Tourangelle

Lori Isn't your daughter in collège?  If so there wont be a note, as we aren't obliged to say in advance if we are striking or not.  I am.

I agree with lots of what Miki says, especially the emphasis on the fact that the two systems are different when in come to universities.  The drop out rate is huge because they don't do admissions really until after the first year, so some sink rather than swim.  As thousands are not being paid in tuition fees each year, it is not such a big deal for parents and so on, and often it is possible to reconvert.  I have studied both in France (teaching diplomas at uni) and the UK, (degree in UK,) and for me, the major difference was that there is no social life or students unions here, but I had excellent teaching both times. I find the comment Arnold makes about his friend strange, it is not my experience at all, having lived here for eight years, and now teaching things like 'have you ever drunk irn bru' to collègians, I have not lost my English at all, and I have no problem when I go back, but everybody is different I suppose.

At 18 it's leaving it a bit late, but in some French lycée there are German students who come on a year long exchange through the Rotary club.  They generally come for their lower sixth year (première).  Coming and doing a year of terminal to get the bac, is, unfortunately, totally impossible as they do the exams over two years.

What about something on the electoral system in France, with all the elections coming up next year you should find the info quite easily.

[quote user="Coco"]Well irrespective of her views or comments on teachers she still won the candidacy!  And without the need for a second round of voting. Big changes afoot in France then - either a woman in charge or Sarko!  I wonder if she would be afforded the same understanding if she is discovered to have a lover as previous leading politicians have [6] [/quote] I wouldn't rule out Chirac, and we shouldn't rule anything out too soon, nobody saw Le Pen in the second round last time except him!

Le train bleu is EXPENSIVE.  But there are loads of cafés and brasseries near the Gare de Lyon, nothing very inspiring, Maitre Kanter for example, but there is no lack of choice.

Mistral, did you post on agreg-ink?

mistral I've only had one session so far, but I'll keep you posted!  It's organised by the Casnav, centre pour la scolarisation des élèves nouvellement arrivés and something else, children who are travellers, perhaps.

Emma If you were in a large city, you would get lots of help.  Children who arrive in the school I teach in, a college, get 8-12 hours of extra French a week, taught by specially trained teachers.  There is a special section for them, and we have training on how best to integrate them in our classes the rest of the time.  Now this is the city, so obviously they can concentrate resources wisely.  As you talk about your village school, perhaps you are not in a big enough school district to get this sort of help.  However you could talk to the school and see if anybody is available to help, otherwise you will just have to pay for private lessons.

I suppose as ES has more maths and so on, you don't need the French so much.  There is lots of reading for the L, not so much for ES, so I suppose in that respect it could be harder for you in L.  There's more history in ES, too.  I agree with Mistral, though, if you are just coming for a few terms, it doesn't really matter, do what you think you'll enjoy most. 

It's not paid by the CAF, the tenants get the CAF money and they pay the rent as usual.

I can't wait until next year, when it should be during the holidays.  It's not that I don't respect the kids' choice, but they do seem to expect things to slow down, not to have tests and so on.  We don't make any allowances, but since the beginning of the week, all I've heard is Madame, j'ai faim.  [:@]

[quote user="jojo"]but then realised that she really needed to pass her brevet to be able to be obtain any sort of employment in france. [/quote] You realised this?  From what?  Please don't be under any illusion, the brevet wont get her a job.  If somebody has told you this, they are wrong. You're right in that she needs to learn French, since she is stuck here for a couple of years.  Are you expecting her to stay here forever?  It seems hard on her not to do any GCSEs, if she does go back she will probably be disadvantaged.

[quote user="Prof de francais"] I don't think that listening to nursery rhymes or songs alone will induce significant language learning. For young children, they will probably have an impact on pronunciation, however, but don't expect any miracles. [/quote] I wasn't suggesting it would.  It think it's important to remember that the original poster mention quite a short time scale, so regular classes and so on aren't really an option.  Also, as one of the children is three, possibly not speaking great English yet, the most that could be hoped is that some familiarity with the language is gained.

Although I agree with the previous posters I'd put it more brutally than that.  I think a 16 year old arriving in France with GCSE French (ie the bare minimum) is going to suffer.  If you get him into school, he wont be able to follow with GCSE French. He wont be able to write French to anywhere near the required standard, so he wont be able to do a general bac, and he wont get into the good training programmes because they fill up quickly.  Nobody will employ him if he can't speak French and he will find it very hard.  Your only option is an international school or leaving him behind, or, I suppose, if he is very bright, seeing if he sinks or swims at school.  But he will lose years that way as they will not put him into premiere - lower sixth, but into seconde- year 11 at the most.

I had my wisdom teeth out at the dental hospital, sent there by my dentist, not that she couldn't do it herself, but the hospital, where she works one day, is better equipped and I didn't pay anything at all, just handed over my carte vitale.  I certainly wouldn't go and see a doctor about it, it is far better to go straight for a dentist who knows what they are doing.  If you have trouble finding one, then you could ring your dental hospital and ask for a recommendation.

Muzzy apparently does work, but it is quite old.  If I were you, I would get them some tapes of nursery rhymes in French (try amazon.fr "comptines", sorry if you already know this), look at DVDs you already have, perhaps some of them have a French option,  and if you have satellite, stick them in front of teletubbies in French for 20 minutes a day. But don't worry, they are only little, they'll pick it up. (I don't have kids but I'm a teacher)

Lucky you Jen, Bourges is a nice town, but as Cassis says, it is just a big town, if you want your children to have "international school" style education then you would have to go for a much bigger city (Lyon, Nice, Paris etc) non of which are an option with your husband's work.  If you put your children into local schools the English they will be taught will be very much of the "I have one brother and a cat" variety.  However, you are considering a town rather than a village so there should be something in place for children who arrive with little or no French.  I think you will find it difficult with no French, however, try your luck at the town hall (la mairie), failing that, go to your nearest school, (école primaire, primary school, or even as you have an 11 year old your local collège- secondary school from 11-15) and see if you can get one of the teachers to help you.  In a sense you are not arriving at the right moment, even though you will be there at the beginning of the year, because obviously teachers and so on will be very busy.  Just reading this through it sounds quite negative, but you just need to find one person who speaks English to get everything sorted.  Presumably your husband's company is going to give you some help? Can I recommend an organisation that has nothing to do with tschools directly but is there to help people who arrive in a new town with everything they have to organise.  They are called AVF, association des villes de France.  I have looked them up in Bourges, and the address is Maison des Associations, 28 rue Gambon, 18000 Bourges.  To find out more about what AVF can do for you, check out www.avf.asso.fr click on the little flag in the right hand corner to get it in English.

I don't know the answers to your questions, but I do know that it is possible to sign a pacs abroad at a consulate or an embassy, as I know somebody who has done it.  Sounds like a phone call to the French embassy is in order [:)]

Brother in law, cousins, uncles, exuberant types in the south - loads of male kissing going on!! As for the "tu" / "vous" distinction, it is far from clear cut.  All teachers, for example, say "tu" to each other when they work in the same place, even if they don't know each other.  Students at university also use "tu" all the time with all their peers.  Family members don't always.  I don't use "tu" with all my husband's family.

[quote user="Debra"] I know your site says that in your experience only French and Math's are checked properly [/quote] ho hmm, I see Pangur's point

I had a friend in a similar position and I know that a couple of years BA had 11 as a minimum age for unaccompanied children.

[quote user="beryl"]Thanks again for the suggestions. Do any of you recommend to your students any French published text books for learning English? It may help me get an idea of how it is taught in schools or colleges, but I am  not planning on charging or turning this into a career. [/quote] If you want to get an idea of how English is taught in schools, then why not have a look at some text books.  This is the time of year to get them second hand, if you ask around, or in second hand bookshops.  Just make sure that you get post 1995 for the Collège and post 2002 for lycée level, because the curriculem has changed, (and is about to again in 6eme)

[quote user="Phil the Francophile"][quote user="Tourangelle"][quote user="Quillan"] I spoke to a person I know this afternoon who's wife died at Christmas here in France. To confirm what I thought and Tourangelle said he can live in the house till he dies or rent it out and rent a smaller one and keep the difference. He has had to pay no tax or anything else. He has been told the same as what I read (in the LF magazine) that if he sells the house he must pass over his wifes share to her children as it was their second marriage and they both had children by their first marriages but none between them. Taking the above in to account I think this is down quite simply to the fact that the original poster is not and will not get married so obviously he will be in a different position. Before the law changed one way was to legally adopt your step children if you were married and then put a tontin clause in. [/quote] Quillian, glad you posted this, since my last post I've been talking about this to my (French) family, and the general concensus was that the marriage made all the difference! [/quote] Without wishing to protract this I am not sure what is being said here. I have never said I would not get married, indeed I have referred elsewhere in this thread to the communaute universelle which is only available to married couples. In the case of a communaute universelle, then no IHT is payable. However, a communaute universelle is open to attack by stepchildren as French courts can decide that having such an arrangement is a deliberate attempt to disinherit those step-children. This is called the action en retranchement and is a right available to step-children, but does not need to be exercised. Beware!! [/quote] You appeared to be suggesting, and both Quillian and I clearly understood this the same way, that children would have to be paid compensation if the surviving spouse took the usufruct of the house.  However it would seem that this does not apply when the couple is married, and certainly not, in my example where the only children involved are those of the marriage. I am pretty sure nobody was suggesting that the communauté universelle was available to anybody other than people who are, or who are planning to get married, as it is a marriage contract.

[quote user="Quillan"]I spoke to a person I know this afternoon who's wife died at Christmas here in France. To confirm what I thought and Tourangelle said he can live in the house till he dies or rent it out and rent a smaller one and keep the difference. He has had to pay no tax or anything else. He has been told the same as what I read (in the LF magazine) that if he sells the house he must pass over his wifes share to her children as it was their second marriage and they both had children by their first marriages but none between them. Taking the above in to account I think this is down quite simply to the fact that the original poster is not and will not get married so obviously he will be in a different position. Before the law changed one way was to legally adopt your step children if you were married and then put a tontin clause in. [/quote] Quillian, glad you posted this, since my last post I've been talking about this to my (French) family, and the general concensus was that the marriage made all the difference!