Tourangelle

It's dead easy to opt out, you just tick a box on your tax form, I have been for ages.  However now we are thinking of getting a TV.  Many of them seem to have TNT integrated.  I'm not particularly interested in TNT (French digital), but I wondered if having it would mean it was impossible to have a satellite dish and an English digi box set up.  Basically should I avoid a TV with built in TNT if I am want English TV?????

You've got to wonder why she wasn't living with her parents if she was living in the same city as them as the article says. That would have solved the rent problem. And Joanna is right, it is about 130 euros then you need to find about another 150 euros for your health care for the year (your social security) if you aren't attached to somebody elses.  Lots of students I knew lived with their parents and those who didn't had the grants and also the APL the housing benefit.

Yes it is a doddle to start in medicine here, you just have to have the bac, any bac.  However you spend a year preparing for a competitive exam.  Most are then eliminated, those at the top can choose to do medicine or dentistry.  The numbers are fixed each year and many people do the year twice only to fail the second time.

you have to find a willing classmate who will take them to eat at theirs.  Send them with a sandwich anyway, all it means is they will not have anybody to supervise them to sit down to eat it, they'll be able to eat it in the playground.  In my two schools one is going on strike a lot, and the other isn't.  I would if I could, but I can't afford it, quite ironic really, as it is a strike for pay!

As Clair suggests, you don't actually need this as she is travelling on a passport rather than an ID card. You need the head teacher to do more than mutter, you need to know whether they want them to have individual ones or if there will be a collective one.  A school trip I helped organise with a clueless head teacher had them all traipsing (sp?) to the town hall, my husband took a group to Auschwitz and somehow managed a group one.  The school should clarify, check her carnet de correspondance.

[quote user="mazza"]..I hope to be employed in their school.... [/quote] Debbie's right, in fact she doesn't go far enough, to be in admin it is just another sort of competitive exam, and even to be a cleaner in a school you have to jump through hoops.  Sorry, but as a teacher and having jumped through the hoops myself give it up unless you're bilingual, there are too many French people who are unemployed.  Even in my school out in the sticks they have no problem getting people to do the various jobs.

Just to come back to an earlier part of the discussion, it is called the past simple because there is only one word, unlike the passé composé.

apparently they got married last Thursday. honestly the guy is going to lose all credibility.

And buy them in the UK and not here in France!  They are loads cheaper as France levies a special tax on them.

I believe it is 7.00, at least workman in the streets aren't allowed to make noise before then, otherwise it is tapage nocture, and you would be putting yourselves in the wrong.  Not sure you wouldn't be anyway...what if they claim harassment?

 I'm not sure I'm very good at either

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for the photo then[:P]

I'm an artist, which is ok, but also a clairvoyant, which I am less sure about!!!!

Getting something awful as a secret santa gift is kind of to be expected though, isn't it?  Does that really count?

[quote user="littlebob"]hello I am planning a holiday to France this next year but I have no idea whereabouts to go!!! I want to go sometime in May so need to consider weather (ie whether to go north or south france) I am happy to go to any area. Any advice would be much appreciated![/quote] Country or city, first visit to France or not?  I think we need more details!!!!

Good question, the person I heard interviewed on the radio this morning was asked this and they said it could be a problem if the serving staff complained.  I think it is in Italy that you are not allowed to smoke at a table outside and apparently it is not in the legislation in France but it could be an issue.

they do have to give warning and they haven't yet, so fingers crossed it'll be ok....

[quote user="Pads"]Is it  ta because family is a fem noun ? [/quote] Yes!  the gender of the person doesn't come into it.  So ta carte de voeux, is your greetings card, it could never be ton, because carte is feminine.  Proof it has nothing to do with the nature of the word - le féminisme.  The only time when it matters is for things like actor/ actress, or some animals, chien chienne, but not always, for example, la girafe.

So are you looking forward to it, or dreading it?  Although smoking has been banned in the work place since February it is coming into force in restaurants, bar, cafes and so on in January.  There was a report about it on France info this morning, saying that it is only really in the tabacs that they think there might be a problem.  Personally, the big change for me was February and most of the restaurants I go to are non- smoking already.

[quote user="Frenchie"]Moi aussi je cause très bien la france, mais au travers de votre phrase j'ai reconnu la structure de la phrase anglaise " doesn't make sense" .. Je ne considère pas que ma phrase soit soutenue , elle est simplement telle que l immense majorité des français l'écriraient. Ceci dit, je ne suis pas ici pour une querelle linguistique alors bonne soirée.   And I agree that the fact that the couple needed the help of their little girl in the " boulangerie" was a bit surprising, but I thought maybe they just relied on her when she was with them, and I think they probably give it a go  when they re on their own. It s a matter of self confidence IMHO ..   [/quote] je plaisantais si quand-même, les profs de français font souvent remarquer aux élèves qu'il faut éviter le verbe faire....bref It wasn't so much the baker's, but the fact that they couldn't talk to their child's teacher. I really have a problem when parents can't communicate with me, and I don't like leaving it to the child to translate, or worse, not getting to see the parents at all and finding it is the older sister or brother who has turned up. This little girl looked charming, but what if she has a problem that she doesn't want to talk to her parents about? People may be surprised to discover that some French people find that the English are not very open to them speaking in English and can be very critical.  I contribute to a French forum for English teachers and there was a whole thread about how this was a problem and they didn't get to practise as much as they would like.

Mine was probably the knee high socks from my brother in law last year, or else once I got some bags to make toasted sandwiches in a toaster, only I don't have a toaster!

[quote user="Jura"] Tourangelle, I think the bored elderly locals I write about are relevant. Unless the local youth aim higher in life they will finish up just like them. [/quote] Wow what a scoop, young people get older eventually!  I think it's hilarious Scooby has been confused for a bloke[:D]

[quote user="Frenchie"]you should say " le début de votre phrase n'a pas de sens"  ..  Sorry for my broken English then. [/quote] Je ne suis pas d'accord, je ne souhaitais pas être élégante et éviter à tout prix l'utilisation du verbe faire, donc je peux très bien dire "ne fait pas sens" C'est vrai que c'est une question de niveau de langue, et ma phrase n'est pas très soutenue.  Je cause la France, quoi... you're right, whoever said they didn't want to met me, if you have lived in France for three years and you use an eight year old to translate, you don't want to meet me.

The people getting their daughter to translate weren't making very much effort. (petit hors sujet) le début de votre phrase ne fait pas sens.[8-)]

I felt really sorry for the little girl who had to translate for her parents, why hadn't they learnt any French?  In fact I was just cringing at their French in general, very intolerant of me.[:$]  Also, none of the women seemed to work, and not all of them had very small children, how they are not all bored out of their brains, what with not speaking the language, I don't know.  They'd have to speak much better French to get a job here, so they are basically going to be stuck. Wouldn't suit me.