Ron-sur-Marne

The problem of getting them in France is getting your eyes tested by the opthalmologist. There is 6 months to one year's waiting list, depending on the region. Once you have had your eye-test, you get a prescription to take to the optician, where there is a small selection of frames that are 100% reimbursed by the Assurance Maladie, along with the lenses. There is of course a shop-full of more expensive frames and also "extras" for the lenses (coatings, tints,...) which are only partially re-imbursed or not at all. We normally go to Specsavers who either mail our new specs to us, or give us the prescription to take to our local optician in France. However this was not possible due to Covid, so in early September 2020 we tried to make an appointment with an Opthalmo. Most of them had recorded messages saying that they were not making appointments until 2021, but finally we found an Opthalmic centre near Reims who was able to see us in February (last week, in fact). So back to our friendly local optician armed with our 60 Euro prescriptions and we get our new specs in a few days.

On E-Bay UK there are three for sale at between £1000 & £1500 asking price, with no bids on any of them. On Leboncoin in France there are a few asking between 500 & 1500 euros, plus a nice condition GTI cabriolet with only 24000km asking 2800 euros. Although yours is RHD, I don't think this makes much difference in value for this type of car. I reckon yours might sell for 500 to 1000 euros or £, depending on its condition. Try putting it on Leboncoin (its free to advertise) and see what happens. Beware scammers, accept only cash. Bon chance !

Anglicisation is the word you're looking for, I think. Happy New Year from the Marne.

Leboncoin (and E-bay) do not accept adverts for weapons... maybe try your local Tabac small ads, or contact your local club de chasse.

"Roue Galette" is the common term for a temporary spare wheel & tyre assembly.

Flat spotting of tyres is very rare these days. The flat spot is caused by a hot tyre with nylon cords cooling when parked over time, thus causing the nylon to "set" in the shape it was left ie: flat at the bottom.... Like ironing a pleat into a piece of nylon cloth. Warm the tyre up again by driving and the flat spot goes. Modern radial tyres do not have nylon cords in the tread area, and all but the very cheapest have rayon or poly-amide casings cords, which don't take a set. So forget all about jacking the car up - this advice dates from the time of nylon casing cross-ply tyres. (Some older classic cars may still have these tyres, in which case feel free to leave it on stands). As for petrol "going off", this may be technically correct, but it is still volatile enough to start a car/chainsaw/generator,etc. after long storage in my experience. Cheers Ron

The taxes are a killer - 10% import duty on the value of the (as decided by the french customs) plus the costs of transport,etc. then 19.6% TVA on the total. That's 31.5% on a figure that you don't know in advance. After that you have to have an individual vehicle acceptance, which would cost around 1000 euros, and has to be done near Paris. Your car would have to be transported there, as you wouldn't legally be able to use it on the road until formalities are completed. PLUS there is the cost of any required modifications, Professional traders have given up importing through Le Havre and now do it via Holland, and get the car registered there... then import it from Europe, with lesser formalities (like importing a UK registered car). See http://www.douane.gouv.fr/page.asp?id=30 for more info. You might get away with some/all of the taxes if you have owned the vehicle personally for more than 6 months/1 year and it is listed with your personal belongings for the customs when you move from USA to live in France. Unless the car is very special to you, I wouldn't bother !! Good Luck

Re the "new law"... I first moved to France in 1982, and the sweep-your-chimney-every-year rule was already in force then, so I would discount it as a new advantage for your business venture. You can buy a ramonage (sweeping) log, which you burn on a low fire and it chemically cleans the chimney. I don't know how effective they are, but a lot of crusty cr*p falls down the chimney afterwards. The box contains a certificate which you date and sign and keep on file yourself. I have no idea whether this is acceptable to insurance companies, but it was accepted by our rental agents when we rented houses for 6 years.

ECE regulations for lighting have been modified, so that current cars have a "flat top" beam, with no difference between left and right drive vehicles. The date at which different vehicle manufacturers applied this varies, but I do know that my 2007 (07 reg) Vectra has flat top beams. If you have half a day to spare, Google UNECE regulation 112.... I think the date of proposal of modification was 2004, but I can't find the date of application - which would vary from country anyway. I don't suppose that the UK ferry/port scammers who like to sell you "deflectors" will not like to make this information too well known.

There's no problem in selling a vehicle for spares. Make it clear in your ad that it has no french registration documents and is for spares. If it is a runner, you can say so (eg: "vehicle roulant mais sans carte grise francaise, Pour pieces"). I sold a Laguna on German plates with a wrecked engine via leboncoin.fr.. The cost of repairing it myself would have exceeded the value of the car - but I got 1000 euros for it! I had 8 replies to my ad. Leboncoin has a category for spares and cars for breaking "equipement auto". You can download a "DÉCLARATION DE CESSION D’UN VÉHICULE" from http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/R20300.xhtml to use a bill of sale. Fill in only the bits that apply and write on it somewhere "vendu pour pieces". One copy is for you, one for the buyer and one for the prefecture, which you can bin as its not French registered. It might be wise to declare it exported to the DVLA (fill in the appropriate bit of the V5). You could give the V5 to the buyer, in case he wants to go through the process of registering it. Good Luck Ron

Try http://www.francecasse.fr/pieces-auto.htm or www.pieceseco.com/ I haven't had much luck with them myself, but its worth a try. Good Luck

Whatever the official rules say (awaiting a post from someone better qualified than me), you don't really need to do anything unless the Gendarmes actually ask you to. I doubt that they'd be bothered for one point. Good Luck

Many modern cars have a "flat top" beam pattern so they are the same for Europe and UK. My Vauxhall Vectra (2007) was less than 4 yrs old, so no Control Technique was needed. A Quittance Fiscale (free) from the tax office and a Certificate of Conformity from GM (£85) plus the V5 was all I needed to register it. It passed its CT on UK headlights one year later, as they conformed to the french beam pattern.

Its not impossible, but you will have to take the car to Paris for comprehensive tests, unless it is over 30 years old and can be registered as a "Vehicle de Collection". If you can read french, the American Car Club de France website has a lot of info, and a member has described in great detail the costs and steps to register his Buick - I think it was around 1500 Euros in all. What is the year & model of car?

Just seen the previous post... The Gicleur looks like a small fat bolt with a very fine cylindrical gauze filter at one end.... if yours looks like a piece of stone, it needed changing! Scrape your "stone" to see if its really a thin brass-looking mesh.

The Gicleur is the jet that sprays the pressurised fuel into the combustion chamber and controls the shape and form of the flame. (Think of the fuel injector on a diesel engine if that helps... or the jet/nozzle on an old fashioned blowlamp that you used a pricker to clean out ). It is fairly normal to routinely change it at each year's service - theoretically it could be checked on a test bench - but that would probably cost more than just fitting a a new one. The numbers are the size of the jet... Hope this helps,

Unless you are going for authenticity, it is quite easy to convert the tractor to 12 volt - then the choice of batteries becomes vast; the price for the conversion plus the battery is probably less than a specialist 6 volt battery on its own.

I agree with allanb... some years ago I worked in Japan, and my boss asked me to do my coming year's business plan based on what the exchange rate was going to be in 9 month's time. My reply was that if I knew that, I would be a millionaire, and not working for him!

We had a lot of moss on a north facing roof - it holds water like a sponge and the frost then destroys the tiles - there were holes right through the tiles in places! You need to mechanically remove it to asses the problem. (A trowel and scraper is sufficient). The anti-moss liquid works for a few years, but is a preventative, rather than a cure that will get rid of lots of existing moss in my view. On the worst part we had to have new roof tiles (and insulated the roof properly at the same time) which cost a fortune, but on other rooves I only needed to replace the affected tiles. Good luck, and work safely on roofs!!

Its a Saurer truck, a Swiss maker who had a manufacturing subsidiary in France. They were powerful, good quality trucks and buses, popular in hilly regions - where their ability to climb hills AND stop when going downhill made them worth their higher than average cost. Like most trucks from mountainous regions until the 60's they were right-hand drive, so that the driver could get close to the edge safely. Most Swiss, Italian & Austrian trucks were rhd in the old days. In Clermont-Ferrand, for example, the buses were bonneted french-built Saurers with rhd up to the 1950's. Regarding rhd cars - the expensive continental chauffeur-driven cars were often rhd, so that the driver could leap out and open the kerbside rear door for his passenger. Apart from Bugattis, makes such as Delage Delahaye, Hispano-Suiza and even big Renaults were rhd. By this logic, Rollses and Bentleys should have been lhd in UK, but they weren't... perhaps the footman or hotel doorman was supposed to open the car door? As an aside, as an an occasional HGV driver I can confirm that its a lot easier to drive a truck on narrow roads with the steering wheel on the kerb side.

They are all at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. You see hundreds of them plane-spotting when landing or taking-off, and also when taxiing to/from the runway.. I believe they are a problem for Aeroports de Paris, but I don't know the details. One thing is sure, there's no-one with a gun there (except the security services)!

Today, I've just registered my 2 year old Vauxhall Vectra in Marne Dept. - it was a 100% paperwork excercise, nobody mentioned headlights or anything else. They did relieve me of 294 euros, however! Cheers Ron

An expat colleague working & resident in Clermont Ferrand for several years never bothered to register his car in France. He was pulled by the gendarmes for a minor motoring offence, and they threw the book at him - no registration, no Control Technique, and no valid insurance. They also confiscated the car until all the fines were paid. Many other expats did not french register their cars, but kept them UK legal (myself included) - MoT, Road Tax, valid UK insurance (with long-term green card) - and never had problems. It seems the gendarmes were satisfied if the car was legal somewhere, plus had insurance valid in France.

I was an engineer with Michelin for 42 years, and I can confirm the previous posts:   car tyres can only be repaired in the tread area, and then to very strict limits. Don't even think about trying to patch it... there is too much flexion in the sidewall zone for any patch to last very long.  (Note that agricultural and earthmover tyres can have sidewall repairs, but the speeds are much slower... 50 km/h  max!). Cheers Ron

I can recommend S. Collins &Co.   I was insured with Stuart Collins for over 18 months when I worked here in France and had a UK registered & MoT'd & taxed car.  The car was written off in an accident here, and the insurance company paid out with no problem, and even sent a transporter from UK to my rented house to fetch the wreck after S. Collins  had sent me the settlement cheque (so no question about they didn't know where I lived).   Note that the insurance company did want the V5 and the MoT certificate, so cheapskates who don't bother to tax & MoT their UK registered cars here in France may find they won't get paid out if they claim... but that's no different to UK. This insurance is not the cheapest, but it does what it says on the label, as they say. Good Luck