Calling France...

[flyingcloud]

I just wanted to wave to all the other MNers who live in France, we seem to have been fairly quiet recently.

I hope you are all well. Anyone who feels like checking in and introducing themselves here can.

I am flyingcloud, married to a Frenchman, living here since April 2009. 1 DD and another DC on the way, living north of Paris.

I still can't get to grips with the bureaucracy and paperwork that comes with living here, but I do love the frequency with which people drink champagne (or cremant).

flying no, we didn't hear any news on that one, but I didn't fancy starting a life in a new town where we knew noone (well, in RL anyway) for the nth time.

I entirely sympathise with those who are far from family. Our life is so much easier now I can call on GPs. MIL likes the same kind of movies as me and PIL hates the cinema so I get to pay her back for babysitting by taking her to the movies

Hi everyone! We're between Toulouse and Carcassonne, only been here over a year and still finding our feet (I got pregnant 3 days after we moved to it's all been pregnancy and baby since!!). The bureaucracy is bad but being Greek this isn't too much of a shock (although it was a bit of change of scene after 19 years in the UK!), we love the weather but the cost of life is a big surprise!

M&S will post many things to France for a small cost, not food though. I get really good, cheaper baby clothes and underwear from them all the time.

dreaming have you tried a "halte-garderie" for ad-hoc day care? DS2 was able to go once or twice a week when they had space, without it being guaranteed (we have a childminder because I work full-time).

Actually some childminder's might be prepared to look after your child for you on a temporary contract?

auldalliance - I set myself up as an auto-entrepreneur earlier this year to do corrections of articles for colleagues but I am totally behind on the paperwork and have received about a million letters which are all filed away stuffed at the back of my desk waiting for me to make time for them.

The actualy "signing up" was fairly simple though - cost about 95e.

Thanks jamais, yes we have a local halte garderie that we can use a few afternoons a week and the ILs help as well. It's not really enough though, for the amount of work I have to do! I should be working/studying full-time right now.

I should look into childminders... they are subsidised as well, right? We are classed low-income and would pay very little for nursery... if only we could get a space!

I'm in Alsace, been here a year and a half, before that across the border in Switzerland. DH is French. No DC yet, thinking about it though.

Yes childminders are subsidised, particularly if your child is under 3 (which I'm guessing they are, otherwise they'd be in school!).

Anyway the hourly rate is less than 3? AND you get lots of help from the state (although you might have to be working to get that).

Ah that sounds really good jamais, thanks! DH is working FT but low-wage so we are getting a really cheap rate at the HG for example.

I think I am a bit frustrated because i'm unfortunately reliant on DH to deal with bureaucracy and finding out about local options such as this, but he's very passive. It's a big change from being in London where we dealt with everything equally. I'm learning French obviously but it will be ages before I'm fluent enough to take care of something like this on my own. Meanwhile I don't want to turn into a nag

Hi Flying Cloud hope you're well (it's me Chickflit from an earlier life, if you're going back to maternity leave come back over to the book club we're about to start another round in January).

I'm in Brittany, been here since 2005, work in a school, teach English privately, do secretarial and admin for companies in the UK have two DCs 9 and 7 and am generally rushed off my feet these days.

Nice to see people in Nantes, not too far from me, it used to be a favourite day out just to go to Ikea and H&M, but we have an Ikea in Rennes now which is a bit nearer - see how we folk in SW Brittany live the good life.

I am registered under the AE scheme, I did it myself online and it didn't cost me anything, I just pay my cotisations every month and it seems to be ticking along fine. Sometimes it's so easy I really worry that I've made a mistake somewhere.

Hello. I've been here most of the time since my Gap Year turned into a Gap life in 1998. I live on the border with Luxembourg and Germany, btu lived in and around Paris until four years ago. DH is French, DD was born in Luxembourg but is French. I'll be going back to work in Lux soon, but am still on maternity leave at the mo :)

I wish M&S would set up a store out here in the sticks.

I don't think I would move back to the UK as all my adult life has been spent here. I don't know how things work over there anymore.

I've just discovered this week that M&S deliver to France for the princely sum of £7.50. I have spent a couple of quid

I've not been to Rennes yet unfortunately, just drove around it on the way to Vitre, San Malo... I hear it's nice though?

May I ask, did you find it hard to get set up tutoring English? DH is thinking about getting into this, he's bilingual and has a DEUG in languages (and imho is very good at teaching!) He's thinking of doing a TEFL but there's no course in Nantes unfortunately.

You also have the new site www.marksandspencer.fr. Had a look this morning and prices in euros are still pretty reasonable compared to most French high street clothing retailers!

Hello from the Yvelines, west of Paris. Have been here 6 years. DD is 7 and thinks she is French (even though she wasn't born here). DS is 4 and thinks he's English (even though he WAS born here). DH is English so no help with the bureaucracy. I am also an autoentrepreneur and find it works OK for now but am trying to think of a way to avoid paying corporation tax once my initial three years is up (WHY WHY do autoentrepreneurs have to pay this when small businesses don't??). Haven't been on the site much for a while so hello to Frak, Flying and Bunny (and everyone else).

Why do they not sell crackers on that French M&S website? Grr.

So glad to find you are all out there, alive and well!

DH is French but his family live in Burgundy, five/six hours from where we are. We really struggle without having family around, pre-DCs you can't fathom how much of a difference it makes to life. DH would love to move closer to his family, but for me it's non-negotiable. They live in the sticks and at least here I can work, travel easily abroad (close to CDG and Beauvais and an easy drive to the tunnel) and get to Paris occasionally.

DH has also set up his own business in the last two months, and despite being French and having a law degree (and a good comprehension of legalese) struggles with his paperwork.

Reading where you all come from is a reminder of all the lovely places there are to visit in France. I am in Normandy this weekend for work and I love coming here. I really must try and visit more, but that will not be for a few years - all our holidays are spent visiting family.

I have joined Message and have found it good, but with work I find it hard to get involved in all the get-togethers, etc.

dreaming a small M&S has just opened on the Champs Elysee - haven't had time to go and inspect yet but apparently there were queues to get in. There are plans for 5 stores in and around Paris.
Beachcomber entirely agree with you about correct wording etc. Drives me bananas - especially after my son recently had a bad mark because I said to hime you need to understand this not parrot it! I am however very impressed with my children's knowledge of ancient greek architecture.

We have evidently been very lucky because neither of the schools that DCs have attended want the children to repeat parrot fashion. I asked because sometimes the homework says 'relire la leçon' and other times it says 'apprendre la leçon'. They were adamant that the latter does not mean off by heart but just to check comprehension. I still find it a bit weird that the former implies you might ask your child to read something without checking they had understood it.

They are both keen on work being neat though which is not to DDs advantage.

What is it with the French and handwritting???? The local farmer was writing me out an account for the hay I was buying off him and he threw three versions away before he was finally satisfied that it was neat enough!

Are schools obsessed with handwritting? I haven't actually written anything in years, you would imagine the children's time would be better spent learning to use computers or a foreign language (round here NO ONE seems to speak English!).

Handwriting is good! It's one of the things I hope they keep going in French schools..

Actually when I referred to 'soin', I was talking more about how neatly things are cut out and stuck or how neatly they are coloured in.

DD gets that other people need to be able to read her handwriting and is willing to slow down a bit to make sure it is legible but has the attitude that a few scribbles of blue in the right shapes shows that she's understood the different betweeen a hexagon and a pentagon, what's the point of colouring the whole thing all the way to the edges without going over.

I am pleased that my children consider themselves as French. I want them to feel as though they belong, that this is their home.

I was born in Lincolnshire, but moved to Yorkshire when I was young. I always consider myself to be a Yorkshire lass, when people ask me where I am from that is my reply, yet my Dad always used to anoy me by butting in and saying I wasn't from Yorkshire I was from Lincolnshire.

Someone once told me that children consider themselves to be form somewhere when they have done their first year at high school. I think that is so true.

I'm visiting friends in London next week and was planning on spending sometime in the big M&S on Oxford street (like maybe half a day :) ) Pausing only to pop into the lingerie department of John Lewis.

My DC are 90% french as they were born and raised here and DH is french. Every Christmas we have the same argument about when Father Christmas comes. I am adamant that he comes during the night and we open pressies Christmas morning but they say lots of their friends celebrate Christmas on the 24th and get to open their presents after dinner. How do you celebrate Christmas chez vous ? 24th or 25th or both?

Btw DC are now 14 and 16 and obviously don't believe in FC and argue that this is even more reason to have their pressies on 24th.

Actually this won't be a problem this year as we are going to the Uk and will abide by english traditions but I am curious as to how other families deal with this.

I work in a college/lycee barbie and every year I have this discussion with my students, they all pretty much agree that 24th December they have a big family dinner and then presents and the 25th is pretty much a slobbing about relaxing day.

But the children at school in primaire with my own DCs they open family presents on the 24th but Pere Noel comes in the night and they have a couple of presents on the morning of the 25th.

We're a British family living in France so we have Christmas on 25th December and we also have a tooth fairy and not some nasty little mouse running around taking teeth from under pillows

We have Christmas, and therefore presents, on the 25th. TBH the girls have never asked to have presents ont he 24th so I have never had to question the tradition.

Hi everyone, I'm a bit late to the party! Another lifer, I've been in the Toulouse area on and off since 1996

DS has been born here and I suspect he will feel a little French even though neither I nor DH are. We have a wonderful nounou but we'll probably send him to the international school. Don't know how long we'll stay but I get more homesick every year :(

Hi, I'm in the Limousin, and have been here with dh and dd (14) for just over 5 years. I dither, too about changing nationality. Some days I think I'll change, and then others I don't. Dd considers herself French, and her Brevet form came home with 'place of birth' Macclesfield, 'nationality' French!

She's the only British pupil at her college that the teachers doesn't have an accent in French, some of the teachers actually think that she is French.