This French Life

Gas prices to rise again

MORE bad news if you heat your home by gas with the government announcing an increase in prices of 5.5 per cent from today (April 30).

For an average home the rise works out at an additional €4 a month, but if you want to investigate the possibility of using another supplier first take a look at the official government page on Energie-Info, Comment comparer les offres?

This page offers advice and tips on what to compare on paper, but to undertake some comparisons online check out this page on Le Figaro.

French workers send the most money back home

ONLINE payment services firm Moneybookers claims that foreign workers living in the UK typically send £200 a month back home, although this figure increases to £550 for French migrants.

In terms of the amount sent per head the French are in the lead, and are way ahead of the second placed nation of India whose nationals send £330 per month, followed by Russian people who send home £310 per month and then people originally from Poland who send £290.

France Telecom line rental for a second home

THANKS to the site's forum, and in particular a comment from LaBourse, I was made aware of a telephone line rental contract from France Telecom for a second home.

The company's Ligne Résidence Secondaire enables you to suspend your line rental payment a maximum of six times a year, for a minimum period of at least one month (and at maximum one year) at a cost of €4.69.

Will new rules sweep away village high street?

THE government has outlined plans it wants to introduce that it claims will blow away many of the old regulations tying up retail and free up the market.

At a press conference yesterday (April 28) finance minister Christine Lagarde said she hoped her proposals would bring competition to the high street and help boost the spending power of people.

Ryanair increase charges on tickets

BAGGAGE and airport check-in fees for Ryanair flights are to be increased from May 5, as the airline looks to get more passengers to check-in online.

Ryanair’s checked in baggage fee will rise from €9 to €10 while airport check-in fees will increase from €4 to €5.

Downloadable guides on property, tax and more

THERE are a number of downloadable .pdf documents on This French Life that may prove useful as they cover issues such as local taxes, property purchases, education and even flying safely.

So I've brought them together onto the one page so that you can access them whenever you want by saving them to your computer.

The files are in .pdf format and will open on all PC and Mac computers, if the file does not open you will need to download the Adobe reader software.

So you think you want to move to France?

Don't let your clouds blot out the sun

I WOULD imagine many of us have moved home at some time or another and for varying reasons, writes Coral Luke.

Whether it be for work, to have more space or as an investment, you decided a move would be a pretty good idea.

But for some people a move is often undertaken in response to a negative situation rather than a positive one, and usually it never solves the problems that they believed would disappear in a new environment.

Targeting the Tour de France

FOR many amateur cyclists the challenge of completing just one stage of the Tour de France during L’Etape du Tour is enough, but for Martyn Jones that's just a start.

Martyn intends to cycle this year's Tour de France course in full, that's 3,500 kilometres, in aid of two charities, the Association of Young People with M.E. and The British Heart Foundation.

Sarkozy one year on

Interview Nicolas Sarkozy 24 avril 2008 A ! Uploaded by Hugues2

A YEAR on, give or take a couple of weeks, since Nicolas Sarkozy became president of France he took part in a 90 minute special on French television to argue the case for his government's achievements.

Learn French through online television

I AM a big fan of watching and listening to the news to help improve your understanding of French.