bubbles

Before I read your last post, Coops, I was going to suggest that perhaps you were winning too often and that's why they cancelled your account. This has happened to someone I know!

That is a beautiful message, Frenchie. The French do charming courteousness so well! And maybe it's "je tiens" because only one person is actually holding the pen and that's just and so the singlular is an example of the logical nature of the language.

Google Shiply. We've used them twice and were pleased.

Further update. Cautious optimism on two fronts but still not reached the sending-off-all-the-bumph-to-DVLA stage yet. Front one: the French insurers wrote back eventually (sorry for the delay - I was on holiday) using the wodking I suggested to confirm in English that we are entitled to 12 years' no claims bonus. Good of them since they hadn't much idea of what they were writing. Downside to that: It was just a tatty little e-mail so it could have been almost anyone writing it and I'm sure GB insurers won't accept it. They also omitted to give the original French version. Apparently the office scanner is not working so they couldn't attach a proper letter to the email. They have now offered to send a fax direct to the insurers. And, secondly: we received an email from Chevrolet France with a form to fill in and return for certificate of conformity. Pricey at 150euros but the main problem is that they want a cheque and won't accept a credit or debit card. And - guess what - yeah, we don't have a chequebook for our French bank account any more. Working on that one. So, a few steps forward and a couple back. I do like a good challenge. Keeps me young(ish).

Thanks, AnOther. Will give them a call on Monday. And...thanks, Idun. I live in hope then! Bon weekend a tous. ps. AnOther, I tried that website but got message that the address was invalid.

Forgot the second of all thingy. We have had no joy with a reply from Chevrolet fr. concerning a certificate of conformity. Our email to [email protected] was returned to us as undeliverable. Anyone got any ideas?

Still plodding on with this! We now have a new speedo. Guess what - it shows both miles and Kilometres! Now why couldn't the French one have done that. Also good news is that it shows only 14,000 miles. I was afraid it might be loads more than the car has actually travelled. Now, the big frustration is first of all getting our French insurers to give us something on paper showing our no claims bonus entitlement - in years! We already have this expressed as a percentage on the renewal letter but it won't do apparently. We also have somehow to get them to write in English as well as French. Have emailed 3 times now and asked very nicely.

We did enquire about a replacement card or some sort of sticker to show miles instead of km but were told that there wasn't one for our car. At least we are almost there now - just need this conformity certificate. Oh, yes, almost forgot - we also need proof of no claims bonus (which we have on our renewal notice) but.........they want an English version as well as the French one. And.........they want it to quote the actual years no claims bonus we are entitled to, not a percentage "bonus" as our French insurers have quoted. Ah - thank goodness we still have some of that imported red medicine left.

Thought I'd write an update on this ongoing saga - the attempt to reregister our French car over here in England. It might just help someone else sometime. We were informed by friends who have already returned to England that there are specialist LHD car purchasers so we tried two of them. One offered us just over £2,000 but we would have had to drive miles to them and then find our own way back by train since the company doesn't do "swaps". It they did, we might have been tempted. The other firm took 2 weeks to decide to offer us just £1,200 or to try and sell it for us for about double that. This place was also about a two hour drive and we would have been carless afterwards. So, we took the plunge - we had the headlights changed, had the foglamp and the reversing lights swapped over and had an MOT done. (£450 in total) We approached specialist LHD insurance companies for quotes. These ranged from over £500 !!!! down to just over £300 - for a tiddly little car and two drivers with clean licences and full no claims bonuses. These companies told us that LHD vehicles are always high risk for pricing. Not true - Just as we were despairing, we were offered cover by a major insurance company who agreed to provide this at just over £200, using the chassis number instead provided that it was just for a short period, while we went through the reregistration period. Only drawback is that, although the car will be insured, apparently we won't be covered to drive it, except to the vehicle testing station! In our case it won't be a problem since we still have French insurance cover for another month. We have now ordered a "new" speedo (£60), showing miles. Garage will charge £39 to fit it. One final hurdle before we can apply for our new number plates - a conformity certificate! Chevrolet UK cant supply this since they don't have it on their database apparently. So we are just waiting to hear from Chevrolet France customer care. If anyone has experience of obtaining conformity documents, please share it! Fingers crossed it will all be ok in the end but - what a palavar!!!

Erm - false premise, Bob. There are folk with mansions (well, 4 or 5 bed detached houses worth quite a bit) in the UK who don't own property abroad. Some of them have very healthy incomes thank you very much. And then there are other folk who might own a small apartment in the UK (worth hardly anything) and a small property in France (ditto). These folk are forking out for two lots of council tax/tax d'habitation and fonciere and two lots of standing charges for water and electricity. Their equity could well be quite a lot less than Mr and Mrs detached house in England! And so could their income! One big house versus two small ones!

And thank you, Powerdeal. Fingers crossed.

Thanks, Dave. Really useful information.

Thanks for that, AnOther. We are still French resident at the moment. Will send for one of those packs without delay and get on with things. ps Just ordered it online. Well, that bit was easy anyway.

Been away from UK pubs for a while now but I suspect that £10 wouldn't even be enough to buy your own round these days.

I've just read Quillan's sticky - thanks. Our French car is still insured in France until the end of June. It is now in England where it will stay and we need to start the process of registering it, changing numberplates, adjusting lights and arranging British insurance. In what order should all this be done? My worry is that we can't change the registration details without switching insurers - and vice versa! ps I suppose it might have bee a better idea to sell the car to you, Santenay! - easier all round.

Sorry to hijack this thread but......... does that mean that our French car which is about to be reregistered in England won't have to have its lights changed but can just have its "dip beam kickup" masked. Sounds much cheaper and I'm very interested!!

I don't think the situation ever crops up! There are usually three terms in an academic year. (Trimesters?) Sometimes more!

moi non plus.

I think tomorrow and/or the next day is when they decide whether to raise the bank rate (in England). Maybe that will have some effect on the exchange rate (she hopes!)

Doing a Maggie?

All a bit complicated in our case but we have never received confirmation that our letter was received and signed for. We sent a recorded delivery letter to France online with the avis de reception option. There seemed to be no way of tracking our communication. We have proof of "posting" but nothing tangible ever arrived, either by post or by electronic mail to confirm that they signed for it at the other end. In our case the letter was sent to an aggressive estate agent so we didn't feel like asking them if they got it!!

And, does it have to be signed for? Or will it just be pushed through the letterbox with the other letters?

Oh, Dusty Springfield sang that (probably amongst many others) - what a beautiful song!

Thanks, Powerdeal. Think I'll have that one too.

I read recently that Dame Helen has admitted to a facelift too. So there is something there that nature didn't provide - or rather, there is no longer something there that nature did provide (wrinkles, saggy skin?)