Pixie Toadstool

My word Norman that is extremely kind of you to do this for me - I really appreciate it! I will now start on my exploration of your links. Thank you so much! Pix

Hi NormanH I knew about the inondations - I think that is probably why most of the old houses use the rez de chausse for other than living accommodation to avoid their furniture being washed away! Great little video. He certainly does look like an old hippie and a lovely one at that! I find it much easier to understand what he is saying than I do the local Normans here in Manche where the accent is very, very strong! I am saving the rest to watch later as I am just popping out now! Thanks again! Pix

We are thinking about buying a property in the Cevennes with quite a lot of land, isolated, hopefully with a stream as we are mad about nature, wildlife and I love walking too. Just wondered what your thoughts were. This will be our main residence. I have heard some scarey stories about the locals being xenophobic communists and realise we will have to deal with the hunt on our land - intend to buy a flackjacket to protect myself but don't even expect to try to stop them! I am quite looking forward to hooking up with any remaining soixante-huitards aka hippies - are there any left though? Positive, negative and ambivalent replies all very welcome as fore-warned is fore-armed. Thanks in advance! Pix

Hi There! I live in Normandy and am looking to rent a gite for a week from 3-10 September for my husband and myself.  I need internet access and would prefer a rural setting with views/a gite with character.  Otherwise I am not particularly fussed. Any ideas please PM me (by the way I don't have zillions to spend!). Pix

I have looked for links about this but am surprised that I can't find any mention of it. I have recently heard that the Government is considering taxing everyone on the sale of their primary residence.  It looks like this has quite a lot of support amazingly! I seem to remember a figure of about 30% being given which will be a real pain for us as we have spent a lot of money doing up the house but can't prove most of it as we were ripped off by a Brit cowboy builder in 2000/2001 who never provided us with any receipts (and YES we were very naive then ...).  Consequently we would be paying tax on money we have already spent!!  We want to move from Normandy to the South in the short to medium term but thought we would hang on a bit longer until (hopefully) the house prices stabilise or increase.  I would think this extra tax would push house prices down even further as it would be an incentive for people to sell before the new tax comes in. What do you all think about this and how likely do you reckon it is to come to pass - if so, when? Ta! Pix [:)]

Hello this has probably been asked before but I can't find anything relevant on the forum search engine so please forgive me. My husband is 60 and so was getting free presriptions in the UK.  He has regular medication for hypertension.  We now have our S1 cards and wondered whether he would be able to claim back free prescriptions in France from CPAM (or whatever) or whether he will have to pay for them himself now.  Also does anyone have a link on what can be claimed back from CPAM and what can't please?  For instance can we claim back for GP visits or not? Thanks in advance! Pix [:D]

As you will see from my earlier postings we have just gone through the process of registering a UK registered Berlingo (6 years old). We have also managed to do this for a 4 year old BMW we imported from Germany but bought via a UK agency.  We had absolutely no problems getting it all sorted here in Basse Normandie - we went to the Mortain Hotel des Impots first to make sure we had everything we needed.  For the Berlingo we only needed the Registration document, Proof of domicile (Bank statement), passport and controle technique.  We expected to be asked for a certificate of conformity but (having read postings on this website) we hoped the vehicle registration document to suffice and it did - when asked for it at the prefecture at St Lo when applying for the carte grise we just pointed to the registration document and said c'est dedans and she accepted this.  This is after being quoted £100 from Citroen UK for a certificate of conformity. The BMW we expected to be a nightmare to insure as it was a complicated purchase (see above) and wasn't a French car but again we had absolutely no problem getting a carte grise for it at St Lo.  This time we did have the certificate of conformity for the vehicle as it was supplied with the purchase so I don't know whether we would have got away with solely the German reg document. As someone else says it seems to depend on where you live and also the age and origin ( i.e. outside EU) of the car. I forgot to say that (re: previous posting) that the registration document suffices as the certificat de conformite so I don't know why they are quoting that in the law.  I suppose it depends on the age and origin of the car as to whether the reg document proves c de c or not. Hope this helps somebody out there! Pix

I can jubilantly report that after visiting the Hotel des Impots at Mortain I was advised that my paperwork should be acceptable at the Prefecture (St. Lo) and when I went there to present my documents the kind lady asked me for the Certificat de Conformite and I replied that it was in the Registration Document to which she replied "Ah oui, pardon" and duly completed the slip to allow us a carte grise without having to pay Citroen UK £100 for a French translation of the C de C. Will keep you posted when next week we try to register a German BMW on temporary plates - hopefully we'll get through again as the car is only 4 years old and I am told the age of the vehicle can be a significant stumbling block. Thank you to all who have helped me with this problem and good luck to all those who go after me!!! Pix [B]

Oh dear it doesn't sound too promising does it?  I'll try my luck at the centre des impots in Mortain this afternoon (Basse Normandie) and let you know how I get on. Just phoned Citroen UK and they will supply me with a French certificate of conformity for the princely sum of £100. Thanks for all your help so far!!! Pix[:-))]

Please can someone tell me what DRIRE is (see earlier messages in this thread)? I need to register my Citroen Berlingo here and wondered what the best way forward is these days and DRIRE doesn't appear to exist as a government body these days.  It would be nice to be able to sort it all out here rather than having to get a certificate of conformity from the UK only to find they won't accept it here. Any advice would be very gratefully received!  We do have the full log book so hoping this might help and as it's a Citroen I'd hope there's not too much problem! Thanks as ever all you brains out there! Pix [:)]

Hi Panda! Yes that made me titter too!! Good news for me is that my vet is happy to issue the passports without seeing the cats.When she rabies jabbed them she checked them over including whether their microchips were working and says there is no need for me to take them back unless I am worried the chips have stopped working in the mean time.  As I have 4 cats and it is a pain getting them all there together I am most grateful!! They leave these shores next Monday - appropriately on the FAST CAT! I will take advice about Feliway and also put those incontinence pad things on the bottom of their cages in case of any accidents but I expect their systems will just seize up and they'll hold it all in - they are good boys (the girl isn't quite so good!). AND we move to France next week PERMANENTLY - after 10 years of owning our holiday home in Normandie. Pix[B]

Try Shiply - recommended by someone else on this site.  I have had some very good quotes from them for moving a 3 bedroomed house to Normandie from Newbury - as little as £700 for the round trip (but will probably be choosing someone a little more expensive).  The cost covers the move out to France and then their return trip.  It is a way for removals people to make a bid to take your furniture or whatever to wherever you want.  You can see feedback from anyone you are interested in using. Good luck - it's on: http://www.shiply.com/ Pix[:D]

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to reply - it sounds like very good news indeed!  We will take your advice and hopefully achieve our dreams just that little bit earlier thanks to you! Pix [kiss]

My husband and I are retiring to France very soon to live in our house in Normandie which we have had for 10 years.  However, we hope to move to the Languedoc and we want to avoid paying capital gains tax on our French house when we sell it, so can anyone help here please?  Our solicitor was unable to help us with this and so I thought I'd plumb the many brain cells on the forum in the hope of getting some answers to allow us to plan the next stage of our lives. How long do we need to live in our French house to be considered tax resident so that when we sell our Normandie home we don't have to pay capital gains?  We plan to tell the Mairie as soon as we arrive that we are living in France permanently from now on and of course will notify the UK Government before we go. I realise that we would get reductions in French capital gains tax were we to sell mmediately as we have owned the house for 10 years but we don't have many of the bills to show how much we have spent on improving the house and as it is probably worth more than 100,000 now and we only bought for 35k 10 years ago we would probably still need to pay several thousand euros to the French authorities as a capital gain until it is considered as our principle residence.Am I correct in the above assumptions please and does anyone know of any way round this issue to avoid paying lots of money but to move sooner rather than later.Thanks in anticipation![blink] Pix

Oh Theiere are you suggesting using it as a PHONE? Pix [;-)]