Stan Streason

Back home but now the owner of 2 houses. The agent turned up with 2 sacks of logs and some firelighters.  There was also a stack in the barn. Wednesday night was cold despite the fire (the only source of heat in the house since last summer). The settees were cold the beds icy and feeling damp.  By about midnight I wanted to be anywhere but there. By Friday having had the fire lit continuously for 3 days, tidied up, got rid of loads of rubbish, opened all the windows, changed the locks and cut the grass we had lunch in T shirts in the sun in the garden.  Started to feel like ours. It was a shame to close it all up again as it was warming up but wont be back till easter when I suppose we will go through it again, to a lesser extent. Time then to take the pool cover off and see whats underneath. Thanks for everyones good wishes. PS the notaire was great, did the whole thing in English.  45 mins including calling the english solicitor to release the sterling purchase price.

[quote user="Gluestick"] Other than for the auditors to justify their obscene fees! [Www] [/quote] I think we will have to beg to differ on that one. After 20+ years as an audit partner in a major international firm I became so hacked off with the way things were going I left last year and joined a small regional firm.  I now advise proper entreupreneurial businesses again.  It is my capital payments from my previous firm that are going into my first french house purchase which I complete tomorrow.

[quote user="Gluestick"] IAS for me, represented the endeavour for global equities markets to achieve a level playing field, in order that global bourses could compare like-for like. Sheer nonsense as each state jurisdiction had to reflect its corporate and tax laws in accounting standards and auditing practices. And these were wholly disparate. [:@] [/quote] I think you are half correct with this comment.  It is desirable to be able to compare similar companies like for like but IAS wants to be able to compare dissimilar companies..And it does not work.  The results are meaningless.  Yes compare banks in different countries with each other but compare an insurance company with an advertising agency??? Any decent sized public company accounts now run to over 100 pages of prescribed information.  Is any of it read or used?  No.  The recent Porsche/Volkswagon debacle.  All of the necessary info about Porsches intentions were out in the marketplace (not in their accounts).  Did the hedge funds bother to react to it - no and they lost a fortune.  Greed and short termism coupled with reporting no one understands

[quote user="Dave&Olive"] hi ok                how far are you from Bressuire ?   having some delivered thursday  all dry ash  do you want his phone nos ?                  Dave    Just had a quick look on google maps.  We are 109k away, probably a bit far but thanks for the thought.

[quote user="nectarine"]Good luck with your purchase but do arrange a meeting at your new house first, to inspect it prior to going to the notaire. The notaire will read out the clauses to you and then ask you if you accept the house in its current state ... well actually you really need to ensure that all is as agreed with your vendor. Most of the time things are fine but if there's anything not as agreed at this meeting, then you have time to sort it out and if necessary involve the notaire. Good luck, and congratulations.[/quote] Yes its going to be quite a day.  Landing in Limoges from Stansted at 10.30 then driving via the agent to the house, near Chef Boutonne to have the final pre completion viewing.  Then back to the Notaire in Ruffec for 14.30. So 17.00, Mr Bricolage for logs and oil filled radiators [and torch - see below], 18.00 get into house, try to work out where all the switches are to put water and things back on.  Put bed linen in tumble dryer to warm it up. Roughly 19.30 half mile walk into nearest village to introduce myself at the only bar in the area, then later try and find my way back in the dark!!!

Thanks for your replies and your good wishes. I have a log burner in UK and will certainly get a couple installed over the summer.  I buy my seasoned logs from the man who coppices the local estate so will look to do the same in France. My query was to basically cover that first night between leaving the notaire in the late afternoon with a new set of keys and turning up, early evening to a cold musty house. If I can find them on my drive to the house I will also buy a couple of oil filled radiators as I dont think one fire is going to be enough. PS another question please if you have read this far.  How long should a completion meeting take?  There are no difficult clauses in the contract and both myself and the vendor (also english) will be present? All the cash is in place. I have heard that these can drag on for hours but I cant see why it should be long at all.

I am completing my purchase on Wednesday afternoon then going to stay in my new second home. Although I am buying it fully furnished, it has been empty all winter and for heating only has an open fire.  Its likely to be cold and musty.  Opening the shutters for fresh air is not going to make it warmer! My question is can I easily buy bags of logs and kindling from supermarkets/ petrol stations etc as I can in UK?  I will not have much time to look around but need to turn up and light a fire immediately and have no idea what may already be on site but I expect nothing.

I’ve sort of dipped in and out of this thread from time to time and as I see it no signs of abating I wish to add my four penneth (now only worth three farthings).  Sorry it may be a bit long.   It’s all down to a couple of factors in my view some which cannot be changed (greed vanity, selfishness) and some which patently could (poor decision making, poor leadership and poor regulation).   I also blame the accountants (I am one for my sins).  For ages the technical leaders of the profession have had a bee in their bonnet about getting accounts theoretically correct rather than thinking how they are used.  Hence years ago we had several doomed attempts at inflation accounting and more recently we have had the disaster that is called International Accounting Standards (IAS).   I won’t bore you with the details but it starts with the premise that every company’s accounts should be comparable with every other company.  So banks accounts would be forced into a similar framework as a manufacturer etc.  Patently daft because they are 2 totally different businesses which should report in totally different ways.   The disaster waiting to happen has been creeping in for a number of years but IAS brought it in big time.  Marking to market.  In short you can take to profit the difference between the value of an asset at the start and end of a year.  (On which bonuses are paid etc.)  In the old days a profit was the difference between the cost of an item and WHAT YOU SOLD IT FOR.  Assets were valued at the lower of cost or realisable value (i.e. prudently) but now in the one-way-street of rising values over the last few years, huge profits have been reported for basically doing nothing mare than saying something was worth more than it used to be.   Once again in my view a big turning point in this tide of confidence was Northern Rock.  NR’s model was that it borrowed on the interbank market.  It was at that time the leaders of the banks (Or Gordon Brown if the banks leadership proved to be so short sighted) should have got together and said to each other “we WILL lend to NR because we cannot face the consequences of seeing people queuing outside a British bank to take its money out”.  The government should have forced this in the same way banks were forced to take Eurotunnel shares for their loans – It’s in the greater good and government will interfere much more if you don’t.   So greed and selfishness of the banks, vanity of the accountants, poor leadership and regulation by the authorities and the government.  Only one person had the opportunity to both see it coming and perhaps avert the worst of it – Gordon Brown.  I’m not saying anyone else would have done any better but, as with selling off our gold reserves for very little, as for coming through our most consistent period of prosperity with nothing saved in the kitty for a rainy day (prudence indeed), he certainly has failed his biggest test.

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Scooby"][quote user="chessfou"][quote]un café largeur[/quote] ? wossat? a single espresso with a half of Carlsberg in it?[/quote] Not actually a double espresso but an espresso with a equal quantity of hot water added to it.  Neighbour suggested it so now we often order one to have with our croissant from the nearby bakery (usually when we are in the village early on market day).[/quote] I have never heard the expression either, but the description would match what I would call un américain / américano (an expresso with added hot water). If I wanted a large expresso, I'd ask for either un expresso long  / un grand expresso / un grand noir (longer shot of hot water) or un double expresso (self-explanatory). [/quote] Thanks for this.  I gave been using both "grand" and "double" so appear to have been getting it right.  (I never know if I was getting it right or getting it wrong and the cafe owner thinking "I know I'll give the stupid Englishman the most bitter and unpalatable coffee there is (which of course just happened to be exactly what I wanted in the first place))

OK whilst people are talking about this. I must admit in some cases I get muddled between the correct way to pronounce and ask for certain things in Spain/France/Italy. So please, in France what is a double espresso?   (2 shots - nothing else).  I will probably find I have been asking for it in Italian for years. Thanks

[quote user="DerekJ"][quote user="cassis"] That's a great deal, DerekJ.  At first reading sounds too good to be true, so I'll read it again!  If it reads the same second time around, I'm going to turn in my existing doofer and get this one instead - especially as we're on an Alis motorway section.  Thanks for the link. [/quote] Hi Cassis.  Yes, check out the T&Cs. We signed up last year. It only took about a week for them to mail the doofer and package to our UK address.  They also send a (monthly?) statement to our UK address and yuo can monitor your account online on their website.  As others have said, it makes life so much easier.  It's also amusing to see french registered cars start to hold back from driving up behind our UK registered car as we drive down the T-Lane. [/quote]   I know you are not a translation service and you have no liability to me.   I can pretty much understand the application form but the T&Cs are beyond my language skills.  I would welcome your views on the T&C's once you have re read them. Is there anything there that is a hidden time bomb or setting one up for future obligations, minimum useage etc etc?  The english Q&A's on the website seem fairly comprehensive.  Are they missing anything? Thanks in advance

Sorry its not exactly what you want but I do this in UK quite a bit.  UPS phone me to say a delivery is coming, tell me what the duty is, I pay tham over the phone by credit card and stuff gets delivered. Just re read your note and this is even less help than I thought as my stuff gets delivered by UPS who seem very clued up (not USPS and royal mail)

You need to get a move on. My son is getting married in late June near Carcassonne.  Save the day cards went out well before Christmas and the full invitations a month ago. The biggest practical problem for them to solve and a big factor in getting guests from the UK was flights. Their invites were timed at the same time that Ryanair and Easyjet announced their schedules covering the period allowing guests the best choice of flights, times and prices. (I booked and paid for 26 various return Ryanair flights last week. Prices were OK but 52 x £4.75 credit card charges hurts a bit). I would therefore probably go a bit further than save the day cards with those you really want to attend to enable them to confirm travel ASAP.

Am a Hertz No 1 club member but like others on here will only pay so much extra for the added convenience.  To be fair I have never had a duff car from anyone I have rented from all over Europe. Once in Nice in a Hertz, I got rammed from behind at a traffic light which cost me my €400 excess. Several months later they sent me a cheque saying that they had reclaimed from the other drivers insurance co.  I was quite impressed with that as I had assumed that I would never see the cash again and certainly was not chasing it.

Thanks for the comments everyone.  In my naevite I probably didnt think through the effect of legally having a uk car in France the whole time.  Presumably I would need special insurance and take it back annually for tax and MOT. There seem to be mixed experiances on here about how easy (or not) it may be to re register the car in France.  Once I work out taxi costs etc I may just decide to buy a small car in France. Thanks again for the comments

Needed to buy some euros yesterday and found a site called 4x currency which gives live actual rates you can trade at.  Unfortunately I could not set an account up in time but their rates were about 40cents better than I got through my broker. Got their live rates page open now as I type this, its fascinating - much better than most tv channels.  (I have no link with 4x - only happened upon it through a google search yesterday). Has anyone actually used it.  I tried a search on here but there was no reference

Should also consider HUSQVARNA.  Similar quality to Stihl.  See which gives you a better price.

It certainly is.  Due to complete in a fortnight and everything is still going well.  (posted details on the first thread mentioned above). As a matter of interest Nord Charente Homes website discusses this possibility and they have already lined up a number of owners prepared to accept sterling.  (I have no relationship with NCH).  Search around for a notaire who is prepared to act in this way, I get the impression they are short of work and are accepting work they previously would have refused to do.

Am completing my purchase in 2 weeks and need house insurance.  My french is not good enough to go into legal documents so I have 2 quotes where they provide english policy documents. Intasure (a UK firm specialising in second homes) and CA Britline. Intasure is about £40 more expensive but covers insurance like in England (accidental damage etc) wheras CA Britline is a French policy translated into English. My gut feel was that Intasure was more inclusive wheras the French policy went into much more detail - room sizes etc. I am sure that there are some good and bad individual experiences with both of these companies out there but your gut feel please.  An insurance policy under english law and practice or under French? Thanks in advance

Another PDF with the latest prices  http://www.asf.fr/shared/pdf/tarifs%20peage/asf_m_fev2009_tarifs_peage_classe1.pdf although I'm nit quite sure why it does not include everything.

We live and work near Stansted and believe me if Ryanair were pulling out it would be all over the place.  Its their biggest UK hub.  I was at dinner just this week with people from BAA and nothing was mentioned. Also our son is a pilot (not Ryanair) and they would soon have picked up on anything.  It wouldnt surprise me if there were a little sabre rattling as BAA have been told they must sell Stansted and in typical Ryanair fashion they were trying to equalise before the other side scores over such things as landing fees, services etc.

Although my post was meant to be slightly humorous I think it does highlight the overriding problem with the current economy in the UK. I am extremely happy with my house purchase and I am getting a fantastic deal (in sterling) but the only niggle in the back of my mind is "if it all goes really belly-up, wouldnt it be better for me to have the cash in reserve rather than the property". I have a number of clients in the UK sitting on large amounts of excess cash, some several millions.  Even 6 months ago these companies would be taking advantage of cheap deals in the market place, (thats just why the cash reserves were built up) but they are now sitting on the cash, just in case, even though it is giving them little or no return.  We will know when things begin to get better when confidence has increased enough for this cash to be start being spent again

I am currently in the gap between exchange and completion for my first “second house” yet I notice that I seem to be getting meaner and meaner and I cant quite understand why. Up to now I have travelled around Europe with my sons watching half a dozen champions league matches a year with no regard to the cost either of the travel or the exchange rates when I am there.  If I want something electrical, I decide what I want, go to my nearest shop which stocks it and buy it. I still buy my electricity from the electricity company, gas from the gas company and my telephone/broadband package from BT, even refusing their offer to save me a couple of pounds a month if I sign up to an 18 month contract. We tax and insure 4 cars between the 2 of us (because its occasionally “handy” to have an alternative) and spend a fortune on 2 horses, 2 dogs, 5 cats and 6 chickens. We are not rich but I am lucky enough that my income does run to this expenditure and we pretty much spend what we earn.  An indication of my ways is that within 6 months of receiving the first half decent capital sum in my life I have spent it on a holiday home. However, since committing to the second house I seem to spend an age thinking about the most advantageous way to transfer cash.  I monitor exchange rates daily.  I wonder how to get the most low cost phone package in France and follow the threads on this site about the relative costs of TV’s and other such goods between England and France.  I am considering doing some pointing myself to save on the cost. For goodness sake I have even produced a spreadsheet working out the most low cost way to travel to my property (Deux Sevres) for any given number of days stay setting car hire against petrol etc etc. I am hoping that someone here can reassure me that this is somehow a natural reaction to buying a property in France and not some indication that I am maturing or being more responsible in some way.  Please tell me it wears off.

just signed up for ca britline. the second card is half price.

I see that CA Britline say that I can open a sterling account to go with my euro one and that they will transfer currency fee free between the 2.  This would be helpful as I can put a monthly sterling amount aside and translate when the rate is better. Does anyone have any idea how their exchange rates compare with dedicated forex brokers.  I am guessing that for regular amounts of around £1k the lack of transfer costs can make it relatively attractive even if the rate is not quite as keen. Thanks in advance