breizh

Sorry, just realised I'd hijacked the thread.

SNCF would also give free travel to your parents and your wife's family also, is it the same in the UK? and you and they also get to use the SNCF social facilities such as the les colonies de vacance. It may be an urban myth, but apparently SNCF passenger revenue is not sufficient to cover even the former employee pensions, and the subsidy paid annually is more than the Secondary and Tertiary education budgets put together.   If you what to hear someone have a real good rant I'll get the MIL, I've never come across anyone with such a low opinion of the French and their freeloading as her. One problem though this is an English forum and she doesn't understand a word of English. That said, she's quite happy to spend 2 weeks at a health spa paid for by CMU!!!  

Thanks for putting me straight Cooperla. Didn't know that.

I am glad the Government are looking at RMI and benefits in kind. But I will hazard to guess they won't look too closely at SNCF employees with their free rail travel, and also for their families, including both sets of parents. Or what about EdF. Ever noticed the 1% surcharge on your bill for the employees social fund to pay for their holidays, not only do EdF employees not pay this, they also get their electricity for free. Cheap loans/mortgages if you work for CL. Should not this be considered as income? My french family think it's brilliant that Britain sorted out these issues years ago, but don't beleive Sarkozy will ever be able to rein in the freeloading here. Regarding overseas income. Within the EU you can choose to pay tax either in the country where the income is earned, or the country of residency. For example if you receive revenue from a rental property in the UK, but are resident in France you can pay the tax on that in the UK if you wish. My wife has a number of properties rented out to locals in Bretagne. When we were resident in the UK, we elected to pay tax in France on that revenue, as we would pay no tax as we were below the minimum. Similarly when we were resident in Barcelona we elected to pay tax on rental revenue in the UK in the UK, as it would be minimal, and still paying no tax in France on French property, and tax in Spain on earnings there. It gets very complicated, but if you try hard it is possible to have a good income but pay virtually no tax, and all absolutely legal. Now we are resident in France and have no overseas income we decided to transfer ownership to the French properties to my wife's french nephews and neices. Mainly on the advice of her mum (who is Maire) in order to avoid CGT. In conclusion, the French should look under their own beds for benefit and tax cheats before they look elsewhere. You see a few Brits, I see 60 million Frenchmen making it an artform.

Weird. We used to do Barcelona to my wife's family in Brittany every August for 5 years. Never went that way! BCN-Girona-Perpignon-Toulouse-Bordeaux, and up the Atlantic coast, for you it would be Toulouse-Brive-Limoges. Even more so at this time of year as roads in Alta Catalunya (up towards Andorra and the Pyrennes), and even the E15 can be shut for days by snow. Quick word of caution, if you've not been recently, be very, very careful out of the touristy bits in central Barcelona, there is an army of migrants with no jobs, no homes, no social secutity, but they do have knives.  

Thanks Deimos What you say matches my experience to date. There seems to be a good percentage of french people who look at e-mail as some sort of witchcraft, and won't touch it. Very frustrating. What you said about French sailing clubs also reinforces what I have discovered so far, which is disappointing. Sorry, but not really interested in "Billy no mates" boats, and at 190cm and 88kg I'm too big for serious Laser sailing. However I have spoken to a contact who sails 5o5's in Germany, and weather permitting, should be looking at a couple of newish ones there this weekend with the aim of buying . The Worlds are in Sardinia late this year, so it fits in quite nicely. Just need to get an FRA on the sail, an equipier, and then start trying to remembering how to make the thing go fast. Looks like I'll be clocking up a few kilometres, calling in a few favours from sailmakers and a crash course in french sailing vocab.  

I getting really bored. I need an interest to fill time. Quick background. My wife is french and after living in the UK, and then Barcelona, cashed in our properties and retired (very) early to Creuse. My wife's OK, she's got lots of teaching work via the Maire when she wants it as she's a qualified teacher of English, Spanish and French in both France and the UK, however I've got 10 acres of land to play with, but am totally bored. My father in law in heavily involved in la chasse, but it's not for me I'm afraid. There is only so much wild boar or venison you can eat. Fishing I do enjoy and there's masses of water aroung here. But what I really want is to get sailing again, competetively. Back in the UK I won a good number of National and World Championships, but never went the Olympic route. Nearby I have Lac Vasseviere, so I have the water and I have tried to get in touch with the various French sailing Associations I know via e-mail, but as per usual no one replies. My question: is there anyone out there who know anything about dinghy/yacht racing in France who can point me in the direction of competetive classes and their associations? 

My wife is Breton. A quick survey of her 11 nephews and neices here no longer in education shows only 1 incorporated, the rest are on contracts, training courses, or (mainly) unemployed. The 1 who is incorporated works behind the counter in CL, the sort of job it is impossible to fill in the UK. The family is wealthy, well educated, motivated and my belle mere was Maire of a big town in Brittany. They have all the advantages it is possible for a french kid to have, money, contacts, influence, you name it. Any English kid who gets an incorporated position here has acheived something quite remarkable. Getting a real job in France for a school/university leaver is almost impossible.    PS my wife has 10 sisters, so there are lots more job seekers in the pipeline!!

I have put my tin hat on, and I'm about to duck, as I'm about to give you my 2 cents worth. We have no children, but my french wife was 5 years a CAPES language teacher teacher in a big town in Brittany, moved to the UK, qualified there, and taught languages in UK comprehensives for 10 years. She reckons, that the French education system is generally lower quality than the UK, and the unversities are considerably lower than the Uk, apart from les grand ecoles. Now, having said that, after 3 years living in Barcelona we are back living in France, as we go where my job takes me, and she's teaching here again! So it's Gueret (23) at the moment, but to head office in Germany after that. Certainly having lived in other countries and then moved back to the UK, I find it amazing how lowly the Brits regard everything in their own country. France, Spain, Germany, the media mainly tell only good things. Why do the British hate their country so much? By the way Dominique started at Brest Uni, but transferred to Rennes as she just hated Brest, miserable apparently in the winter! If anyone knows L'Express, Bd Clemenceau, Guingamp (22), say hello to ma belle mere.