Panda

Hi It's simple Eleve, if you intend to continue to work for your Canadian business then you set up a Fench office of this buisness and pay taxes etc to France on your income, this will give you access to the French health system. There is no other way to gain entrance leaving only private healthcare as an option. I have to agree also that 399 per month is a low quote, to gain health care in france is not cheap, if you are payiing into the system as above it will likely be more than 399 per month.

I thought the date was taken as the date they passed which for me was a good month after the sample date by the time the lab had returned all of the documents. EDIT, just reread your dates, your experience is the same as mine, I dont think your vet made any mistake.. stnadard practice.

Just to put across the view of someone living in the UK, we have swans on the town lake, no one is eating them. We have fish in the lake, again apart from the obvious anglers no sign of anyone stealing them! We had carols at the nativity, we have competive sport days, my son knows all about christianity as he attends a C of E school, none of this has gone from schools here as is reported in the gutter press for the easily led to believe.... any more ridiculous cliches you want me to check out and ridicule?? For goodness sakes this thread is unreal.. I personnally welcome diversity and dont see why I have any more right that my child is fed and educated than someone coming to the UK (or anywhere else) wanting to work to do the same thing.

I've got a pair of kinky boots but have never written a book, not good at drawing.....  

A holiday home was 'occupied' for a time right near where I lived.  It was my nearest neighbour and I had never seen anyone in the property apart from the home owners.  Then they turned up one day to find that the shutters had been forced and the house broken in to, their beds had been slept in and the house had obviously been used for some time, how they came and went without me seeing is very odd but needless to say it caused a lot of distress for the elderly Brit owners.  They never turned back up again whilst they were there and of course I am now back in the UK but according to the gendarmes there had been a spate of this happeining to second homes, I guess an easy target if you need a roof over your head.  They didnt do lots of damage but did steal a few small items.and left the dishes in the sink and general mess around the place!  

Yes he is, hope Kitty gets in touch soon.  I love cockers, also love my griffon girl that I rescued but still really miss my old golden cocker as she was my first dog as an adult.  I still have my black and white cocker too, he is doing well despite being 17 next birthday! hope he finds a home soon...

Oh no, read two posts on here and both have me in tears!  This chap is the image of my beloved cocker who I still miss terrbly, I cant bear his sad eyes, surely someone wants this beautiful boy!  If I were still in France I would be on my way to get him right now.

OMG, how sweet is he, your story bought tears to my eyes, well done you, what an awful life she's had so far, you are an angel!

Well done you for seeking to adopt some grateful felines, you do see them on AngloInfo for time to time and there is also the Phoenix Association who do have cats and dogs for adoption.  

[quote user="vauban"]Help! Advice please. I sold a property that I owned with 2 other people with no bills in my name and I didn't change my impots form to the address that I was living in either! I have now received a huge plus value bill and would like any advice on how NOT to pay it. This property was genuinely my main place of residence but the tax office seems to only go by the address on tax return. Can anyone help please?[/quote] This is a bit odd since the plus value is detailed in the acte de vente, how come you didnt know about it and query it before you signed, AFAIK that's the chance you have and you seem to have missed it.

Hello I think the comparisons as per usual are not like for like, Quillan, I'm presuming, comparing an inner london hospital (needles, toilet situation etc.) to one in rural france for example.  I now live in rural UK, our hospital is small and very clean, my son was ill recently and was seen by a doctor immediatley as he was in France.  The french experiecnce though was throughly scarey as they wanted to send me son to a phychiatrist, I can speak french but to this day still dont know why!!  They never addressed me or my son, just talked amongst themselves, this was my only experience of consultants in France and if you think an english consultant is arrogant, think 100 fold and you are near to this french guy!  I have no issue with services being translated, why not, it is health we are talking about here. Panda

Hello S17 How are you? It's cold here in the UK and we have an extreme weather alert locally for 40cm of snow!  I spent last winter in the Alps so I guess Im used to it but wasn;t really expecting this, going to have to get in the loft for all my ski gear otherwise the horses will be hungry if we really do get 40cm and I will have to walk to feed them. It's warm inside as Ive got the central heating on, dont have a wood burner yet, that item is now going to be moved higher up my priority list as I miss mine in France. Happy New Year to all Panda x

Hello Your proposed set up is a little odd even for a viager.  I looked at it once and I found as per this ad below that you pay a very low price for the house and then you pay the tenant an amount per month until they die to make up for the fact you are getting the house 'cheap'.  You can see from the below the house is worth in this case 150k and they are askiing 50ish, they dont say how old the occupant is but in this case one would pay hiim 220 euros per month until he dies. Are you sure that in it is not you paying the 'rent' this is the normal set up. http://www.costes-viager-caen.com/vente/viager/caen/maison-lithaire-1966.html   Panda

Hello I mentioned this on another thread yesterday, I had the test when employed on a CDD last year, many companies ignore the requirement apparently.  As to whether it has been cancelled I have no idea, it is nonsense though that the test is conducted only in one place, I had mine in the Alps, it's where ever the occupational doctor is, I had to go to the next town but not the other end of the country! I do think you are being over cautious but in these times who can blame you.  Does the contract state that you should have a medical as a part of the contract or that failure to take and pass the test could end the contract? I personally cant see that it is your issue if you have asked and they have said it's not done, it surely must be the companies problem. If you ask at the jobcentre you could well drop the company in it if they are just ignoring the requirement. P  

  Following on to theme on how restrictive employment laws hurts small businesses, I was employed part-time last year by a very small business.  I wanted to help the owner with whom I am now good friends but was shocked to find how difficult it was for me to be flexible in my hours and her to remain legal.  As an example some days the office was quiet and she (ski instructor) had no lessons, so you would think if I agreed I could go home and leave her in charge to save us both sitting there waiting for the phone or a customer, no not possible.  My contract stated a set number of hours, I could not work less, not without a new contract which as this was a day to day thing meant normally she just paid the office person (me) to do very little.  We worked it out between us as I did not want to be paid for doing nothing, indeed I would rather be ski-ing but if an inspector had turned up I was told I had to state my hours as the contracted ones. How can this make any sense, if I agree to something I am ont being exploited, as a small business she wants staff when she needs them. I also had to go for a medical miles away, ridiculous expense to this small business, had to pay my petrol, my time etc.  just for a doctor to take my pulse and declare me fit to sit in an office. I also caused a stir by asking to take holiday during a quiet period, this is apprently madness by french standards, I am entitled to holiday pay at the end of the season I was told, I should not be forced to take holiday at a time when I could be sitting doing nothing in the office, it was my right as a seasonal worker to have busy and non busy times.  After that season I am not surprised that french businesses struggle, I could not get through that I wanted to support the business by working the required hours, I wanted to be off when it suited the business so that the business would survive.  My firend the owner says she will always employ brits as they want to work and not play the system.

[quote user="Judith"] Beef more expensive here, other meats about the same.  Could always get Tesco meats cheaply, but usuall poor meat and poor cuts. [/quote] That's interesting as I always found meat in France to be expensive and of poor quality, I guess it comes down to the individual shops.  I never found a decent beef joint at less than requiring a mortgage in 6 years.

[quote user="Scooby"]The piece is taken from a French property blog which is published by a UK estate agent based in Deux-Sèvres.  The blog credits the piece to uswitch.com - but the article isn't on uswitch so I'm assuming it's pretty old despite it being cited in an October 2009 blog entry. Edit:  I have found the original article (here) but it is slightly biased!  Of all the 17 categories, four are energy giving a greater emphasis on relative fuel cost.  Hours of sunshine are weighted equally with cost of food. Travel costs are based on commuting from Chelmsford in Essex into central London (about the most expensive comparable I can think of - and far more than most people would pay). Annual holidays aren't based on average holidays actually taken but on the statutory minimum.  Net household income is based on one person earning the average wage with their partner on 1/3 of the average wage.  The most distorting factor (for those on this forum) has to be the exchange rate used: 1.34 euros to the £1.  If you correct this for the actual average exchange rate for the year to date then the French shopping basket actually costs over £147 not the £119 cited in the article - making it much more expensive than the UK basket at £134 though I would be interested to see the prices used as even this doesn't accord with our experience.  Given the focus on London for commuting costs I would guess that London prices are also being used for the food basket. [/quote] Nickp is always so strongly defensive of all things France You would almost think he was an estate agent not wanting any negative comments about anything.[Www] Being back in the UK now I can honestly compare and can say that you most definately can get a trolley load of food for less in the UK due in part to the always available offers which were not around in France.  The other issue in France is lack of competition, where we liived we had Intermarche or Spar, here I have every major supermarket so they have to keep bringing in offers to get people through the door.  

Hello Well done for your honest description, my friend has had exactly the same issue with her lovely JR around her daughter, it's so hard to come to this decision but I think you are doing the right thing for everyone concerned.  My firends JR now lives happily with another friend with older kids and no problems at all, just the sweetest dog who doesn't take to babies and toddlers moving in on their territory.  I wish you the very best of luck with the rehoming, someone out there must want that beautiful face! P

Quote Nativity plays banned, Xmas back instead of Christmas, changing carols to suit the multi cultural society but  when a teacher substitutes a "partridge in a pear tree " for "corncrake in a palm tree" because she doesn't want to step on any toes, then that, for me, is the end.  When are true Brits in Britain going to get some backbone and declare enough is enough The point of me posting on this old topic was to say that this is utter rubbish fed to those who read and take in such junk from the popular press written to sell newspapers and to breed racism! Nativity plays are being held at all of the local primary schools right now in 2009, no one changes christmas carols here either. I would go as far as to say in these parts the schools have gone the other way and are doing more 'christain' things now than they were 10 years ago. The postings since just confirm something that I've always felt,  a lot of Brits in France are odd, and not in a good way!        

HNVH WB HAY?

Ha, yes! I am now planning my next reports which are; Why have I not been police checked despite taking a herd of kids to school and picking them up on a regular basis? Why the playgrounds are all open to anyone when other reports suggest the presence of spcialist playground police to ensure parents and grandparents can't play with their own kids! Over and out xx  

Hello S17 How frustrating for you, I was always baffled by closing little convenience stores at lunch time, when there were factories and offices all around them and restaurants on bank holidays, but you get used to it I guess.  Yours takes the biscuit though! P

Hello Not wishing to drag all of the arguments in this thread back up again I did want to reassure you all that quite contrary to the OP I can declare the nativity in UK schools is alive and well as I have just witnessed said event at my sons school!  In fact it was quite over the top religious wise which was a surprise, with some children circling the audience with banners stating god is love etc. etc..  All the songs were tradtional and all sung with gusto.  It was all in all an enjoyable spectacle, I now live near to the primary school I attended and I felt there was little difference in what I saw today to that which my own parents witnessed some 30 odd years ago. Panda, reporting from middle england.....

The way this situation was treated for me was that the notaire 'valued' the 2nd house at the same price as when I bought with a very small uplift giving an almost nil CGT requirement.  He advised it was better to show something of an increase so that it is seen the CGT matter was looked at.  I would advise you to decide the valuation at purchase and today before going to the notaire and present him with these facts in case yours is not as helpful and mine was.

[quote user="Kate"]Not moved to France yet, but when I'm there I miss very little UK food. What I do miss, as a veggie, is Quorn! I'm trying to wean myself off it, in preparation for the eventual move. I've recently discovered alcohol-free beer in the UK ( handy if you fancy a drink but also want to go upstairs upright, not on hands and knees). I thought it wouldn't exist in France, but it does, and I've found some much cheaper than in UK - 10 x 25c bottles at about 21 centines each, in LeClerc. I don't normally drink beer or lager, but to me, this tastes of something, whereas British stuff doesn't. I expect serious beer-drinkers out there are groaning! Sorry.[/quote] Kate you should make sure you have a good look at the restaurants around as finding veggie food can be a nightmare.  I have veggie relatives and was often embarrassed y the french reaction to a request for a veggie option.  I am glad though that on being offered one one time I asked how it was made and was told 'we take the meat out of the vegetarians portion once it's cooked, nice!!