minnie

What a brilliant match Japan played. They certainly showed South Africa what they're made of. A well deserved win.

Today we had our routine annual gas boiler maintenance. At the end of the work, and for the first time ever, we were given a ticket which showed various emission figures. If the figure is above/below the min/max I wonder what happens. We were told that ours was on the limit...Does anyone know what this is about. Apparently, according to the engineer, it is something brought in by Segolene. Any info would be welcomed.

One thing to beware....he says he only wants to farm it. Obviously if he allows property to be built it has to be worth a lot more. As Maire he could probably get planning on it quite easily. Just be cautious. Afraid I'm ever cautious with regard to such issues.

Ours in Dept 47 was free. We've had a total of 3 inspections in 2 different houses and none of these cost anything....

We have a small plantation which we keep confined to one area. When the new shoots start to grow beyond that area they are quickly mowed down with the lawn tractor - it doesn't seem to harm the tractor as the shoots are relatively soft at that stage. Having said that this area is about 200 metres from the house.

WB, you're spot on. It was DHL. They arrived at about 1pm. It was great because the whole process was so painless....I hadn't even looked at the tracking as I'd only ordered the day before. Got to give credit where it's due.

I'm always getting excellent service here from Cotton Traders - it beats everyone else....I know postage is about £6.50 but if you order a quantity of stuff it's well worth it.

Yesterday morning at about 11am I ordered an item of clothing from Cotton Traders and paid for by paypal. To my great surprise a few moments ago there was a courier at the door to deliver said item - some 26 hours after ordering. No phone calls requesting directions - just a tap on the door. Out of interest I looked up tracking details - 14 Delivered - Signed for by 12:58 1 Pieces 13 With delivery courier TOULOUSE - FRANCE 11:03 1 Pieces 12 Arrived at Delivery Facility in TOULOUSE - FRANCE TOULOUSE - FRANCE 10:45 1 Pieces 11 Departed Facility in TOULOUSE - FRANCE TOULOUSE - FRANCE 09:41 1 Pieces 10 Processed at TOULOUSE - FRANCE TOULOUSE - FRANCE 08:44 1 Pieces 9 Arrived at Sort Facility TOULOUSE - FRANCE TOULOUSE - FRANCE 07:50 1 Pieces 8 Departed Facility in LYON - FRANCE LYON - FRANCE 06:47 1 Pieces 7 Transferred through LYON - FRANCE LYON - FRANCE 06:45 1 Pieces 6 Departed Facility in LEIPZIG - GERMANY LEIPZIG - GERMANY 03:58 1 Pieces 5 Transferred through LEIPZIG - GERMANY LEIPZIG - GERMANY 03:56 1 Pieces Monday, August 03, 2015 Location Time Pieces 4 Departed Facility in EAST MIDLANDS - UK EAST MIDLANDS - UK 23:54 1 Pieces 3 Processed at EAST MIDLANDS - UK EAST MIDLANDS - UK 21:14 1 Pieces 2 Arrived at Sort Facility EAST MIDLANDS - UK EAST MIDLANDS - UK 19:46 1 Pieces 1 Shipment picked up EAST MIDLANDS - UK 16:21 1 Pieces Hide Details

Most delivery companies will deliver your stuff to a "relais". That involves a local business (in your nearest town). You can then collect it from there at your convenience. We have a house name and a village name but no road name. We actually live about 5kms from the village. Inevitably we have a phone call on the day of delivery asking for directions. Sometimes we then arrange to drive to the village to collect the stuff. Other delivery companies use GPS and find us OK. Your mairie will know if there's a relais point close to you.

I quite agree with Parsnips. The main thing is that you declare all bank accounts at the time of your annual tax return.

Not always. They may have indicated that the purchase required a mortgage which they ultimately couldn't get. There may have been other clauses in the compromis.

When I swopped my UK licence for the french one about 8 years ago my UK was in my married name and, consequently, my french was put in my married name without any queries....

Having given this some thought, there must be computer software able to deal with this. When we go to our pharmacy we just give our carte vitale and pay nothing. Every January the pharmacy copies our mutuelle renewal and that's it for the year. No problem....Maybe that's the way that some Doctors do it. Nevertheless, that way, they still have to wait for payment.

We always pay the Doc 23 euros for a consultation. We present our CV, which he puts in the computer and brings up our records. I understood that this is how it generally works in France. The Government want to change it to the system which you seem to have, but of course the CV itself will not give the Doctor the 23 euros.

A couple of years ago, after an operation, I had to have the nurse in daily for an injection. The bill at the end of the month was about 400 euros. Without my asking, what the nurses said to me was to post-date the cheque for 2 weeks and they would not present it until that time to allow reimbursement from CPAM/mutuelle. I thought that was really a kind thing to do.

I found this website which is obviously in French. It maybe a bit helpful. I haven't attempted translation myself. http://www.fibromyalgie-france.org/fibromyalgie.html Keep your chin up....

Got to agree with Mac. We've found Britline very helpful.. Procedures in French Banks in general are very bureaucratic and slow and there's little that can be done about that. However, whenever I've needed something doing a quick e-mail to Britline usually has a reply by the following working day. If things are complicated there may also be a phone call from them. On the other hand we have an account with a local CA which has a sum of money in it to enable easy access to larger sums if necessary. Dealings with this branch are slow and cumbersome but as we rarely use the account there's no problem.

Our house was hit by lightning about 2 years ago and it's certainly an expensive game....Fortunately we had the proper protection for our desktop computers. However we didn't for our TV or for our Gas Central heating boiler, both of which suffered from electronic faults. Eventually, the insurance did pay up but it took a while. Don't forget your central heating boilers though because the cost of repair of that was about 800 euros.

The only thing I would say is that sterling is stronger against the euro than it has been for at least 7 or 8 years. Of course, as everyone says, anything could happen after tomorrow's referendum. My policy of this is that there's a danger of being too greedy and waiting too long.... Good luck

This personal argument is getting silly. All I did was raise awareness of the article to allow people to consider the consequences. It is now turning into a childish spat!

"Flee" is a bit strong, but I could say we did flee the UK traffic jams, bad weather, loutish behaviour, cheek by jowl housing and crowds in general. There is a serious side to the story though.

Here's an article worth a read. It describes the position of many of us on the forum http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/eureferendum/11698875/Emigration-Why-British-expats-have-nothing-to-fear-from-Brexit.html

If its any help I have found the exact same question on another forum and have pasted the reply below. " It's saying that you are marked in their books as a creditor which means that you have a debt to pay. In other words you owe them money for town planning and looking after things like roads etc. Sometimes the sum owed is split into 2 payments (échéancier des versements a effectuer) and you are given a date by which things must be paid. It is unlikely that they will send out any reminders, it will be up to you to pay on time" Hope this helps in the bsence of other replies

We live in 47. The soil is pretty tough, but I'm not very strong. For shrubs we have loads of oleanders which seem to grow well. Hibiscus also. In the spring we have daffodils and tulips galore with polyanthus. Cornflowers, sweet peas, sweet william, hollyhocks are all grown here. Occasionally when we get a bad winter perrenials don't last, but more often than not even seeded annuals reappear! Our geraniums are looked after during the winter and stay alive until the following year. No worries in Lot et Garonne

While winters are shorter than UK, in the depth of winter temparatures in much of France can be below those in the UK. For instance we can get very cold in Lot et Garonne (fruit growing area) but it gets even colder in the Lot Valley (Cahors way). Hotter in summer and colder in winter basically.