Me, I have just hoovered and washed all the floors, looked lovely, smelt great, then 3 dogs 5 cats and OH went out and came in again.....................................!
O yes, it wasn't that much - I forget now - but nothing to worry about. It was when I ordered two pairs at a time - just the twice. When I ordered the bifocals which change in the sunlight I also ordered an ordinary pair just for distance, for watching the television in bed, so I can watch without pushing the bifocal glasses down my nose to be at the right angle for viewing.
That made me smile Derek!
Yes, I guess you were unlucky, Sandra. I have never been asked to pay duty. But I imagine it still worked out cheaper than the high street?
Thanks, Mike, I wasn't looking at the postings. As you say on-line ordering, easy and prompt. Once I was asked to pay duty by the facteur here so the next order I did to the UK via my son. He had to pay duty in England too. The last orders haven't been a problem - just the luck of the draw perhaps.
Véronique,
Sounds like you are a special case and should take full advantage of your mutuelle!
I do have to visit the dentist from time to time. But having to do so at my own expense makes me especially diligent with the toothbrush.
I try to avoid visiting doctors. They tend to treat symptoms rather than causes. I like to think I have kept in good shape with a sensible diet, modest alcohol consumption, not smoking and regular exercise. It has got me to the age of 77. So far, so good! But I am prepared to admit that I have also been lucky.
Seem to have run out of spaces for replies, but this one is for Shirley.
No they are not in France - you have to order online.
My wife says my post was not rich in sympathy and understanding , so, sorry, and here is something positive and useful; opthalmo' David Suchoki , Bordeaux, did both my cataracts, no wait, no pain, no fuss! Now see dust everywhere, but that's good, really, no really.
OK. I cant adjust my specs myself as I'm astigmatic & have a magic anti deformation lens so I keep peripheral vision so they have to use a little machine to see exactly where the lens has to be in relation to my pupil - so every time I bend my specs I have to see them (or rather they have to see me) I suppose if you don't need that then you're fine doing without them. I don't object to chinese lenses (you could argue that as I'm part Indo-Chinese I have them already, provided by nature) but fitting would definitely be a problem because my eyes don't match at all.
So what do you do if you are ill or have toothache?
ps Here only an ophthalmic surgeon can laser your eyes. (no h after the t in Fr, so apologies for previous spelling mistake)
Afraid to say but, having just waded through the seven pages of answers to your post, that was it, should have just opened a bottle of decent red and enjoyed the first day of the rest of my life!
Right on, Sandra!
I don't know what the situation is in France, but in the UK, people happily allow totally unqualified people to perform laser surgery on their eyes, but wouldn't allow a Chinese technician to make them a pair of glasses!
In case anyone hasn't noticed, practically all cameras are now made in China - they are very skilled at precision optics.
The optician next to SuperU here in 22480 is always bending my glasses back into shape after I do something silly with them like falling asleep and leaning on them or sitting on them. He is charming and although I always offer, he never charges me. He's also replaced the plastic bits at the end of the arms when one of my kittens chewed them - again free of charge.
Yesterday I received my sixth pair of glasses from Zenni Optical, ordered on a Boots Optician's prescription after an October 2013 test in the UK. They were bifocal, polychromic, anti-reflective specs and cost $73.85 = €53.51. As always they're great and so much cheaper than Specsavers prices. Incidentally, the last glasses I ordered through Specsavers after a test in their St Austell shop, I had to return and have a refund as I couldn't see with them. Definitely - unreservedly - I recommend using your prescription with Zenni Optical.
Véronique.
No! Opting out MEANS opting out. I have a bag of 100 little silicone nose thingies that I bought for £1 on eBay. I do my own fixing and frame adjustment. I don't need those people.
I expect, once you have your specs, that you can go to any optician who will adjust them for you. I say this because I'm always losing the little silicone nose thingies, loosening screws, bending a leg etc (my 'frames' - no actual frame just the legs & the nose-bit which go through the lenses, are just thin titanium wires) and all the different opticians I have rushed to have replaced screws/nose pads/cleaned them in the ultrasound bath/put them on my nose & tweaked them - all for nothing!
Right. I have to go to the Ophthalmologist at the Polyclinique for an eye test. Waiting list currently around 6 months!
Translating the French prescription to US standard takes a slight application of logic. But spectacle making isn't rocket science and even frames with fancy brand names only cost pennies (Sorry! Sous.) to make.
Brian,
The guys in HK are, in my experience, very technically compenent and will query anything that doesn't appear to make sense. My guess is that they are at least as well qualified as their European competitors.
Good point and that requires an ordonnance from the regular doctor or, as in my case, any other doctor 'treating' you. No eye test and buying glasses from Hong Kong seems like absolute folly anyway, given that the two eyes are different and the online glasses do things like give 3% correction over age 60 and the like which is worse than unreliable.
So who tests your eyes, Mike? This is France - you don't go to an optician to get your eyes tested, you go to an ophtalmologist. Opticians fit sell & repair specs and other optical equipment eg telescopes and that's it. Ophtalmologists are doctors, opticians are technicians.
My eyes are so different (one myopic & astigmatic, the other presbytic & amblyopic) that my all lenses are free (& spec frames as well as long as I choose a pair within a massive range).
I'm three centimes better off this way. I know Mike, but I am in the system. I am an AE, still working (actually am at present) and paying into the system, so I am able to 'milk' it like everybody else. Had I been paying for my medical costs, in 2012 they were over €12k and last year around €20k. When I get the regular statements back from the RSI and my insurer I can add them up, but never actually see any bills. I get 100% back on all doctors' appointments and medicines. The insurance is steep, but then I also pay for my OH and both children (one of whom has permanent treatments too) however what I have had paid for makes the annual bill look like small change. I shall not complain.
I spoke to my OH and daughters on the phone a while ago. My youngest told me that it is very cold down there in Ticino with some snowfall drifting off the Alps. Nonetheless, as she asked, why was OH and her father out on the veranda cooking polenta with coats on when there is a perfectly good cooker in the kitchen? I have no idea. When she who must be obeyed came on I asked. Apparently in the south of Switzerland and all over northern Italy polenta is always cooked outside. I know that it is 'winter' food so asked why, she said just tradition so why ask. I threw in a question about people living high up in a 20 storey block with no balcony. She told me that they usually go down to street level to do it outside. I asked whether the polenta is still warm when they get indoors. She said that if it cools down then they can heat it up on the cooker. Duuuuuuuh! I gave up!