JMB

I'll put some money in, but I haven't got a French cheque book.  I can, however, send money via PayPal.  Any thoughts anyone?

Very bad parking!

Ernie ... lol

My English father is 90 and lives in Australia.  I shall ask him if he has receveived the same letter.

I'd gladly change to a french one, but it's not much use to me in Cape Town :-)

And as I found out to my annoyance on my last trip to the Blighty, you have to be resident in the UK to renew your license.

I spend almost all my "working" day learning to trade forex online.  I'm one year into it and I'm expecting a lot more work and time at the mill before I trade consistently.  In other words, I've got a lot more to learn.  But one thing I know for sure is that newbies like me should not trade when news is realeased, because the markets can become very volatile.  There are often several news releases a day that can have significant impact.  When When the Governnor of the BoE last made an announcement there was a big reaction to his comments, but this is nothing unusual.  Another thing to bear in mind is that we could be approacing the bottom; ie, it can't get much worse.   I think it will get worse, but not a lot worse. 

Thanks Les

I have just had an interesting and informative exchange of PM's with Lucinda about Nou Nou's.  Does anyone have any experience of them? I am a widower with an eight year old boy and a five year old girl.  I think a Nou Nou could be brilliant for us when we move to France.

If you let conifers dry for a few years they do, in my opinion, make good firewood for smoking meat and fish, bbq'ing and generally sitting around an open fire at night (outside - in which case you don't even need to cut it, just keep feeding the ends of long lengths of wood into the fire).  The longer you leave them the less they spit when burnt.  It can also be excellent for bonfires - should you feel nostalgic for the Guy. They also make good stumps for cutting other firewood on as well as outdoor seats (although you have to watch the sap doesn't stain your clothing). And of course dry pine cones are excellent for lighting fires as an alternative to kindling.  As does the bark from conifers (when dry). If you just stack the wood and  leave it to rot over many years, it provides an excellent habitat for all sorts of insects and small animals. I have also found that children make use of stacks of any sort of wood for cubby holes and secret  hiding places.

In David Hampshire's book Living and Working in France, he says that Taxe professionelle  is 9% of your annual income including VAT.  That can't be right. It would make most businesses unviable.

Derek, Fstops - doh, now you mention it .  I would have had some very poor results bracketing my F stops! Didn't Ansell Adams spend hours in his dark room mucking about with the light and dark areas of his photos?  I seem to recall something about him using a system of 9 squares.

Wow they look amazing.  HDR can produce remarkable results.  What was the range of your F stops?  Did you take a series of photos, or have you extracted the range from single photos? I've never tried HDR, but I'd like to give it a go. www.johnbradleyphotography.com

My accountant's partner is a UK tax specialist and I put to her the question, why shouldn't I take out an interest only mortgage on my house in the UK, then rent out the house and service the interest tax free, while not paying anything on a French house which I buy with the proceeds of the UK mortgage.  In other words a tax free mortgage.  Thought it sounded  too good to be true.  Apparently this loophole has been closed and Mr Brown's henchmen have come up with some caveat designed stop people doing this.   So my suggestion is get advice from a tax advisor who knows her stuff, otherwise you could find yourself deep in the doo doo.

also http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1422728/ShowPost.aspx

One can't deny that France has some top level academics, but looking at Nobel Prize recipients by country, France is ranked fourth: France: 57 and that number includes Albert Camus who is also on the Algerian list of recipients. Germany: 101 UK: 114 USA: 308 In rigorous areas like physiology and medicine, France has done very badly with only (I think) five recipients.  Maybe they can't be bothered or are too high-brow to accept nomination :-). 

But the Ivy League universities and Oxbridge do the same thing, so how is it different?  I also don't understand why France does so very badly in the Nobel Prize stakes.  Is it a languge thing?

My understanding is that in this context there two main things that define whether you are liable to pay full tax and cotisations in France and they are firstly the 183 day rule which I think doesn't apply to you and secondly the country where you have your primary residence - which looks to me like it is France.  If I were you I would get some advice  from a tax professional or you could find yourself up to your neck in the doo doo.

Sounds as though you've not been having the best of times ... :-)

Surely you mean little Napoleans ... :-)

UK NI is about 13% if I am not wrong.  Employer and employee equivalent in France is about four times that much.

Swings and roundabouts

Andy Thanks for pointing that out.  I meant to say the ratio with probably become 2 dollars to 1 euro ... I have edited the text accordingly in the original post. Your point about the euro taking over from the dollar as the International Benchmark Currency is  another issue, but a very important one all the same.  I think some of the Arab countries pegged their currencies to the dollar and then went through a dificult period of inflation - especially food prices  - when the dollar dropped in value a few months ago. 

Last week my nanny (well not my nanny, my children's nanny) used a stocking to repalce her broken fan belt.  I didn't know my nanny wore stockings.  You learn something new every day.

Following on from a post that looks like it was deleted (people started getting a bit jolly batey with each other), I propose to start another string about what is happening with the pound and the euro. Today the pound is taking another kicking.  It has been falling through the floor against the US dollar, but then the good news for Brits with GBP incomes living in France is that the euro is also taking a kicking.  The reason I mention the dollar is that in forex it is the most important currency - America sneezes the world catches a cold etc etc. The pound has fallen enormously against the dollar recently and it probably still has some way to go before it bottoms out and stabilises or goes the other way. One banker working for Barclays said last week that the  pound will probably fall by 20 percent against the dollar.   Well, given todays fall and other recent dramatic drops this looks entirely feasible.  The pound has been viewed as overvalued for some time - in other words for it to reach its real value, the buying power of the pound must come down relative to other currencies and this is what we are seeing now. What will happen in the longer term? There are all sorts of conspiracy theories floating around about  how the present UK government is trying to undermine the pound to bring it into parity with the euro so that the people will be more amenable to joining the euro - ie come on folks let's join the euro and be done with the sinking pound.  I don't think it works quite this way. In forex trading circles there are stories about big players trying to undermine the pound in order to put Britain in its place - remember he pound is still the world's strongest currency.  i don't think it works this way either. In my humble view, the pound and Britain have seen their day.  The new boys on the block will marginalise the pound even more.  The new boys being the euro, the Chinese yuan and the Indian rupee.  The Euro is expected to creep up in value in the coming years and will probably achieve 2:1 ratio with the dollar (2 dollars = 1 euro) in the next decade or two.  The biggest contenders on the horizon are China and India.  As these two great countries grow and flex their enormous financial muscles, then everything we know will change.  By then many people reading this forum will have died of old age or overconsumption of fine food and wine.  Regardless of what actually happens to the dollar, the yuan and the ruppee, the pound is unlikely to regain strength against the other big currencies.  This is a serious issue for many of us.  And if you think I'm sitting here writing this post with a smug look on my face, then let me assure you I'm not as I have just sold my house in the UK and have much less buying-power in the eurozone than I had a few months ago. Chin up.