Stan Streason

I am just about to take a new UK TV to my French house.  In the sub menu it has France as an option so can presumably receive current French analogue signals. My question is will the freeview part ever be capable of being tuned to French digital tv? Thanks

For goodness sake this is Vogue magazine - it's the fashion industry the most totally vacuuous, and pointless industry there is.  Who cares?  The whole magazine is completely up itself and without merit.  You will be listening to the profound opinions of movie stars next. If someone you consider to be an idiot says something idiotic you ignore it.  Why do people take this trash so seriously?

I purchased the whole thing as a Husquavarna kit.  The gloves are very good and flexible.  The boots are steel toecapped.  To be honest I rarely wear the boots.  In order of lazyness I always wear gloves and helmet, then trousers then boots.

I know it doesnt really help you but I spend £200 on my "safety kit"  Gloves, boots, trousers  helmet and a big bag to keep them in.  Nearly as much as I spent on the chainsaw

[quote user="Âme"]I'm happy with the Gaggia Classic; four years & counting (maybe not much longer, now that I've tempted fate [Www]). [img]http://www.coffeeitalia.co.uk/prodimages/gaggia/gaggia-classic/gaggia-classic-res.gif[/img] I would say that the Gaggia makes better tasting coffee when given 15 mins to warm up.  Also, while ready ground coffee works okay, it is really too coarse for this machine and doesn't produce a good crema.  So, I'd recommend a grinder to go with it. [/quote] Seconded.  Personally a 5 min warm up is all I need but I can now go from coffee beans and switching the machine on to a double espresso in 90 secs (I am that sad to have timed it). Clean and descale every 2 months and it lasts forever.  Also plenty on ebay at decent prices.  Would have no problems with a decent second hand machine if price is key. If you do go for a grinder get a Gaggia one.  Cheaper ones dont go fine enough for espresso.  If you need real advice log onto coffeegeek.

I tend to top up my French bank account when the rate looks good.  My current cost of euros is 1.13 but they are running out and I have about €20k of renovation work to pay for over this winter.  Over the course of a week it can easily fluctuate by 0.02 and with a big MPC meeting tomorrow the difference could easily be more significant over the day depending upon more monetary easing or not.  For a short period in August I could have got 1.16 and could not better 1.05 at one point last month; over a €2k swing.  So yes it does make a difference to me.

[quote user="greyman"]Stan, the Bergerac FlyBe flghts come from Exeter which is their HQ ! It's the Ryanair flights which come from Bristol. It's a real shame FlyBe have cut this route because Exeter is very important for the people of the South West, being stuck out on a limb and no other airport in easy reach. The problem for us is that my elderly parents use this route and my 14 year old son, neither of whom can easily reach an alternative. But it is part of the deal of being a flight away from family so we will find a solution albeit a pain in the rear. [/quote] Sorry I had this post in the back of my mind and happened to see my son last night.  Had the OP airports muddled.  (He could have told me it wasnt Bristol Bergerac - but technically he was correct - neither are "bases")

The problem for Flybe is that neither Bergerac nor Bristol are what they deem as bases.  They have no engineering facility there so if something goes wrong there is a big delay whilst an engineer or another plane is flown in.  My son was caught for 24 hours at Bergerac a few months ago as an engineer had to be flown in from UK to sign off on a few technical problems (and he was the pilot).  Any route between 2 "non bases" is likely to be cut if not running at optimum load factors.

A translation will only go so far if you dont know what to expect.  My french is limited yet I put my CdV through a couple of translation programmes and got away with most of it because I had thoroughly researched what was expected to be included and why.  There were a couple of bits I didnt recognise and the english speaking assistant to the notaire talked me through both what was included and why it was there. If I had not done the research I am not sure even a perfect translation would have been enough. PS Good luck - I can feel your excitement through your short post.

[quote user="sweet 17"]SS, not everyone is liable to pay capital gains tax; certainly not if the house is the vendor's principal residence.[/quote] Sorry I jumped to a bit of a conclusion in that if the vendor wanted sterling there was a high chance it was a second home.  (It was in my case).  Didnt go back and read the OP where it was someone returning to the UK.

Yes I did it.  Had to deposit enough to cover notaire and agents fees in euros.  Left the rest with a mutually agreed uk solicitor.  He released the funds direct to the vendor on the joint instruction of myself and the notaire.  UK solicitor cost me a couple of hundred pounds.  Check the notaire in advance that he is prepared to act that way. The documentation is still noted in euros and I had a side note that the stated euros amount would be settled by the sterling amount.  One drawback is that the translated cost in euros is relatively low because of the exchange rate.  Good for the vendors capital gains but bad for your initial base cost.  I missed a trick but you could try to renegociate the price a bit to share his lower capital gain benefit.  Whole thing worked like a dream. PM me if you need anything further  

Home in the context of the question is a number of things. It is somewhere where there are memories. It is somewhere where the family would congregate in times of crisis As you get older it gradually moves from being where your parents live or where you grew up (and still have ties) to where you live now. Whilst you are still proposing to trade up, a house is unlikely to be "home".  It becomes home when you have no intention to leave it.

[quote user="Sprogster"] The main reason that Ryanair have a good time keeping record is that they avoid the main airports, where most delays originate. If you are the only commercial flight operating once a day into an airport like Dinard, it is unlikely you are going to find the same congestion as at Gatwick. If everyone avoided checking in hold luggage, buying snacks and drinks on the plane and paid by Electron card then Ryanair would go bust! According to their own figures they make over euros 500 million from these extras, without which they would be making a loss of hundreds of millions. [/quote] I think someone told me their biggest single receipt each year was their kickback from Hertz

I am happy with the current position in France because when I am there I am sort of "on holiday" so dont mind a day where relaxation is to the fore. Working all week, when I am in the UK many household and garden chores get done at weekends.  How do you survive without the equivalent of B&Q being open for when you havent got the right parts? Where I live its a rule that tractor/lawnmower belts can only break on a Sunday (when my only local supplier is closed).  If everything else were to be shut I couldnt stand the pressure of having to plan and sort everything on a Saturday..

[quote user="Pickles"][quote user="Stan Streason"]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1166106/The-euro-mortgage-holiday-house-paid-UK-home-loan.html[/quote] Some things in that don't quite add up. For example, they "live" in the UK but appear to have opened a Livret A (hence the 15K€ invested producing a "tax-free" income). I don't think that is actually allowed, but in any case they would have to declare it and pay tax on it in the UK, and once the 12 months is up they would be back down to the 1.25% or whatever Livret A is currently paying. They have exchanged a sterling mortgage for a € mortgage when it would appear that the only income they have is a £-denominated pension ... Eh? Pickles [/quote] I am now looking at this in far too much detail but it actually says they live in France for 6 months a year.  With a big house in France and a flat in the UK they could well be french resident.

[quote user="Chancer"] Can someone explain that article to me please? How have they made £57000? How can they get a mortgage at 3% and get 4% on their savings? Or is the gist of it the same as the first posting? [/quote] It takes some lateral thinking and some adding of apples and pears but I think I can get close. A year last march they owned a property worth €400k and had a uk debt of £130k.  At about 1.28 they had sterling equivalent net assets of £312.5k less £130k or £182.5k Assume a Euro mortgage of €300k which they translated at 1.07 (£280k) and paid off the uk debt. They then have net euros of 400-300 = €100k at 1.1 say £91,000 Plus sterling of £280k-£130k or £150k so total sterling assets of £241k less last years balance of £182.5 leaving an increase in sterling assets of £58.5k  I said I could get close. Of course if they had done nothing their sterling equivalent value would have increased as the sterling value of their house went up.  But this is a more liquid "realised" gain as it has returned cash to sterling their main currency. Isnt it wonderful what you can do with numbers

In originally making my post I went against one of my main principals (never ask a silly question before first checking Google). It looks like it may be possible but there again it is in the Daily Mail.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-1166106/The-euro-mortgage-holiday-house-paid-UK-home-loan.html

[quote user="Tony F Dordogne"] You raise a mortgage on your property and tell the lender you want to - say - make improvements on the property.  You fail to make the improvements, instead you speculate with the money. You have obtained a pecuniary advantage by a deception and are liable to get charged, especially with the mortgage climate in its present state, especially as you have speculated about doing so online in advance of doing so. That is a serious down side! [/quote] Now thats the sort of unforeseen downside I knew must exist somewhere. However in my theoretical world I had not assumed that I would be saying I wanted to make improvements.  I would be taking a loan with good security and ample proof I could afford the repayments.  Does there have to be a reason given?  Does a French lender care why I want the money?

Thanks for the comments. I do believe in cycles.  About 6/7 years ago I cashed in my Equitable with profits fund , took the hit and invested it in a tracker when the market was at about 3,500.  Over the next cycle the market pretty much doubled before going back down to about 4,000 last year.  I have no doubt it will go back up again and have invested as much as I can afford at the current low levels. Also a few years ago I purchased some dollars at $2 to the pound (it touched that level for a couple of days).  I bottled it a bit and sold them a year later at about $1.7 before they went up again and was feeling very smug.  I should have waited and got 1.5 but I was happy at the time. I have always tried to buy when everyone else is selling and vice versa. (Hence I bought my French house last Feb when I appeared to be the only buyer in sight and had vendors falling over themselves to reduce their prices to me). This is a theoretical excersise but so far most of the coments have been financial and things like interest rates, costs etc could be factored in to give the required exchange rate differential to get me "in the money".

I came to this thread hoping to glean some advice but although I am not completely technically illiterate I am even more confused. I need to buy a new TV for our French house, no bigger than 32inch.  In France I have a Sky freesat card and get about 4 French channels through the standard aerial (should I be getting any more)? Are there any partiular flaws in my statements below please? At that size and with the transmissions I am getting I can get away with the lowest current spec tv with no problems. All the local places I visit in UK say UK purchased TV's will not do PAL and SECAM so if I want to recreate just what I have I need to purchase in France (yet some people on here say otherwise). Thanks

I own my French second home outright and am in for the long term.  My income is all in sterling. If I were to raise a mortgage of say €100k (valuation and earnings limits are no problem) I am sitting with the cash.  If sterling gets worse I translate a large chunk into setrling (leaving enough for say a couple of years repayments and running costs) and then when sterling gets better (and within a 5 year period I am relatively confident it will) I translate back at the better rate.  I know I am currency speculating and understand that that risk and I know there will be arrangement fees and exchange spreads to meet but this seems to protect me at present from sterling income and high euro expenditure. I am not sure I would ever actually have the guts to do this but can anyone see any other flaws I have missed as a theoretical excercise? As long as I look long term it seems to have a lot of upsides.

I have a Stihl combi strimmer/hedgetrimmer and a Husqvarna chainsaw.  Both get worked fairly hard (in a domestic situation) and neither are perfectly looked after.  Both always start easily.  I would have thought you could not go wrong with either make.  As much power as you can afford is usually best advice but in reality even their smallest "home use" machines should do for what you want. Internet searches can usually come up with some interesting prices.  As an aside my wife made me spend as much on the safety equipment and clothes as I did on the chainsaw.

I suppose it all depends upon your starting point.  I am a partner in a firm of accountants and specialise in manufacturing companies.  As a decent sized firm around 15% of our income comes from manufacturing clients - at least as big as any other sector and is consistent with other firms- yet no one says UK has no property companies, or retailers or logistics companies or distributors etc etc etc despite being worth less.

[quote user="Chancer"] My question is what are these products that Britain manufactures and exports? - Reality television? - Binge drinking? No seriously if someone were to ask me the question I would not have a clue what to say apart from a few companies that rely on their brand names to sell Chinese tat at marque prices. What are the UK's great manufactured exports? [/quote] I'm sorry but if this is said as a joke then its not funny, if in seriousness then its just ignorance.  The UK is the world's sixth largest manufacturing nation - the industry accounting for over half our exports and even now contributing £150 billion to the economy and around three million jobs. Until 2009 it had had 50% productivity growth in the previous decade and has attracted more foreign direct investment than any country outside of USA. In general, those manufacturers trading today are the ones that have survived significant rationalisations, efficiency drives and competition from cheap markets such as China and Eastern Europe. They therefore tend to be well run and have a special story to tell. No we dont manufacture high volume cheap commodity items any more.  UK manufacturing competes on world class quality and innovation, not on price and volume.  Look in High Tech, Oil & Gas, Biotechnology, high end electronics etc etc. Industries where brains are needed and we still dominate. Sorry I work with lots of manufacturers and I am constantly having this argument with people who should know better.  Its a bit of a red rag to a bull for me. Rant over

I got quotes from all the "easy option" english insurers as well as Britline. Both a friend with a house locally and our estate agent recommended AGF. The local rep came round, measured the room sizes (rooms over a certain size are counted as 2 and the quote is based on no of rooms), looked at the locks, looked at the pool and the barn, evaluated the contents and gave me a quote of about 50% of what I had been already quoted.  Paid monthly with no additional charge. So far - all perfect - of course I have not had to claim yet!