Jay

Great, thank you Clair

Our friends had an accident which was not their fault and one of them is in hospital in a very bad way, the other is in obvious shock etc. and without a car. To get to the hosptal he has had to rely on friends until this week when that very same caring company offered some piddling daily amount you couldn't hire a pushbike with! I really can't understand it. They are going to claim everything back from the insurance of the person at fault - unless they are insured by the same company of course. When you consider the amount we pay in premiums it makes me see red when something like this happens. I sincerely hope you and your other half feel better soon - fight the bar stewards for every penny you can get, threaten them with publicity and legal action if they don't pay up, I would!

Don't suppose it was AXA by any chance? Just heard a similar story from friends of ours.

Try a tabac http://www.pipechacom.com/en/pipes-traditionnelles/pipe-accessories-consumables-18.htm

It is the exp. date on the top-up that bothers me. Our Lebara top-up never expires.

If you go for one of the Orange pay as you go mobicarte offers - such as THIS what are the hidden costs? I presume they reimburse the 30€ offer, but when and how much do you have to pay first? Also the last Orange payg phone I had the credit expired, 10€ one month, 20€ two month etc.. is this still the case? Anyone taken up one of these offers? What are the running costs?

LINK

Anything like this? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/25/predatory-hornet-sighting-paris-france

[quote user="sid"]I wonder if it's a condition unique to France? Anyway, it means that I no longer spend large amounts via PayPal, so while I may be losing out, they certainly are! [/quote] I am in the same position and don't use PayPal if I can avoid it. I have an Amazon account in the UK where I use French and UK cards. I have an account in the US with Barnes & Noble where I use my UK card so the only thing I can think of with PayPal is that you can link a bank account, but they could still stop you doing that for an account outside your country of residence. There must be thousands of people using PayPal in the same position. 

[quote user="Quillan"] May you tried using your French card as the primary and your UK (the one with a French address) card as a secondary or have I misunderstood and that's what you have already tried and it failed. [/quote] Yes, tried and failed. As soon as they realise it is a UK card, regardless of the address, it is rejected. What really bugs me is the pay as you go card being rejected as well when they accepted it last time.

I have resurrected this old thread to have another rant about PayPal. Today I received an email (in English) to say my registered credit cards were about to expire and would I care to update my account. I clicked on the link which took me to the US site (US in more ways then one!). When I fed in my account details (an account I opened 10 years ago when we lived in the UK) I was transferred to the French site. I deleted my old card details and fed in the number from my new pay as you go mastercard. This is a direct replacement for the one that had previously been registered on their site, specifically obtained to use on PayPall. The card was rejected! No reason given. The only card I can now register is my French Mastercard even though I have a UK Visa card registered to my French address and a pay as you go card without an address. When I tried to register a card I noticed when you are asked to feed in an address the country (France in my case) cannot be changed. What is it with this shower, do they not want our money? Has anyone else got this problem, and more to the point has anyone found a way around it?

[quote user="krusty"]Russia joins in as well. http://www.cyprusnewsreport.com/?q=node/4540 [/quote] I'd move back to France if I were you mate!

Both math and maths are quite correct, the argument about which to use has gone on for many years. Strictly speaking the calculation was nothing more than simple arithmetic and could hardly warrant the title of math(s), although I suppose arithmetic(s) is, even at this basic level, a branch of mathematics.

Thanks for that. I missed your links before, didn't see the underline. It is a bit odd they try to hide the Optimale offer, I even fed that into their search facility and it didn't come up with the offer. I find their mobile offers strange too, I think I'll stick with my Lebara pay as you go for now!

[quote user="Val_2"]Never assume a road accident here involving vehicles will be a straightforward conclusion. A lot depends on the actual circumstances of the accident too, not just the insurance question and no one should ever confess to being at fault and never ever sign a constat unless both parties do because the one who signs is the liable party. We had a good example of how different outcomes are reached earlier this year when OH was en route to his work,driving along one of our village roads which has two nasty bends in sucession. You can't go fast, no more than 50kph at best due to the deep fosses and high depth of the tarmac which,if you do come off will not only damage your tyres and trims but cause problems getting back on again. Anyway OH is about 20m from the first bad bend when a Peugeot van comes round on his side of the road facing him and at speed with no intention of getting back on their side of the road. OH realised he had no room to get by the van if he stayed on his correct side ofthe road and hit the brakes which caused him to slide a good 15m and veer across the central solid line thus taking the front of his Berlingo completely off and damaging the driver's front side of the Peugeot. Both drivers were fine but still taken to hospital for the day for observation and then released and for some reason the gendarmes who were called out along with the pompiers plus two of their ambulances, came from the main town some 12 miles away and not the three miles from the next village. The other driver could have stopped or even got into a layby but she was 74 and could hardly see over the steering wheel.She refused to sign a constat and both parties were summoned to the gendarmerie to give their stories.The gendarme dealing with the case was very anti-british and kept going on about the brits and how most did not bother to learn french etc. Anyway we were harangued by the old girl for a couple of days who kept ringing to change her story and wanted to go through the constat again which they all did but she again refused to sign it and again ringing us next morning to change her story again but too late,we had given our constat to the insurers who took over.It was a write off but we got more than we expected because we furnished recent invoices for servicing etc. HOWEVER several weeks later we got a letter from the insurers saying they may prosecute my OH because he crossed the central line and hit the other vehicle which in all fairness he had no choice and no idea the van would react like that plus some years ago he ended up in a deep fosse and got hurt.If it does go to court we shall call for her to have a medical and eye exam as she may well be unfit to drive, have cataracts so she cannot see the side of the road etc. We were also told by her neighbours that she has had other accidents and is a trouble maker too. So far we have heard nothing but we are well covered with juridique etc BUT it does go to show how you can never underestimate a conclusion to an accident when you were the innocent party and it was not of your original doing. The insurers pointed out that this claim would not increase the new vehicle insurance and it didn't which is something and we have a new and better works vehicle now out of the whole mess.[/quote] Val, I'm sure most people find your posts interesting, as I do, but they are sometimes terribly difficult to read. Could you please split them up into paragraphs? This is not a dig at you or meant in to be nasty in any way it's just I know I am not alone in finding posts like this more and more difficult to read (age?).

I couldn't find anything on the Orange website called Optimale, maybe looking in the wrong place. When I fed in details for what I thought would suit me it came up with the offer "Livebox zen jusqu'à 20 méga + téléphone" at 21.90€ a month or 18.90€ without the livebox. I presume the landline cost would then put the price up to 34.90€ or 37.90€ with the livebox. Is this the offer you are talking about Danny? I was actually interested in a package with mobile phone and they seem to offer some reasonable deals with 1hr/month talk time, a nice phone and internet via landline. Any recommendations for that type of package?

"ringfenced" is not English, at least not in my dictionary. Your round.

[quote user="pachapapa"]Wow! A whole € 1.20 a year. Its your round![:)] [/quote] Can't afford a round if I'm only saving that much!

The Lidel machine looks good. If you go onto the Lidel site and watch the video he shows you how it chops up the leaves and explains the 3 position switch etc. I would say it is worth buying.

About time some of those Greeks had a haircut.

[quote user="Joe"]No![/quote] Yes!

[quote user="Sprogster"] Also my guess is many of those who have retired to France full time, would have liked to have kept a base in the Uk, if finances had permitted.[/quote] You are right of course, nice position to be in.

Great but the UK2U number came with the package so who am I to argue? The OP primarily wants an internet package.

Lol - I'll wait 'till I can afford the Aston then I'll consider the garage.

"The teleconnect UK2U SERVICE (which provides a UK number) is run over VOIP, but at €4.50/month it is very expensive" No it's not it's free with the internet package. EDIT: FREE UK2U SERVICE: we'll give you FREE of charge a local number in the UK (starting with 0844...) that you can give to family and friends back home. They'll dial this easy local number from now on to ring you in France, and it will cost them only 3p/min from any landline in the UK.