I shall follow your tweets Finn... have already.
I was in Krefeld in the Spring... a veritable ( rare ) heatwave. Wow what an electric place... couldn't believe the low cost of living.... I could buy a 10 bed farmhouse with land in the country there for the worth of my apartment here.
I vowed never to move there, but from food to culture it has a lot going for it. ( too chilly for my bones though )
Do hang around Finn - it wouldn't be the same without you and please do keep us updated on your movements! xx
I was in Der Eifel and Düsseldorf in April...
The property is so cheap
just bookmarked your site. Like Bri I hef Jerman
where are you headed?
the most articulate text I've read in this thread Finn. Thank you
your input will be sorely missed.
Good luck tho'
Hallelujah Finn, but a pity you are going...
see pm
Grrrrrraphically Celeste
SÛRVIVE FRANCE Network with the "^" is an interesting deviation to which I had given no thought.
very clever
Steve - I don't quite understand what you mean here - can you please clarify? Thanks.
"Anyway it's one thing to have off-message participants, but if this site as it currently is got plagued by spammers, francophobes etc then they'd have to do something or else we'd all leave."
I know I know, I've been rescued on a couple of occasions. I still think it's far too easy to take the name the wrong way.
And that's the point of SFN Steve. We were not members at the time of our CPAM interview so the question seemed surreal. If we had asked SFN about it beforehand, we may have been forewarned.
of course not Steve.... Blind faith is faith too!
as to trolling ....get on the trolleybus...I do
So there's the key. Would the faithful quit if they changed the name? Like New Labour. I would hope not.
Thanks for the non-eviction notice. I don't always troll, if trolling this was.
We got the deed poll hassle. It's because if you were born in France your birth certificate becomes a lifelong rolling historical record, so you would indeed normally have a new birth certificate if you changed your name.
I like the born again joke, wish we'd thought of it.
Sorry Catharine
Like!! :)
My OH I are very grateful to be members of such a great site and think that the name is perfect.
When we requested our carte vitale at the CPAM nearly four years ago there was no question of having our documents translated. In fact my OH was born in Germany but changed her name by deed poll in the UK. Our CPAM representative asked in all seriousness for a new birth certificate in her new name. (we have heard of born again Christians…) French bureaucracy is certainly one of the reasons that outsiders flounder and tips from SFN help people survive it.
Anyone coming to the continent from the UK will struggle with French bureaucracy here but are also likely to struggle anywhere in Europe. The French are in a class of their own because other nations in the EU are trying to integrate more whilst the French throw in requests for translation of documents, which appears to be a new rule since May.
We have learnt a lot from other people’s good and bad experiences on SFN.
Whilst we live in one of the less popular areas, we are still finding many things are quite difficult even after nearly four years. Since my job is here and no longer in the UK we cannot up sticks and go back home. We do need to survive in France at least until I retire and until then, we hope to have the continued support of SFN.
SFN's not established like a blue chip is established. It might suit those of us, mainly retired I suspect, who enjoy the banter, but I'm not sure if it has yet reached commercial viability let alone having a lot to lose. And I'm just not going to mention it to my French French friends unless I am very sure they won't take it badly, and having been here only 4 years and us being the only all Anglo household in town (?) I don't think I've yet earned sufficient trust.
Thanks for the explanation, I understand now how this has evolved into a discussion about censorship. Yes it's all in the news at present about the limits on one's right to give and take offence; that's not the point here. For sure one should be allowed to run a site called All French people are $%^&* etc etc and it should be allowed to have lots of semi-racist diatribe at the least. I wouldn't use it as wouldn't practically every person whose posts I've read here. I expect and hope it wouldn't provide a living to its owners. SFN from my experience seems to be self moderating. (I'm going to experiment with a naughty word. fxxx Naughty word report - it didn't get automatically censored, experiment having been done I've self censored now.)
Anyway it's one thing to have off-message participants, but if this site as it currently is got plagued by spammers, francophobes etc then they'd have to do something or else we'd all leave.
Don't forget the end user (the one who pays) is the advertiser, not the participants. I guess if one sticks to Anglo advertisers it might work out.
Well said, reality is not what we had imagined before...
Welcome, BTW....I wouldn't dive straight into this one....try a fluffy cat/ fosse septique to ease your way in.