Quillan

This bit about changing lights over, using beam deflecters etc, my comments are general and not aimed at any one person. The beam deflecters don't deflect they just blot out that part of the light that would dazzle people driving towards you when you are on dipped beam and in doing so reduces the amount oif road that illuminated. To be honest I changed my lights and it's much better than either not changing and not/and using deflectors. If you don't swap the lights you are loosing part of the beam where you need it the most, down the right hand side, where either the curb or the ditch is. I have to say that I find that having changed my lights over it is really a lot better driving at night. So if you are registering your car in France why do people persist in trying to find a way round something that is so obvious, in this case swapping over your headlights. Is it that you can't afford it? Don't say because you go back to the UK because your car if now French registered so you don't obviously go back that often.

[quote]We have a 110 CSW defender that was bought here just on 3 years ago. We had a different experience from Quillan in terms of price - for us the Defender was about euros 6000 cheaper than in the UK, + ...[/quote] The dealer I used was Passion Auto's on the Route Narbone in Carcassonne.

"Incidentally, Land Rover spares are notoriously expensive and delivery time slow almost everywhere outside of Britain. " Well actually I needed to change my headlights over and they cost me 198€ for the pair (I have the bill) and they came with new bulbs installed as well. The rear wipe motor went, cost 68€ plus 12€ for the panel clips (they break off when you remove the inner door panel. Full service by a LR dealer was 386€. All this is for A Disco TD5 ES7. There was no wait for the major parts only the little panel clips, I had to wait 6 days for them but they posted them to me. So actually I don't think the prices are that bad and the service either for that matter. Japanees and UK cars should cost more as both countries drive on the left but it does not seem the case with LR.

I bought two bottles of the stuff (here in France). One was top range over €5 and the other was €1.99 (Champion Supermarket) and to be honest there was not a lot of difference. As far as the wine goes, for €1.99 it's OK but for €5+ it's not worth the money. Drank mine down in Perpignan sitting on the beach (the only one) and it was 21 deg C plus the sun was out. How did you drink yours apart from out of a glass?

The paper bit has you offences on and has to be carried with you even in the UK as well as the vredit card bit. My credit card bit has the EU flag on it.

Driving in snow is different to driving in mud or sand, even with a 4X4. It's not so much as the snow but whats under i.e. ice which is what you have to grip on especially when driving nearly normally, stopping can be fun as well. Chains are OK with off road tyres but most people with the 'luxury' 4X4's don't tend to know much about tyres and the different 'blends' like 40/60's etc and would not normally keep two sets of tyres on two sets of wheels (one set of on road and one set of offroad). I do off road driving here mainly in the mountains for things like mushroom and truffle hunting so I have a 30% off road and 70% on road tyres fitted. As I don't go hyper off roading theres no point in keeping two sets of wheels or having a bigger blend. However having lived in Norway for nearly 3 years I would much prefer studded tyres which they use there betweeen October and March, much better for normal driving than chains, breaking on ice etc is not much different than normal. I know they are not legal in the UK although I have used them there and nobody noticed but I don't know what the score is in France. I have checked my Disco handbook and it does explain how to fit chains.

[quote]Interesting .. I was initially asked/told by a friend who is at the Commissariat in Carcassonne early in the summer to make sure I get it changed. I did so. I've just been told by a friend (was at l...[/quote] No not the old guy, he would book his own mother given the chance. Tall thin guy, don't know his name but when on duty he wears a couple of strips and is based in the Gendarmarie in Quillan (not to be confused with the Police). I got my tempory Carte Grisse when the wife washed hers from him, nice guy and used to play for Quillan (so I'm told).

Funny enough I was talking to our local guy at the rugby on Sunday about this very same thing as I keep hearing different stories so I thought it might be a good idea to ask the horses mouth as it were. If you have the latest licence, thats the credit card job and a seperate green paper you do not have to do anything as it is legal in any EU country and there is no requirment to change to a French one even if you are a resident. If you have a non credit card licence then you must change to the new id you are now resident in France (you can do this before you come of course or if you still have a UK adress it can be send it to). I understand if you do change to a French one you have to pass a towing test to tow a caravan even though you had it on your old UK licence. I think you also loose the right to drive a 3 ton ridgid lorry but I'm not sure on this.

The rules for registering a .fr domain name have recently changed. for those that are interested in doing it legally the rules are as follows.: FranceRegistration is restricted to 4 types of entities: (1) Companies registered in France. (2) Companies registered outside France but possessing a registered trademark matching the domain name and with jurisdiction in France. E.g. A company named XYZ Company Ltd wishing to register xyzcompany.fr would need to possess 'XYZ company' as a trademark in order to be elligible. (2) Individuals residing in France. (3) Individuals of French nationality residing outside France. A faxed copy of the companies Kbis may be required if the company is French. The domain name must be identical to the company name as on the Kbis, or to a registered trademark with jurisdiction in France. If registering a domain identical to a trademark, a faxed copy of the trademark document must be supplied. Hope this helps anyone who is interested. By the way it's typically around £90pa to keep a .fr registered depending on the company you register through.

[quote]Doesn't seem much point in buying new in the UK if you are moving to France? As Quillan said, he couldn't get his repaired here so perhaps better to buy in France and then your machine will be guarent...[/quote] And they are cheaper. You won't need to buy a 'Y' piece to join the hot and cold together and you won't have to change the plug.

I don't know the answer but I would check in the owners handbook and assume that the car has what is specified and top up with the same. Alternativly drain the system and put in new antifreeze specifically for your car. You might consider 'flushing' the system at the same time, just adds another 30 mins to the job.

It was our newer one that went bang and it's all electronic. The reason they couldn't repair it in France was that their equivelent model is cold fill and the 'mother board' is different, something to do with the programming, to take this in to account. Aparently if it is a mechanical thing or a pump or main motor you are OK as the parts are the same. Our old Bendix which must be nearly 30 years old and has one of these big mechanical knobs on just keeps going, perhaps low tech is the way to go after all.

"You cannot run a French car in UK for a year - why do we think we can do it in France?" It must be only French cars then as there are plenty of cars from other nationalities driving around on non UK plates in the UK. I believe in the case of the UK you are allowed a year before you must put your car on UK plates. With regards to people driving around in France for 8 to 12 years with UK plates. I totally agree, it's stupid. I'ts highly unlikely that many of them have valid MOT's either so they will be totally illegal. In defence of myself, I know I am technically legal as I had an accident in France 6 months after arriving here and there were no problems with either the French law or the UK insurance company. However I don't want to push my luck and that is why I shall be registering my car in Feb. In a way I am lucky because the system now is much simpler to register than when I arrived, my UK logbook has a export notification form attached and for my car I don't need a conformaty document any more. 

[quote]I am sorry I would have to disgree that there is confusion. Does any one actually know how long "the first few months of grace" lasts?!!! I can't see that phrase being acceptable to either English or ...[/quote] From what I read here it depends on your insurance company. My French insurance company AGF and my friends AXA gave us both 3 months from the time we took/take out our French policy to get our car registration moved to French plates. Having had a friend read through the policy, in very fine print, it does say that after that time your policy, if you have not registered your car in France, drops to absolute basic cover (AXA) or in my case (AGF) becomes void. My translator said this is well hidden in the policy along with the fact you get no rebate. Technically after you have lived in France for 3 months you are resident here not in the UK therefore aCcording to the DVLC you have to register your car in your new country as the registered keeper is no longer resident withing the UK (hope you can understand that). Reality is you can keep it on UK plates as long as you can get away with it. I personally use my old UK address with post forwarding to France. In February my car is 4 years old and requires a MOT. I can't be arsed to drive from the south of France all the way back to the UK for a MOT so I am already prepairing to register my car in France. Having read some peoples experiences here on the forum and some of my friends here in France have done it and it's not that hard, plus I won't have to pay roadfund licence any more. Thinking about my last sentance I wonder if the original poster miss heard what somebody told her. There is no car tax in France for French registered cars but that does not mean you can drive a UK registered car in France with no UK car tax, it's illegal as we all know. A a seperate but connected issue AFG does not accept (well they don't down here) the no claims discount on my renewal notice document from my UK insurance company. This is because you can protect your bonus in the UK so you could have actually had an accident the month before your policy expired. They (AGF) want proof that I have had no accidents in the time period I am claiming, not proof of no claims, if that makes sense.

Hi, We bought 2 with us from the UK but one went bang so we had to buy another here. The top load machines don't seem to take the sam load as normal front loaders. Speed of spin is important, the faster the better although we found it hard to find a combination of large load and high spin speed. We settled for a LG 8kg with 1200 spin which works well and has a time delay. We also bought a drying machine. We currently have 3 rooms, shortly to be increased to 4 for next season and they are all ensuite. We have one machine for colours (towels etc) and one for whites (sheets and pillow cases). We use the dryer in the winter and always put the towels in with a damp cloth to 'fluff' them up. All our appliances have delays of 3, 6 and 9 hours so we can set them to start on cheap rate electricity to save on bills. I think I am right in saying that all washing machines in France are cold fill only. Good luck with the B&B.

"I'm sorry, but I still think there are situations where people should NOT have freedom of choice.  Zero tolerance is the only answer." How do you have zero tolerance for drinking and driving other than either ban alchohol (wouldn't be a bad idea as it is just a big a drug as cig's) or check every person for their car keys before serving them a drink. Both the above would never work. What I was saying if you read it more carefully is to change the law to make drinking and driving a criminal offence (as opposed to a driving one - in the UK) and yes you can say no alchohol.  In this instance perhaps if they locked the guy/girl away for life, and ment life, it may serve as an example of what happens when you do drink and drive and kill soembody. Just  If a person is stopped with alchohol in them when driving they automatically get a 5 or 10 year prison sentance that would also work as a deterant. Give them the same treatment as those found with illegal guns ir weapons and treat killing people with cars as murder (not manslaughter).

Collder north of Carcassonne than the south. Drive 40 mins south and you are idealy located for both Carcassonne and cathar country. You can also be on the beach in a hour where it's often even more hotter.

BB Ahhhhhhhhhhh Amelie who?

Ok lets have some fun. Lets say we are having a dinner party and we could invite anyone from France, past and present, who would you invite and why?

[quote]As smoking and obesity were the topics I didn't add my pleasure at the hunting ban going through........[/quote] Gay, Open it as another thread, it was done before coz I would love to answer that one especially about the Counryside Alliance and how wrong they are, go on I dare you.

Puskin, thanks for that and very valid points, hope the dog's OK. John, would it be the same a  person who has sex with sheep but with sheep replaced by dog? Wendy, I did take you literally, why shouldn't I? I'm sorry I picked on your post but the statement you made was one I thought people could relate to more. What I was saying is that the penalties for D&D are not strong enough and that the law should be changed to make it a criminal offence (it's currently only a driving offence) which would then open the gate to stronger sentences which is what the crime demands. You can't take away peoples freedom of choice but you have to make them aware of the penalty should you break that law. The penalty should be so big that people should be terrified of breaking such law. Fifteen or twenty years ago salesmen (I've never been a salesman) in the company I worked for thought it almost an occupational hazard to be done for D&D which was EXTREEMLY stupid yet if they got caught the got a one year ban which they could work around by being office based. However if they for instance got a 10 year ban plus a year in prision perhaps they would have thought longer and harder about taking a drink and driving. The reason I posted the original was to see how people react, do they think about what effects them or do they think about the future? Do we say you can't do this and you can't do that or should we, as Puskin says, using smoking as an example, say "If smoking in public places is presented as antisocial, it may have little effect. Present it as vulgar and the effect may be different." Is it not better to educate people in to why they should not do something than to beat them with a big stick. As I quote again from Puskin (sorry) "Education is the key here, with adequate medical support". Wendy, sorry once again for using your quote as example, no disrespect intended.

TU is correct, you don't need one but you can get one if you wish or some authority asks you to get one. When we registered with the Chamber of Commerce they demanded we have one. When I pointed out that it was not a requirment he said something like 'well it is for us'. Mind you I had to get a letter from him to take to the prefecture to get one as they point blank refused on the first attempt.

What I am trying to say is there are other equally or more important issues than smoking, if not more important. It depends which group you fall in to. If you are a pensioner then getting the free installation and fuel costs of central heating is an issue. Some of us don't have to address the problems of old age yet so we don’t consider them important but a pensioner does (they do this in Scotland already). Taking a straw poll of the answers it appears 9 posts were only about smoking, 5 about smoking and obesity, 3 were only about obesity and 3 about other things (nanny state etc). This is why I made the conclusion I did. Some of the comments are a bit strange like “Does that argument extend to drink-driving? Should we scrap laws against drink-driving because we don't want the state telling us what to do?” nobody is suggesting that, but why ban the sale of alcohol on motorways? Surly it’s up to the individual whether they drink and drive but they should be made VERY aware of the penalties if they get caught. Perhaps it should be made a criminal offence to be done for D&D not a driving one. Perhaps also those that actually kill or maim  people when under the influence should be locked away for life (meaning life). You then have a choice. Why penalise the passengers who might like a glass of wine with their meal, is this not discriminating against all? I listened to Tony Benn about 5 years ago when he did his travelling one man lectures, he is not a man I would normally sympathise with but he said a few things that to me made sense. He said that the reason that there was so low a turnout at the polls in general was that politicians had forgotten what there job is and exactly who they represented. They no longer took notice of what people wanted and did their own thing without consulting those that elected them (at a constituency level). Most people were in a state of apathy when it came to voting as none of the parties actually offered them anything they wanted and most of the time did not stick to their election promises. There are quite a few people where I live (not all and not me) who put at the top of their list of reasons for moving to France the ‘nanny state’. There are issues like law and order that are equally important and I believe people want dealt with. Like why does a paedophile, in most cases, get let out at 5 years, the same as a person using violence to steal a mobile phone. I personally think that spending hours debating a law banning smoking in restaurants and pubs that sell food is not as important as other issues that the government should be dealing with. Stopping people from smoking is simple, double, triple or quadruple the price of cigarettes and price them out of the market. By the way, I'm having a lot of problems with fonts in the forum at the moment for some reason.

If you look back through the posts you will find (unless it got lost in the coversion) that we discussed this before and that the law on CDS came in to effect on the 27th November 2003 although it often takes time for this to work it's way down to the grass roots.

Well thanks for all your thoughts. It would seem that I will have to rethink my approach to the UK, it's government and what is important to people there. It would seem to me that judging by the replies people in the UK are more worried about passive smoking than child and adult obesity, old age pensioners heating requirements, fox hunting, pollution, rise in Asthma sufferers, war in Iraq and rather like being told what do by the state, especially if it involves smoking.