JanTy

We used to live 4 doors from a very busy commuter road & next door to a neighbour who hated us & all about us so the cats which are Tonkinese pedigrees & came from stock which had never been out were kept in. for their own safety. Since we are at present travelling fairly regularly with them between our house in France & a small second floor apartment in UK coupled with the fact that both cats are 9 years old now means that letting them out would be unfair. Also there is a fox living under the disused chicken shed at the end of the garden & I don't think they'd stand a chance against that. Teaching them to use tha loo was the best thing we ever did & it's certainly a useful skill if any cat has to be kept in for any reason or has to live in someone else's house for any reason - at leaqst you don't have to ask them to put up with the smell & delights of cleaning a litter tray.

Thanks for all the replies. We have actually been splitting our time between UK & France on an 'un mois sur deux' basis since mid June & since the beginning of December we have spent more time in France than the UK. We pay our EDF, FT & water bills by direct debit but have not yet re-registered our car. Our house is a newbuild so we haven't had any tax bills yet. It may seem a ridiculous situation but as I have an 86 year old mother in the UK & am an only child the problems should be obvious. We are doing our best to sort out a way of being completely full time & think we will have it sorted by September but that doesn't help our problem. Thanks anyway.

OK, just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons why not invest in a LitterKwitter & teach them to use the loo, then all you have to do is flush. Ours do but you do have to keep the loo scrupuklously clean & check it regularly for 'deposits'. No 'nasturtiums' being cast on your hygiene by the way! Teaching our 2 cats to use the loo has saved us about £20 per month in litter costs. Yes I am serious.

Thanks for that Sunday Driver. Looks like we may have to tot up how long we've spent there since the house was finished & see how it looks. However the 'Post-It' note which they sent attached to the info sheet stated that the house had to be a maison primaire which it is due to the criterion of most of our assets being in France which, as I read it makes the number of days spent there irrelevant. It's a bit complicated as we didn't get 'Reception du Chantier' until halfway through June 2007. Perhaps an email to our Centre d'Impôts might clarify things - assuming they answer. Failing that, a visit when we get back to France. Thanks again.

We're in the UK until mid May & lengthy conversations over the phone in French without any facial cues are a bit difficult. I know I could write & ask but, going by the length of time it took them to get an acknowledgment out, I thought it might be quicker to ask if anyone here knew the answer. If not, I'll just have to write.

We spoke to our French vet about this the first time we brought our cats over. She explained the thing quite clearly to us. As long as you remain classified as a visitor you adhere to the rules regarding boosters accepted in your own country. As soon as you become resident in France (for these purposes after 3 months continuous residence) then you adhere to the French rules. This means that, if your animal has passed the 1 year period (French rules) before or during your 'becoming resident' stay you must make sure you get a booster done in France before the end of the 3 month 'becoming resident' period - that is, while you are still within the UK rules period - you should not then need any blood teast or 6 months wait. You then have your animal vaccinated every year & no further blood tests or waits are necessary . I do not think this is made clear in any of the info you receive about Pet Passports but hope it is of some use to people. The motto is, 'if in doubt get a jab'. By the way, the French vaccinate every year because they have found that blood tests on animals tested between 2 & 3 years after the vaccination have little or no immunity left despite the fact that the vaccine is supposed to last 3 years.

We signed for 1.5 hectares of agricultural land in January for 4500€ which was exactly the last 'going rate' published by SAFER (3000€ per hectare) at the time of signing the Compromis.

Our newbuild in Brittany was finished last June complete with Geothermal heating. We sent off the certificate/facture to the Impôts immediately & finally received an acknowledgement in February stating that we could only claim if the house was a primary residence. As we have not spent more than 183 days in France in any one year we concluded that it was not a primary residence until we move permanently later this year. We have since discovered that, in fact, it is our priomary residence by dint of the fact that the majority of our assets arre now in France & we can, therefore claim residency as from June 2007 if we wish. However, for various reasons, we are finding it difficult to decide whether to claim residency from last June which will mean a lot of shifting about of money, tax refunds etc whiich will, no doubt be complicated. Alternativelly we could claim residency from January this year. The problem is that we are unsure of the timescale during which we can claim the tax refund on the Geothermal heating. We have been told only during the first 12 months, that we have 2 years & even that we have several years by people who have installed various types of qualifying heaters. Please can anyone out there clarify the length of time we have to claim the refund (which for Geothermal is substantial) in order to help us decidewhat to do. If we claim residency from June, the refund will be vital in balancing the books here in the UK & in France. Thanks in advance

I've looked at some of these sites & the ones I've seen have various ways of making sure the alignment etc is correct for you, including sending an old pair of specs for reference. Due to problems caused by 2 retinal surgeries I have to wear contact lenses most of the time so that the sight in the 'bad' eye can be balanced properly (can'e do it with specs). However, I hav e to have specs for early morning/evening wear to rest my eyes. The problem I have is that I have to have the thinnest lenses possible in order to accomodate the strength of the 'bad' lens (so that they stay on the bridge of my nose!). At a large chain of UK opticians the prices of thin lenses are reasonable for the step below the thinnest at around £65 but..... for the thinnest it suddenly rises to £350! Ergo my interest in getting through the internet where the lenses are about £69! The problem is that you can't see what they look like on before buying.

I contacted DEFRA about this some time ago. The list of plants you cannot take to France is short :- Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Camellias & Viburnum. These are all possible carriers of Sudden Oak Death & are banned because of this. We have brought over loads of plants without trouble but it is worth remembering that Customs have the right to check your plants for health. It's never happen to us - they tend to look at the plants through the window &make some comment about us ob viously going to our property in France & leave it at that.

Hi. I'm new to this forum tho' I contribute to others. Our experience is that, having bought a Ryobi petrol brushcutter,it was not up to the amount of work required in our garden (ex-horse pasture) in Brittany. We bought it in B&Q & brought it over. We have since learned that, if you want something durable, go to your local garden machinery specialist & explain what you require & what would suit your needs. We now have a Stihl which bears absolutely no comparison with the Ryobi which we have given up on after just 18 months use. There are too many things wrong with it to b other repairing it. The Stihl is efficient & much better balanced. If you need to work for longish periods make sure you get one with 'cow-horn' grips.