Banana Benders, been, done, lived everywhere - small world, wouldn’t wanna paint it though…
What you mean you are a Queenslander 
?? 
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We have lived in France before and we are aware that some people have problems with the administration but we have had no problems ourselves. The import of our car was straightforward, the tax officials were polite and helpful Spanc and CPAM the same. Maybe this is because we simply have not been reliant on any service industry. But your points are interesting and it’s great the French have a more social or socialist attitude and turn there back on overtime. Back in the UK for the first time ever we lived on an estate and couldn’t believe the number of small businesses scratching around for a living the latest being house cleaning both inside and out. But we have now been without a proper internet connection for four weeks. We are reliant on the O2 mobile network which seems very fragile. No connection today until now. So yes it is very frustrating but once this hurdle is crossed I’m sure everything else will be okay
It’s great that other aspects of your move have gone well.
There are other threads about mobile connections, I think Free has a good option for 19.99 a month, but maybe search this forum and you’ll find recent details which may help you short term.
It takes a while to slow the pace down a bit, we slow down to theirs, can’t expect them to speed up to ours 
Enjoy life and welcome back to France.
Henri
Thanks for those suggestions I’ll give them a try. In the meantime it’s back to the Orange boutique tomorrow as I have heard nothing from Sogotrel
Code SOLEIL22 as in below link would give you a good start on a mobile connection with Orange. If your local signal’s good enough - and if anyone’s is Orange is likely to be - there is no problem using phones as routers even to do TV or stream. This is a promo for 10 euros for 70Gb that is the lowest they do. Usually even their promo rate is 15 euros. Just use the time it gives you wisely so that you switch out of it in good time before it clicks up to 30 euros after 1 year.
Thanks Karen. I would have tried your suggestion but a very sympathetic man from orange has lent me an airbox which must be something similar . It gives me a better connection than my bt line in the UK
Sogotrel are living up to their reputation… They did not try to contact me on Monday or Tuesday. They did try 11am this morning but I was too late to reply. Maybe tomorrow something might happen!
Great advice and yes you sum up the life here very well. I love the fact that when they can’t get to you for whatever reason, I get told the car had broken down. Ive lost count how many times I’ve been given this excuse.
One word of advice i do remember being given is that when they say they will arrive on monday. Always check which Monday !!
A final postscript. We at last got connected on Thursday third time lucky. The previous time I had a very apologetic phone call explaining that the technician hadn’t turned up. The technicians were very helpful and did their best but it did take over two hours as they couldn’t connect to the connection in the garage so they had to lay a new cable from about 200 yard away. Also I have given up trying to speak in French on the phone it just creates more confusion!
I recently ordered some lawn mower parts from a French supplier. One of the reasons I chose that supplier is that they offered same-day dispatch. When, after 3 days, there was no sign of the package and their website still showed in stock - in course of preparation I phoned and reminded them of their website’s ‘same day despatch’ promise.
I could almost hear the shrug: “Yes, of course, sir. We despatch the parcel the same day we pack it. But the packing can take several days, even if you have just ordered one item.”
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It was autoportee-discount.fr Perhaps it’s just the way lawn mower part suppliers choose to operate in France…
Same experience with ordering a new clutch for the strimmer. No sign of it after 3 days, made contact and they apologized as they’d apparently overlooked my order. Ironically received a standard round robin sales mail from them yesterday extolling the convenience of ordering online from them - quick delivery, no petrol costs going to a store blah blah 
a bog smike on my face