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nectarine

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Everything posted by nectarine

  1. A tontine gives the survivor absolute ownership of the house. Re. deceased assets ... depends on how close your family is really. An English will quoting the relevant regulation will cost around 80euros and leave everything absolutely to the survivor. Ensure any English life insurance policies are put in trust for the (named) survivor. Don't put "my wife" but put "my wife Jane ...". Will the family support the survivor without squabbling or demanding something? That's important to know. Also, put all your important papers in order, put together a file of them and tell your children where they are, everything. Plus passwords, bank access codes, etc. The works.
  2. Slightly off track here but worth noting, if you organise something for a crematorium, that the time given is often the time that the deceased ... er,... disappears behind the curtain and the cremation actually takes place. True, this happened once where I was given a time, arrived half an hour early to find the service just starting. People who arrived for the time given were met by the family coming out! I've just organised the funeral for a dear friend and was forewarned so, when given the time for the cremation by the undertakers, replied "ah, but the service will start half an hour earlier won't it". Instant and slightly embarrassed correction by the undertakers who told me to announce the earlier time, rather than the time they had contracted with the crematorium. As I said, slightly off topic from the original posting but worth remembering ,,,
  3. Years ago - late 1980s/1990s - I bought from the France magazine shop at Stow On The World two beautiful posters, one being 'Fenetres En Provence' and the other 'Boutiques En Provence' with the signature 'Alexandér. I've had these framed in our house for a long time but sadly they're bleached by the sun. They show a selection of beautiful shopfronts and windows which give a real taste of 'old' France. It's a long shot but does anybody know where I might get copies of these. I could try and post a picture (not sure how) but if anybody has any info I'd be hugely grateful. Thanks in advance.
  4. Near me at the Latour Marliac water lily gardens ... they're the lily gardens that inspired Monet. This place is recognised as the water lily experts in France and they speak English too so i am sure they would be able to advise you. Here's a link: http://latour-marliac.com/en/ Good luck.
  5. My grammar teacher told me that 'whilst' is used before a vowel and 'while' for anything else. There are subtle differences in meaning too, as indicated by the grammar link. Actually the more you think about it, the more complicated it gets !!!
  6. Perhaps a pretty tea pot, complete with tea cosy (not seen them over here!) and pack of English tea? Could be fun initiating him into the debate of "milk first or milk after?" ...
  7. I did a trial run with varifocal lenses but really didn't get on with them, feeling rather seasick most of the time. I wear varifocal spectacles and recall it took a couple of days, so persevered with the vari-lenses but really couldn't get it right even after a week, which I thought was long enough to be feeling vaguely nauseous most of the time.. Everything was a compromise, both long and short vision. So I'm back to long-vision lenses where my long sight is excellent, plus innumerable pairs of cheap reading glasses littered everywhere. It's a slog but I preferred the inconvenience of reading glasses but the sharp long vision. The one long-sight and one-short sight lens trial that I did a few years ago didn't suit either ... I'm guessing it's the way your brain is wired.
  8. Just b efore Christmas our local Leclerc had cherries with a big sign at 14.95/kilo. Oh they were lovely .... big and plump and juicy and a real treat and I bought some. At the till they were scanned through at 19.95/k and I complained, and they were reduced. A few days later I went back to get some more and, again they were put through at 19.95/k and again I complained and showed them the sign. The manager said that 19.95 was on 'the system' but they would correct it 'on the system' ..... as I walked away I saw them doing the correction - a marker pen crossing out the lower price on the sign and writing up the higher price! By contract I have a self-scanner with Auchan and always check the prices ... sometimes they're a few cents cheaper on the scanner than the price shown on the shelves. But at least I can check the price at my own pace rather than, say, Lidls where they seem to be competing for an Olympic speed record in whizzing through the goods!
  9. We don't put up any decorations now, I really don't see the point for just two of us and there's no children. I'm sending out less cards now, although more e-cards and messages, but seriously toying with no cards except for elderly relatives who still consider these things have meaning and making a good charity donation instead. It's not bah-humbug but, without children, there's very little to get excited about at Christmas.
  10. Could you, as a one-off - contact the mairie of this other chap's commune and explain to them and give your details and ask them to get the man to contact you? With a resident who has such huge funds they will probably try extremely hard to help him to access them! Worth a try.
  11. I'd say it's more an affectionate term, compare it to the term 'froggie' which is usually more derogatory. "Frenchie" isn't something I'd see as unpleasant at all. What company title do you plan to use?
  12. Fantastic, can't believe it's come around. Remember the original film and thinking "blinkin' eck that's a long way off" ... and now it's here.
  13. I'd stick with white .... stainless steel is to your taste but it will checker-board the kitchen. Really people won't notice - they will see the size of the kitchen, the view from the window, etc., but if you can save money and stay white then I'd do that. And, yes, stainless steel is fussy to keep clean!
  14. yes, Leboncoin definitely. It's very well known, many English people do buy and sell on there, plus you are reaching the French market as well. That is the first place I would go to sell your land. Good luck.!
  15. You could reply honestly but also get your point across (1) The money came from many years of back-breaking law-abiding tax-paid toil and not from ten minutes sitting at a computer clicking the screen as, presumably, the recipient of this email is doing. (2) You intend to spend it on things that make you happy, whether they be good investments or fast women, or perhaps a mix of the two. (3) You have moved it to a bank that doesn't ask invasive questions of its customers.
  16. Our local supermarket used to have just one cubicle in the ladies, and in the gents there was a cubicle and a separate urinal. There was always a queue for the ladies so I was delighted when the toilet were closed for refurbishing. They opened again recently. The gents now has TWO cubicles AND one separate urinal. How wonderful. The ladies, however, retains just the one cubicle but the waiting area is bigger !!!!!!
  17. My notaire told me that, whilst the notaires understood the new laws, they had not been told exactly what wording to write in order to ensure the will was legally valid. I believe it's true the British haven't ratified the regime which means that foreigners in Britain will be subject to British inheritance law; however, Brits in France can specify UK law. I haven't met anyone yet who's had a will written under the new provisions ..
  18. When we swapped to a French licence I asked for an international driving licence as well ... it was free and we have carried it when hiring a car overseas. However, our French licences have sufficed when hiring in the USA and New Zealand - nobody's asked to see the international one yet!
  19. I can't give the technical explanation but we have an HD TV and there are some channels like BBC1 which are on channel 101 but are HD-quality on channel 110 (I think, or somewhere around there). changing from ordinary to HD with the remote definitely shows a sharper and crisper image. We have a big TV, really I think it's better for the much larger tellies of 55 inches plus. On a smaller one you really wouldn't see the difference. But the difference is there ... really.
  20. Idun, I've used several French hairdressers in the past and , although my French is good, I've rarely ended up with what I wanted so I now use an English lady. Around here there seem to be two standard colours: brassy yellow or eyewatering red. My requests for pale blonde highlights and chocolate/caramel lowlights was understood but has been impossible to achieve ... until I found an English hairdresser who seems to understand that I don't want to look like a washed out Sixties blonde bombshell nor a red traffic light!
  21. ??!!! What the heck is happening with the quotes facility ???!!!??? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
  22. [quote user="JSKS"]OK. But at least we quintupled the daily post count![/quote] nope, it's sextupled (is there such a word?). I have no idea about the other forum either. But I'm still grumpy about this oneand planned to vote with my feet and stay away until it returned to normal (temper tantrum, anyone?) then thought nobody would miss me if I did that, so here I am again ... *throws toys out of pram*
  23. It's also something to do with the wishy-washy colours. I much preferred the stronger yellows of the old forum and the distinct breaks between topics ... here's it's sort of blended together and not so easy to split up subjects. Has anybody heard from Archant about this?
  24. How did you buy the house? En tontine? If so then the survivor will inherit the house absolutely with nothing going to the children. It's important to check exactly how the purchase was registered by the notaire, and will be in your documents. Re. the bank account, if it's a joint account make sure it is titled M. ou Mme xxxxx and not M. ET Mme xxxxx. The former allows only one signature on the cheque and the latter insists on two ... hence if one of the couple dies then the survivor cannot use the account until bank and legal people have said so.
  25. Still looks awful on my PC. Who does one contact ? The 'contact us' page only gives options to contact marketing/advertising, etc. Certainly there's nothing where one can contact whoever runs the forum. Who are the mods? Are they reading this? There's plenty of other France-discussion fora on the internet which are easier on the eye ....
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