Tourangelle

Just what has this got to do with French youth unemployment??? Most unemployed French youths, like French youths in general live in cities, and I don't think all this discussion about old people being bored in rural areas has anything to do with the thread.

[quote user="pimpernel"]I think that threads such as these can also be split down to people who have retired to France and people who have come to work in France.  Even the French complain about the obstacles that are put in front of anyone with any entrepenurial spirit. People who move here and start businesses and especially if they wish to employ will come up against far more frustration than someone who rises at 10 has a few glasses of wine, potters about in the garden , sits down in the evening and watches english television before going to bed after another hard day.[/quote] Pimpernel I agree it is not the same for these two groups.  But it's not all there is. What about, shock horror, coming here and not starting a business OR retiring??? How about just getting a job?  Don't tell me, there are no jobs in rural backwaters?  Well it's the same the world over.  There are lots of Brits in their 20s and 30s in the bigger cities who work.  Ok, so you need to speak French, but apart from that, there is work out there.  Of course, they don't have time to post on sites like this...

Quillian I wasn't correcting you except for the part about the Capes.  The agregation is four days of written exams, one 7 hours and three 6 hours.  The two days of oral exams.  I've looked at it only to decide that I don't want to put myself through it.  I'm going to wait a couple of years until I can do the internal version.  It is a bit like being in the army, you get posted to places.  However, you are guaranteed a job, which is a massive incentive.  There're always the private schools, (state subsidised ones) for which you have to do the same exams, but you stay in the area where you took the exam.  The conditions and the pay aren't so good because you're not a civil servant.  Anyway OP, do let us know if you think that any of this is for you!

Just to add to what Quillian said, I worked for many years teaching adults English.  Work is easy to find in big cities.  You say you have a PGCE, but you don't say in what.  If it is a language, you probably wouldn't find a TEFL qualification opens any more doors.  Companies who teach business English generally won't employ you full time, but on an hourly rate.  However, you can accumulate a lot of hours.  These companies may require you to travel or you may give the lessons in their offices.  They tend to favour native English speakers over French people; it is seen as a selling point. Working in a primary school is a definite possibility, but shouldn't be seen as long term career option because the ability to speak a language is now one of the criteria in the recruitment of all primary school teachers, so they are aiming to do without the outside help. The capes is actually three five hour exams and then two one hour oral exams.  Then the year's training.  Having done it, it is no picnic, and you have to be really motived. I could write lots more about the capes, but won't unless it will be useful.

Jura you need to come out of the mountains! Most supermarkets round here open those hours already 6/7days and also open Sunday morning.  For the other shops, they are open as many hours here as in the UK for example, the longer opening hours easily make up for the five or six hours on a Sunday.  If you chose to bury yourself somewhere where you have those annoyingly long lunch hours and nothing open on a Monday it doesn't follow that the rest of France, who mostly live in cities suffer the same inconvenience.

I didn't realise that in the UK when the teachers go on strike, all the teachers go on strike if their union tells them to (this was just explained to me recently).  Here it is completely different, you gon on strike when the unions have given their warning if you want to, but you can do this if you are in the union or if you aren't.  If you are in the union, you don't have to go out.  Cathy, I don't agree that the lycéens go out on strike because the teachers do. I don't think teachers have that much influence, and certainly not more than the parents.  I think they are far more likely to be influenced by the students at the universities. 

I think it is because supermarkets like Auchan and Carrefour and so on operate in other European countries but not in the UK.  There are very few shops that are the same as the UK and therefore they do packaging in accordance to where the various goods might be sent.

If it helps, I think you can use madame to an adult woman and not offend. For me, mademoiselle is for young girls. I'm 31 and married and I find mademoiselle very belittling.  Not so bad when it is a very old person, but otherwise, I do sometimes object.  Like people in the street doing surveys, if they call out bonjour mademoiselle they get ignored, or told off.

It's nothing compared to 2005.  I worked in a city centre lycée that year and we couldn't get out one day because of the protests, and another day we had to shut all the shutters because stones were being thrown. A couple of days running we had the CRS at the entrance.  I always think students striking is ridiculous, because they aren't getting paid, so there is not so much at stake.  It is even more ridiculous when it is the lycéens.  I don't mind the protests so much, as the idea that they go on strike. That said, it is the student protests that have changed things in France in the past, they also have the least to loose.

He's been a teacher for nearly 20 years in various suburbs of Paris and Lyon and she's far from being the first pupil he's had who's come from an African nation.  But hey, he could be wrong, what do I know, he told me this the day before yesterday, because she had just arrived and he was looking up the town she had said she came from because he didn't know it (professional pride, he's a geography teacher).  He also said it wasn't his problem, which it isn't, but it is why what you were saying about not being entitled to schooling after 16 hit a chord with me.  I think it is important that people realise this, and especially for the OP who is thinking of coming with a 16 year old.  You're right, they don't check passports, or id cards, because any child of school age (6-16 just to repeat myself) is entitled to go, whatever their nationality.  

I guess it says she's 14!  The issue is that at 16, as Jura has pointed out, you will be politely shown the door, and I think that it is really important that the OP with her 16 year old bears that in mind.  I'm not suggesting she should pretend her child is younger!

No, you should contact your insurance company.  But, they may ask for an "attestation" from the school.

Panda's right, house prices are going down according to newspapers like "les echos". Although many dismiss Jura as a bit of a whinger, she make a vital point.  School is not obligatory after 16, that is the law, and they don't have to take your child. Especially a child who has GCSEs and therefore has completed a "cycle".  Just as an anecdote, my husband has a new girl in his class, in 3eme, he says no way is she 14, as she claims.  He's really experienced, he'd know, and thinks she is at least 17.  But the family has just moved over from the Ivory Coast, if she is over 16, she'd get no schooling.  So it is an issue here, that people thinking of moving older children over should be aware of.

the minimum time is three months, but you would have to move in and give your notice... I just did that, almost, I stayed 3 and a half months, but because the flat was entirely rubbish, it was not plan A. 

You'd have to see a lawyer to make sure, and you'd probably have to be able to prove that your wife bought the house alone with only her money, otherwise your four children would have a claim.  Then you'd have to bank on the idea that you would die before your wife, because otherwise you would inherit half with your daughter, and that half on your death would be split between your five children. So your daughter would own her half, from her mother, plus a fifth.  Basically, what you suggest only works if you die first, and your children are unable to make a claim because it really only belongs to your wife. That's how I understand it anyway, but you do need to take advice.

Thanks for the answers.  We are very normal people (!) we'd kept the place clean and gave it a good going over.  I wondered whether Gite de France themselves had any rules about this, surely it is not on to write afterwards and claim the place was not clean having not even looked it over?

I'd really like some advice from gite owners on this one, especially those who go through Gite de France. We rented a small studio with gite de France in ille et villaine.  It was ok, nothing amazing, but fine for what we paid.  We'd never rented before in France (though several times in the UK), only stayed in hotels, so we weren't quite sure what to expect, and had read all the stuff that came through.  We'd expected to be asked for a deposit, but weren't.  We didn't find the person who was there when we arrived overly welcoming, he seemed in a bit of a hurry, didn't explain how the oven worked, for example, which meant that the following day we had to ring to ask, didn't tell us where the bins were, etc. We knew we had to clean it, so we spent about an hour the final night hoovering, cleaning the bathroom, washing the floor, cleaning the kitchen.  It was 30 odd M2, so with the two of us, it was clean.  The next day, we put away all the dishes, gave the bathroom and kitchen a final wipe down, and gave back the keys in time (10 o'clock).  The owner asked if we had cleaned it, which we had.  I told her we had not taken the sheets off the bed, and asked if that was ok (like in so many of these places there were covers on the mattress and I never know whether I am doing more harm than good taking them off).  She said it was, and did not, despite the fact that she was next door, come to check. Now we have had a letter from her, saying there is a cleaning bill of 33 euros!  She has said that she has written to Gites de France, I suppose the implication is to get us banned, how ridiculous.  The letter was written in poor French, (she was French) and I can't understand why she would do this.  It is only short, and the only example given is that apparently the toothbrush glass was not clean!  33 euros suggests three hours cleaning!  We left the place clean.  I think she is trying to pull a fast one, but she is not actually asking for money, and given that she didn't check the flat, she doesn't have a leg to stand on, but I am really annoyed, because the place was clean.  Would there be any reason she would claim this, when it is not the case. I am going to write to Gite de France myself, but should I write to the one in ille et vilaine or is there a more national one?  I read the blurb again, it just says you should leave it clean, which it was.  We tried to put things back in the right place, table cloths and so on.  I suppose I feel angry because we acted in good faith and I feel it is totally unjustified to write to us afterwards when she did not check the place.  My husband is French, so it is not as if we misunderstood something.  If I had arrived in that gite with that level of cleanliness, I would have thought it was fine, all that was required was to change the towels, the bed, and the placemats.  I am feeling very upset about this, and I feel my memories of my holiday have been ruined because of it.  What would you advise?

I think it is really hard to get a placement from the UK, when I was at uni only one girl managed it and it was through a personal contact.  The rest of us went to uni or were assistants, just as well for us, really, because it is really expensive if you pay for it yourself (the erasmus people got a grant, I don't know if that is still the case, and assistants of course are paid).  As for accomodation, I know it might sound like a leap in the dark, but if she really wants to improve her French she needs be renting with other French students and going to a university town, even if she is going to work. 

It is not part of the taxe d'habitation, it is just on the same bill, but appears quite distinctly.  I have never paid it as I don't have a tv, and before I would get the odd letter saying did I still not have a tv, but now there is just something to tick on the tax declaration form.

[quote user="Sharkster"]So is Melun not a particulary nice place to live? [/quote] My best friend lived there when she was a student in Paris, I only went the once, briefly and it struck me as distinctly uninspiring.  Now I just drive past it on my way elsewhere which is why I said I thought the countryside wasn't that nice.  It really is quite far from Paris! 

Go with what the woman at the station said.  I know the area because my husband comes from round there.  If I am not mistaken you will be taking a regular train not the RER, and therefore not a carte orange, because that is the travel pass for within the RER network.  The last stop on the line nearest you is Orry-la-ville on the RER, and you will be going from Chantilly SNCF.  However, it may be that it is valid on the metro and so on, because sometimes there are agreements that allow the passes to work even if they are not with the RER. I'm sure the person at the station is giving you the correct information, the journey to Paris must be a very regular question for them. Abonnement des eleves, etudiants et apprentis just means subscription for pupils, students and trainees, which is great for you, it means you are getting a reduction.

Only ever go past Melun going towards the francilienne, these days.  If you are looking at the very outside edge of your 45 minute commute, which you would be with Melun, you might as well go somewhere reasonable, like Senlis or even Compiègne, at least it is pleasant when you go out and about.  I don't really like the countryside in that area. Raindog is right though, what do you want to be safe from?  My mother in law lives near Survilliers, 95, (check the very north of the RER D), it's really safe, nothing ever happens there, people live their suburban lives, garden, walk their dogs, go to the supermarket, walk in the countryside at the weekend and commute to the Gare de nord in about 35 minutes, (admittedly passing through the not so safe 93).  I'm bored to tears after a day, but I can see that it would be a safe place to bring up your kids, send them to football practice, ballet lessons and so on.

Again it comes down to the language doesn't it?  If you can speak French, then living in France is not significantly different to living in the UK, especially if you live in one of the cities. 

  where's the smiley for "ouf"

It just highlights the problems people encounter when they arrive and don't know the system.  Unless you know, why would you think that collège stops at 15 and obligatory schooling at 16.  Even though I've lived here for years and work in the school system I still find it quite odd that there is this year from 15-16 where they have to be taught but where there are so many different options available.  It is just because you get so used to the system that you have been through yourself, I think.