts trades and jobs for people with French qualifications only in many cases. Why are say German or British or POLISH diplomas not just as good?
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.They ARE as good...that's the point. If you have no qualifications you are not qualified, simple.
I had no provable qualifications due to our losing everything in a bomb explosion in N Ireland, and I had to re-qualify here in France. I managed it, so if there really are lots of Brits out there in a similar situation why don't they do the same? Exactly, it's a load of B......s!
I would be interested to know which "trades and jobs for people with French qualifications only"?
Yet again I would like to point out that Britain is out of step with the rest of Europe, not the other way round! So is Britain right and everyone else in Europe wrong?
Let everyone in France do what they feel like , you know, like in Britain, and we'll end up with the same social problems.....is that why you came to France? I don't think so.
Angry of Mayenne
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It matters very much what he is registered as.
Every time someone does work that he is not LEGALLY entitled to do, he is taking food from the mouths of people who have spent a considerable amount of time (and I am one of them) to make sure that they are qualified in accordance with the laws of France.
You can't condone breaking the law just because you don't like it! There is no excuse for employing these people. To be quite frank with you, they and the people who actively condone them make me sick. Life is so bloody hard here that it just isn't fair that some people think this sort of behaviour is acceptable while the rest of us work so hard for very little financial reward. (And constantly lose out to illegal workers).
Also, if he is injured on your property you could very well find yourself facing a hefty bill from the hospital for his treatment, as he won't be covered while doing a trade he isn't registered to do.....never mind all the other financial implications of employing someone to do somehing you admit he isn't qualified to do!
For goodness sake grow up! You chose to live here, you aren't in Britain and it doesn't matter a whit what you think of the laws in France. Just because in Britain any Tom, Dick or Harry can set himself up in any trade he chooses without any formal qualifications, that has no bearing on what happens in France.
Angry of Mayenne,Aly
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The French construction industry is regularly policed, and all employees have to carry identity cards proving qualification.
These can be, and are, regularly checked on site by government officials.
I don't know about the catering trade though.
Aly
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I've just received this email from Burma, it tells the REAL story of the buddhist monks in Rangoon........ I don't have the words to express my distress over the situation there, Aly
Voici la traduction d'un courriél datant de lundi 1er Octobre 2007 reçu par
> l'intermédiaire d'amis bouddhiste :
>
> La situation en Birmanie selon l'e-mail ci-dessous :
>
> Nous venons d'avoir un coup de téléphone de notre soeur qui habite à Yangon,
> il y a quelques heures.
>
> On a vu qu'ils disaient sur la BBC WORLD que 200 moines avaient été arrêtés.
> La réalité est bien pire !!!!! Par exemple le monastère d'un quartier peu
> connu de Yangon, qui s'appelle Ngwe Kyar Yan ( Rue Wei-za-yan-tar à Yangon)
> a subi une descente de police tôt ce matin.
>
> Une troupe de 'lone-tein' (la police anti-émeutes constituée de voyous
> payés) protégés par des camions militaires ont fait une descente sur le
> monastère où étudient 200 moines. Ils ont ordonné systématiquement à tous
> les moines de s'aligner, les ont frappés et leur ont écrasé la tête contre
> le mur de briques du monastère. Un par un, les moines pacifiques et sans
> résistance sont tombés par terre en hurlant de douleur. Puis les policiers
> leur ont arraché leurs robes rouges, les ont tous jetés dans les camions
> militaires (comme des sacs de riz) et ont emporté les corps.
>
> Le moine principal a été attaché au milieu du monastère, torturé, matraqué
> et il est mort plus tard le même jour, aujourd'hui. Des dizaines de milliers
> de gens se sont rassemblés devant le monastère, ont été repoussés par des
> militaires baïonnettes au canon, et ils ont été incapables d'aider leurs
> moines impuissants qui se faisaient massacrer à l'intérieur du monastère.
> Toutes leurs tentatives pour avancer se sont heurtées aux baïonnettes.
>
> Quand tout fut terminé, il ne restait que 10 moines sur 200 en vie, cachés
> dans le monastère. Du sang tachait tous les murs et les sols du monastère.
>
> S'il vous plait, racontez à votre public l'étendue réelle du sort des
> moines, s'il vous plait, s'il vous plait !!!!!!
>
> « Arrêté » n'est pas une expression suffisante. Ils ont été matraqués à
> mort.
>
> Aye Aye
>
> Hong Kong
>
>
> _____
>
> The situation in Burma according to the e-mail below :
>
>
> We just got phone call with our sister living in Yangon about a few hours
> ago.
> We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture
> is far worse!!!!!!!!!
> For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called
> Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this
> morning.
> > > A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by
> the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They
> systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each
> one's head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the
> peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then,
> they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like
> rice bags) and took the bodies away.
>
> The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery,
> tortured , bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands
> of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with
> bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered
> inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the
> bayonets.
>
> When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the
> monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the
> monastery.
> Please tell your audience of the full extent of the fate of the monks please
> please !!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> 'Arrested' is not enough expression. They have been bludgeoned to death
> !!!!!!
>
> Aye Aye
> Hong Kong
>
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Ah Geronimo, how I dream of having a cooler (empty) side of the bed!
Ho hum.....Aly
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If you get a full tme job your contract will state that you cannot work for anyone else while under contract to your employer.
As Sam de B, says, you would end up paying extra tax as well. Most employers here have a stinking attitude to their staff in that they can and will say whatever they like to you and you will just have to put up with it. Most jobs in my part of France are paid SMIC, even skilled tradesmen earn it. Things are rumoured to be better in Paris though, because of the higher cost of living.
I always had 2 jobs in the UK, but to be honest I couldn't put up with two French bosses. My boss is great as things here go, but I wouldn't want another one as well!
Good luck,Aly
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Exactly, 5-element,
As I said, the level of RMI as quoted above. You do not have to be over 60 to qualify for exemption for the TV licence, just on a low income. The wording on the forms is very misleading. (I know this from personal expereince)
I've never heard of anyone having their Tax Habitation reduced, only waived and I stand corrected. At what point is it reduced? I ask because this year I have had a low income and wonder if I might be so lucky.
Aly
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I have a hypothyroid problem too, always cold......except for the dreaded night sweats and those sudden hot flushes!
Isn't it awful, I feel as if I'm slowly falling apart!
Aly
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An income of 11,000 euros for a couple with no dependant children is not considered low enough to qualify for exemption in your habitation tax. (There is no such thing as a reduction).
You would have to be under the current ceiling for RMI, currently 661.29 euros per month.
Sorry, but in France you income would be considered perfectly adequate.
Aly
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"So you can size walls with mutton fat!"
Is that a Welsh thing?
Aly
Habilitation: Travel Agency
in French Legal Issues
Posted
Under UK law I am perfectly entitled so to do, as long as I am correctly bonded and trade within the law.
French law requires all sorts of qualifications, experience and paperwork that I do not have, and thus even an application for a licence is years away.
I am in effect being denied the right to exercise my trade.
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Join the club, Waring! If you live in France abide by French law whether you like it or not.
Aly