Goodlife

Trying to bring my 1997 Honda Blackbird into France and hit a snag with the Certificate of Conformity.  It was originally a German bike, imported new into the UK as a personal import back in the grey-import heyday when UK bike prices were sky high above the rest of Europe.  I bought it years ago from the chap that originally imported it. I thought I'd try calling Honda Europe (based in UK) for the CoC but they said call Honda Germany.  Honda Germany are saying that no European COC is available due to the age of the bike. However, they could provide a technical data table (60 EUR).  Does anyone know if this will be accepted by French authorities? Thanks

Brilliant.  Many Thanks

Bonjour We have been resident and employed in France for 18 months and pay our taxes.  For various reasons we need to fill in a form called "Declaration De Ressources - Anneé 2007" and are looking for advice from the collective knowledge on here.  My previous UK employer never sent payslips since they were posted online on the company intranet, so I have no proof of monthly income and taxes from 2007.  I do have UK income tax returns and P60's, but obviously these run from April to March so cross over a French tax year.  I therefore have no way to determine the exact income and tax paid from Jan 2007 to Dec 2007. Is there an official way to calculate this? Perhaps we should take 3/12ths of the 2006-2007 UK tax return values and add 9/12ths of the 2007-2008 UK tax return values? Also, the form wants amounts in Euros.  Would we calculate using FX rates from 2007 or today's rates? Thanks for any assistance.

[quote user="BIG MAC"]Presumably for French Fiscal residents only?[/quote]Not sure, I heard it's for anyone doing work on a house in France.  Irrelevant for us as we are fiscale en France.

Thanks Clair.  So by the sounds of that, we could take an interest free loan to pay for all the work associated with the roof insulation, new windows, heating/plumbing and even a wood burning heater.  Other things like floors, inner walls, electrical work, bathroom, etc will not be permitted within the interest free loan.  Is this right?

With Sarko funding EUR 30k interest free loans for "green" renovations, where can we find the official list of renovations that fall into this "green" category?  We have a part of our house currently uninhabitable that we were looking to renovate during 2009, so wondered how much we could profit from this new interest free loan.

Brilliant, thanks!

We'd like to install some lights along our drive and I've search this forum for the relevant information without success. What are the regulations for burying electrical cable underground?  It will be a cable run underground of around 25-30 meters in total, with 3 lights popping up along it's length, plus a switch.  It will also be installed onto it's own individual circuit breaker.  For example, does the gaine need to be red?  Does that fact it's going underground mean the gaine and cable need to conform to a specific standard?

We've decided to take the plunge ([:)]) and have a pool installed.  As complete newbies to the world of Piscines it seems the more we read, the more we realise how little we know.  Is there a good website that can give us an idiots guide to what we need to know?  Is there a glossary of terms somewhere (e.g. what on earth is an abri - apart from being a shed). We'd like an in gound pool around 10m x 4m.  Key criteria for us is long life, minimal maintenance and low ongoing costs.  We'd rather spend more up front to ensure it's done right first time than continually be spending money on maintenance, heating, leaks, etc.  We visited a local pool shop yesterday and came away with some shiny brochures, but they are all kits including filters, etc - then having read on here that French kits lack the necessary filtering power, it doesn't give confidence that they would be any good. Finally, can anyone recommend a good installer who uses high quality products in the Le Mans/Alencon area?  

Thanks Sam.  Excellent to know.  Hi Deborah!  Leg getting much better now thanks [:)]

I need to catch a flight to Malaga in Spain in a couple of weeks and will be near Le Mans at the start of the trip.  I'm guessing that getting on a TGV at Le Mans gare heading towards Paris is a good place to start the journey [:)].  CDG and ORY airports are both OK for flights to Malaga, so would appreciate anyones thoughts on which airport is easiest to get to from a Train/Metro perspective coming into Montparnasse?   Or is there an altogether better alternative way to Spain?

Our car passed it's CT today.  We were discussing the 2 years in France vs each year in UK with the Garage owner, who told us that France is moving to annual CT's in 2010.  We'll all be safer after 2010, since as has been said, a lot more can go wrong in 2 years than one year [:)]

Does anyone know what the octane rating of French "Super" petrol is?  Also, is Super still leaded, or unleaded? We're running our 1966 MGB GT over here (no unleaded conversion) so currently use unleaded 98 fuel, plus octane booster + lead additives, but just wondering whether using Super would remove the need for these additives.  The car needs 100 Octane leaded fuel to run correctly.  

[quote user="Ron Avery"]You will find that the insurance for " foreign" cars is dear as the parts are expensive for repairs, even BMW and Mercedes are more expensive than a comparable French car.  What sort of discount are you getting for NCB?  If you get 50% that is a good price for a gas guzzler.  I hope its diesel because with the price of petrol going up and up it ain't going to do your bank balance much good using that here.[/quote]The €1800 is including a 50% discount.  It's simply staggering the insurance prices over here.  I'm surprised there isn't a stike somewhere to complain about it [;-)].  Might need to re-think the choice of vehicle, but the problem is that modern French cars have a habit of falling to bits after a few years...

[quote user="Sunday Driver"] Try [url=http://www.assurland.com/]www.assurland.com[/url] for insurance comparisons.   [/quote]Thanks SD.  We did!  That's what gave us €1800 as the cheapest quote. 

We've been looking at various car insurance quotes and cannot quite believe how expensive they are.  To insure our 1999 Toyota Landcruiser in the UK cost around £400 p.a. whereas the cheapest quote we can find for a very similar car (also a 1999 Toyota Landcruiser) in France is €1800 p.a.  With prices in this range we MUST be looking in the wrong places (we hope!), so can anyone recomend a insurance company they have found to be competitively priced, or perhaps an online car insurance comparison website?

[quote user="Val_2"]I was in this position for a year some twelv e years ago now and it was definately an E109 you  require but it does have a limited lifespan. The E106 seems only for those who come completely to France and do not continue to pay their NI etc in the UK or are working there.[/quote]Thanks very much for the info.  We'll look into the E109.

A quick update having just phoned the EHIC enquiries line.  They said the moment my wife becomes a resident of France her UK EHIC expires and she'll need to apply to the French authorities for any Medical coverage.  As she's not going to be paying tax or NI-equiv in France, will she be granted any Medical cover or allowed to use the French Medical system?  Would the children (all under 10) be covered?  What would we need to register for?

My wife and 3 kids will be moving to France soon while I stay and work in the UK for 12 more months (lots of weekend commuting!).  I'm moving out in 2008 to work within the French subsid of my current employer. My wife has never worked, so has no Tax or NI contributions to her name in the last 3 years which I believe means she is not eligible to an E106, but since I'm working (and paying tax & NI) in the UK might they be eligible to continue to use their EHIC?  Would an EHIC be sufficient for them to use the French Medical system to it's full extent? Or is there something else entirely we need to apply for? Thanks for any advice.

[quote user="cooperlola"]The muscle waste is unbelievable, isn't it?  I couldn't quite get to grips with how thin by bad leg looked compared to the other one when they took the plaster off mine.  It'll come but, my, it's frustrating.  Still, you have something to spur you on...[/quote]I was put into a new type of plastercast on Friday.  It was put on by wrapping a special wet bandage that sets as hard plastic.  It's almost as hard as plaster yet incredibly light, so getting about is so much easier.  After putting it on and letting it set, it was then immediately cut off again and velcro straps were attached to it, so it's now a removable cast.  Although I'm not allowed to take it off for at least two more weeks (4 weeks into recovery) they have said I can remove it to begin basic physio in the bath, moving the foot around and using the muscles to prevent muscle waste.  I'm told that moderm thinking is that with long term plastercasts, because muscle waste becomes almost as much as a problem as the broken bones, this new method of giving lightweight removable casts is taking off massively.    

[quote user="f1steveuk"]Injuries caused by a car, a horse, and a dog, must mean motorbikes are safe!!![;-)][/quote]Let's add Bicycles to the list of dangers.  Must remember that I'm older, fatter and although the brain thinks it's OK, the body's not quite up to the job!  Trying to wheelie my sons mountain bike a couple of weeks ago I fell off, broke the fibula and snapped all the ligaments holding the foot in place (the foot basically twisted around at the end of the leg).  Needed an operation to pin the bones back together and hold the foot in place, so now in plaster for 8 weeks non-weight bearing.  Silly indeed.  Especially as I infamous for doing dangerous motorsports!  Have a couple of Motobikes (Blackbird for the road and ex-British Supersport factory bike for trackdays) and do lots of car/bike trackdays!  Even missed going to the Le Mans MotoGP this weekend, and won't be riding/driving anything exotic to the 24H this year.

Hi Clair The link was great as the DO deliver to my house.  Briliant info, thanks very much :-)

Does anyone know which, if any, of the major supermarket chains offer online grocery shopping with home delivery?  I've managed to break a leg and would appreciate a home delivery service for a while if possible! Thanks  

Many thanks for the very useful assistance.  We'll get the new lights and send off for the CoC.  Our nearest Hotel des Impots is in Alencon (dept 61), but we are 15 mins over the border into dept 72.  Can we use the Alencon one, or do we need to go to the Le Mans office?  Thanks again.

Slighty off topic, but we have a 1966 MGB that we keep in dept 72.  It's due an MOT soon, but at the same time we're thinking of keeping it in France for good so are looking to probably re-register it in France.this Summer.  Does anyone know if classic cars need altering (lights, etc) to conform to French standards?  Thanks for any help.