Not available in France

Only noticed recently that Maxfactor products aren't available in France.

Yes, France is the country of ' Because you're worth it'

It never occurred to me that I purchased quite many stuff from Maxfactor and much from the other.
When the mascara was runing out, I went to the local Monoprix and not there.... so I went to the Sephora, they didn't have it either....I found that out when I checked on the internet.

I got some lovely freebees of 'Because you're worth it' at the last year's Cannes Film Festival, as they were one of the main sponsors. So I started to use new mascara, but I am still not sure if I liked it, I kind of miss my old mascara.

A funny product name - 1

It's a French version of DW-40 but the name's caught my eyes and I had to share this with you.

Au revoir to English number plate

The final attempt to the council office in Grasse for my car. We went there on Monday and got rejected due to the French MOT certificate was over 6 months old. We had it done Sep1st last year, so thought it should be juuust fine, but apparently they'd check the dates too. So we were late by a few weeks, had we got all the papers ready.
(Although officially it was still valid but for the paper work, they need it to be within 6 months old)

Soooo gutted that we went to have our car checked straight from Grasse, then we are REALLY ready.

Today, things went very smoothly. Handed all the papers along with the latest French MOT certificate (Contrôle Technique) and then they'd given us the new registration number straight away. Don't forget to keep a part of English registration certificate, as you'd need to send it to DVLA for termination the other end.

Apparently the registration in France is applied by the owner, not to the car unlike in England. Basically if the owner of the car changes, the registration number needs to be reassigned accordingly. The same thing applies if the owner of the car moves to other departments within France, as the number plate shows the registered department at the end of the plates.
That sounds so silly....and must be hell loads of work to do for the administration.

Anyways from today, the new system has been applied (started from small parts of the country) that new registration will be applied to the car and will no longer be required for changing the owner or the address of the owner.
Unfortunately, our number is still the old system, so if we ever move the department, we will need to change it then from there on, we can keep it as long as the car is working.

Once you have the number, you have officially 48 hours to make the new plate and have it fitted.

There was a little shop in front of the Council office that sells and fit the new plates - very clever business. We checked the price there and called the garage who does our car usually.
We went to the local garage after all, as it sounded a bit cheaper.

So there you go.... real 'au revoir' to English number plate.



After 10 months of waiting, the French number plate's just been fitted at last!

Am keeping my English plate, of course, as it's got loads of memories...

Hoorey! - Crotted Cream

There are quite many English stuff available in France, though slightly expensive (no choice) - Helman's mayo(tiny pot..), English mustard, HP source, Worcestershire source etc. You could also find a few selection of teas here - Twinings, PGs.
Long time ago, the nasty Lipton was the only one available in the continent, but things have changed.

Teas are very much appreciated here in France too - many are perfumed or herbal teas. You can also buy organic ones(They call it 'Bio'). You could also have some red English teas at tea salons.

One of a few things I miss most is this..... The Clotted Cream.
But today I found this pot in the local supermarket! It's a long life one but I am not complaining.

Hoorey! I will definately make some scones.

They also have the pot of Devon Cream too!

YUM YUM!

French course started

In France, I have some privileges to take free language courses - thanks to Mr. President. It's a new law which applied a few years ago, that all long- term residents in the country must have certain level of language skills in writing and speaking - otherwise, the country provides them some free lessons.

It's for foreigners who have French spouses and legal immigrants. There are several processes to take to get this benefit but to simplify - it's provided by the local ANAEM after you apply for a residency permit (Carte de séjour) . They'd give you maximum of 400hours at a nearest education centre depending on your level of the language. The ANAEM is the public service for foreigners who helps them integrate in the country. They have several one-day sessions to teach you the history of France and the civil rights and so on (providing free delicious lunch).

Last January, I took the course for 400 hours and then took the French DILF (the most basic one)exam at the end of the course. You'd get mingled with so many different nationalities, age groups and educational levels (sometimes there were people who couldn't write) there are pros and cons in that particular school I went but all in all, I don't complain - because it's absolutely FREE of charge. If you have to go to the private school - you'd expect to spend quite a fortune.

Now, I started a new course last week, which is done by ANPE (The French equivalence of JobCentre) - it's part of the skill training that will run over 10 weeks. They'd asked you for committment for the course, as they won't let us skiving off. Compared to the previous course by ANAEM, this one is for adults who're looking for work - so the course covers more practical bits as well as very basic stuff that you'd always need to recap which is handy for me.

Hopefully I'd get the most out of it.

Registering the imported car in France

My car has been a quite multi-national like the owner.
I've bought it in the UK about 10 years ago, it has never been any issues.
The car was actually imported from Japan - it's happened to be like that. So she's been driven in Japan before coming to the UK. I love driving, so I took my car as much as I could through England - I love driving without a map.

Now, the car is driven in France - despite they drive the other side of the road. We have installed a new stereo too which makes our trip more fun.

Anyways, we have been trying to get the French number plate, as any insurance company do, they simply won't cover you after 6 months in abroad.
So we've got all the information for registering in France from DRIRE and prepared as much as we could - got the technical check done, put together all the papers they said they needed. We were aware that it would take a bit of time, but this long.... never expected to take 10 months to go through this process.
As we all know, French loves documents - They'd asked you to send all the original documents (the UK car registration certificate etc)- which makes us a bit nervous but luckly they didn't lose them. (Yes, don't forget to take all the papers a photocopy)

If my car was purely from the UK - it wouldn't have been this complicated.
In January, we had to go to UTAC - Paris suburbs for the similar technical check but for the imported car which had costed us a bit of a fortune.

Now we've got everything we need - we had a meeting at the nearest DRIRE with the car for a final check up in person. Seems like all's been sorted - all we have to do is to wait.

Parking Space

Ever since we moved in Cannes, we have been using the public parking nearby because our building doesn't have its own parking space. The parking is only 3 mins walk which is very handy but what's been annoying was that you'd have go to the main office in Forville to buy those 30 days parking card (quite pricy) and they won't sell it during the busy summer seasons unless you are regulars.
We've asked for the annual membership but have been on the waiting list for at least 15 months - there hasn't been any space available.

So since later last year, we've been looking for a private parking space - the private adverts at a local supermarket.
Luckly, we recently found one - only 5 mins walk from our place, it's secure and it's less than HALF the price.

Very luckly indeed....