What did you wish you’d brought or left behind

Further west, but the same latitude approx.

Only 500mg of paracetamol in every sachet though.

That’s my preferred mixture. Much better if you add ginger wine and lemon as well.
I make my own ginger wine. I have 20l of the stuff going at the mo. 3Kg of ginger in it. Knocks your socks off.

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We do, and to be fair they aren’t quite the same sort of cake so we wouldn’t attempt them, but most French home made cakes are more or less botch jobs made by 8 year olds to keep them busy on a wet day, really. Also I think probably fewer of us are stay at home mothers so the cakes I mentioned before are what we have time and energy for and serve to make us feel we are doing something child friendly and domestic. We really don’t have that Anglo-Saxon baking thing going on.
Mind you I say that and love baking but nobody in either my French OR Scottish family does any.

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It worries me a little that so many brits don’t fully understand vehicle registration procedures in France & are prepared to “wing it”.
Sometimes the official handling a particular part of the process is also not fully up to speed either so certain aspects can vary in individual cases so one person’s experience in one department will not be mirrored in another.
Buying a French registered car in the UK can also be fraught with problems! Selling a French car requires processes to be carried out by both parties at the same time & if the details don’t tally the buyer can’t register the car in their name - EVER! There are UK traders that can sell a French car because they use a french registered business to handle the paperwork/ANTS notification so check that the seller is on the ball. There are a couple of traders based in the town of Chesham, for example, that don’t have a clue & happily sell French cars to unsuspecting brits - I have dealt with 4 of their customers to date.

With regard to importing a car from the UK the requirements did change on 01/01/2021 but took time to filter through.
You should apply for a Quitus Fiscal within 15 days of importing a car from another EU country although this time limit is rarely adhered to as most of these cars are over 6 months old so not subject to any VAT anyway. Many SIE offices would still issue a QF if proof of pre-brexit arrival was submitted for many months after the date. By October 2021 many offices were losing patience with late applications & were redirecting applicants to Douanes. Some Douanes offices sent people back to SIE, others issued the 846a without charging the duty & VAT (as they should for a move of permanent residence) but charged it to those who had their cars here for some time but not bothered to import it.

There is some confusion about a 6 month grace period. It does not exist!
I think people are confusing a mix of time limits.
If you arrive from the UK to make France your principal residence you should declare your car to Douanes as part of your household possessions using the Cerfa 10070. You can do this at your regional Douanes but as you must at least start the registration process within a month of arrival you need to make it a priority. Remember that when you notify your UK insurance company that you are now a French resident (as you are required to in your terms & conditions) your cover will probably stop so you will need to get cover from a French provider. Although some agents will not provide insurance of foreign plated vehicles many will but for a limited time.

Access to the ANTS online registration system is not possible for new arrivals as full access relies on a presence on the INSEE database (like the UK Electorial Roll) which takes time to be amended so until then a new arrival will have to use a third party. This does not have to be a paid service but whoever you use needs to be familiar with the process. Some are not & insist on submitting documents that can actually make a simple process extremely hard, like insisting on a certificate of conformity when the required details are already on the registration document.

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As an example see here:

I took business suits to France then brought them back with me unworn some 12 years later. Now they are too big for me. Still not worn them since 2007!!! Time to donate them I think :thinking:
Izzy x

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Quite so, Stella. Loose tea is real tea. A tea specialist shop in UK had a ‘sale’ - substantial discounts on proper teas. 1kg of The Supreme Earl Grey and 1 kg of Keemun. £85 p n p f.o.c.

That’s enough tea to fill a box a bit bigger than a 6-bottle wine carton.

For “vehicle registration procedures” substitute any administrative/legal/banking/social requirement.

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Wasn’t quite sure where to post this, but with the recent motoring theme, I landed here. I just had cause to go onto a specific car forum to look for a couple of bits of information, and stumbled across the below comment - it did make me smile alot, and winging it certainly came to mind :grinning: it’s a jungle out there :smiley:

''Bonjour a tous,

je suis a la recherche des catalyseurs pour 986 s de 2000, j’ai acheté mon bolide il y a 2 ans dont l’ancien proprio avais du avoir un bon copain au contrôle technique, car la voiture été passé sans les cata au contrôle anti-pollution.

*Mais aujourd’hui elle a 0 Default sauf qu’elle passe pas à l’anti-pollution, *

Je cherche donc a acheté ou que l’on me prête ou me donne les 2 cata que je puisse passer la contre visit.’’

If you need or wanted I think second hand furniture is super easy to find and good prices here in France, I am in the Gard. We brought 100 litres of wall paint it’s expensive and not so good in France.
We brought 6000 books by pallet lorry ( and the paint ) it’s so much cheaper but you need a depot / warehouse / business site to drop it off at to meet the regulations. Our mayor sorted this at a site on edge of village and it’s was delivered and removed within two hours. The mayor even used the forklift!

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People also make the ubiquitous tarte aux pommes for events. I once made an apricot tart instead and everyone was shocked…

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They are but you have to be extremely careful about the paperwork. By the time I had had all explained to me by our resident motor docs guru @anon90504988 I abandoned the idea of buying a LHD in UK and bought RHD instead [rather than come with my RHD camper van]

If you can find one with the paperwork in suitable order, I agree - it can be LOTS cheaper.

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Very good ex-corporate laptops can be had on eBay [UK] for 1/2 - 1/3 the price of lesser devices, new. Depending on the seller and the machine, they come with g’tees.

The HP ex-corporate laptop I bought as a desktop replacement when I moved to Spain in 2017 is still going strong - £200. The Tosh I bought just before ducking under the descending portcullis, to move to FR in Nov 2020, as ‘one for the road’ has done a great job for £160.

It will be replaced, when I go over to UK soon to sell my camper, with a HP Elitebook, [top of its range], 16Gb RAM/256 Gb solid state drive/3rd gen i5 for £180. G’tee 6 months. Electronic devices tend to conk out as soon as they are first used or not at all.

Like s/h cars, used IT in UK is cheap

Of course they have staff, darling.

5, Berkley Sq, where those people occupied it on the basis it was owned by a Russian oligarch - that used to be ‘Chips’ Channon’s house. A London house, no grounds to maintain - but 16 servants! It helped [financially] being married to a Guinness heiress, even if she did run off with a horse dealer.

Pour a finger of the Scottish nectar into a glass. Squeeze a whole lemon into it. Add a teaspoon of ground ginger, a little [brown sugar or] honey, add hot water but not so much as to dilute the nectar - you know what I’m on about. The Hot Toddie! Beats all the stuff out of packets, hands down.

Rennies - I use about 3 p.a. But I wouldn’t be without them.

Glad you mentioned them, Mark. I have seen their ads and been tempted.

Are these books your private library or you in the book biz? A FR branch of The Book Depository? I cut about 18m of shelves/books down to +/- 12m when I moved from UK to Spain and now I’ve moved to FR I still have far too many. But I do have two e-readers with scores of books and counting.

I agree about Fr paint. The prices in B/Marche were so high when I first saw them I actually laughed! They can’t sell emulsion for the price a Brit pays for good marine antifouling - can they? I bought 30 litres up from Spain. Brilliant stuff - built in ‘anti humo’

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That’s what we did, 3 Elite books one for myself, my OH and her father, built like tanks.

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Yeah, I had one until recently. Bought second hand via eBay too. The battery needed replacing and I swapped the old mechanical drive for an SSD… gave it’s whole new lease of life. Only got rid of it because a friend needed a laptop. Getting a French keyboard cost me more than the battery and SSD though :person_facepalming:

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But Earl Grey doesn’t count as real tea!
What I found difficult to buy in France was decent decaff. Tisanes are OK but not a proper cup of tea.
Another vote here for Yorkshire tea!

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Tarte Tatin!
I had never tried making one before I went to France. Buying the ready-made puff pastry in the supermarkets makes it even easier.

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Just out of interest what is your camper and how much are you asking for it please?

Excellent idea re second hand laptop

Spain to France? Mind if I ask why?

Yep hot toddies do rule

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