I’ve had a few, and used a load more than that, and have come to the conclusion that you’ve got to buy PRO. I have owned Black and Decker, Bosch and most recently AEG. The AEG has been by far the best all round cordless drill I have ever owned. I did actually own two for a while but a thieving git called Danny nicked my newer one!  Anyway after about 8 years of good service the batteries on my AEG Best 12 have finally come to the end of their lives and the drill has had it.

Same because the drill itself works fine. But the cost of replacement batteries is out of this world. So I had a good dig around eBay and talked to some friends and thought I’d found the answer in a drill with the trade mark of ‘Site’ which is a sub brand of Makita, sold through Screw fix…. but screw fix have had them on stock clearance, and have well and truly cleared them out of stock….. bugger! I found a seller on eBay selling re-conned Makita original kit with 12months warranty, at less than half retail price I’ve snapped one up…..

My new 18 volt Makita drill is somewhere between Brittany and Preston, according to the UPS tracking ticket….. I hate waiting for things to arrive!!!

If/when it gets here I’ll let you know how it is, and if all is OK who the eBay seller is. The beauty of Makita equipment is that there a thousands of professional users, so spare parts, including replacement batteries are available for years and years!

Until the new Makita 18V cordless drill arrives, I’ll just have to keep the AEG battery charger working overtime

This goes to show that with a strongish pound, now is a good time to invest in the French property market. A great place to find Brittany property for sale is : www.brittany-property-direct.com

If you need to change the septic tank then suggest looking at www.micro-station-france.com they have some modern alternatives that do not smell!

A final note for a useful site if you have plans you need doing or would like a property survey: www.permis-online-france.com The guy there has lots of experience in the building game and perhaps more importantly has lived in Brittany for many years and know the system.

These two require you to split down your turn over ‘Chiffre d’affaires’ into the two categories and declare them on your form. Then calculate the cotisations payeable for both categories as follows:
Ventes de marchandises 12%
Prestations de service 21.3%

You calculate the total of the two and that’s the total of your cotisations to pay under the Auto Entrepreneur / Regime micro-social simplifie scheme. Add the total into the ‘Montant a payer’ box and sign and date the form – post it with a cheque to the address at the top of the form.

By heck that was so much easier than before and much less expensive too!

Good luck and if you are still stuck ask for help from a professional accountant or speek to RSI though from experience they are hard to get hold of as every man and his dog is phoning them at the moment.

Check out their France Mortgage Finder page for more information on securing a decision in principle on a French mortgage.

George East and his wife Donella bought their first home in Normandy in 1990, and made so many mistakes in the process that George wrote a book about the potential pitfalls. The Easts and their bank manager were surprised when, Home and Dry in France became a much-loved classic, and millions of readers have followed the adventures of the ultimate innocents abroad at the Mill of the Flea.

After writing six more books in the same series about their adventures and, as the author says, complete cock-ups in rural Normandy, George and Donella moved with their menagerie to Brittany two years ago:

To read more click George East in France

If you want to find a Brittany Property to live in Like George, visit www.brittany-property-direct.com

The object of this exercise is to asscertain if your septic tank in France appears to be correctly installed and working. Note the use of the word appears!!!! There is no physical test, or calculation of number of rooms/size of septic tank normally undertaken in this inspection. It is simply a visual inspection to see if the there is a septic tank and filter system and if it appears to be working OK….. again the use of the word appears

There are people cheating the SPANC inspectors and yes they are buying some time, however there will be regular annual inspections of all septic tanks in France coming up by 2012.

Anyone that has not yet recieved the results of their test shouldn’t worry about it just yet – SPANC are testing something like 5million installation so don’t expect them to get back to you straight away with a fail or pass letter.

Thanks to the expertise of the WPL team in the UK and the micro-station-france.com team new markets are being opened up in the UK, Africa to name but a few.

If you want a large sewage treatment plant for your town, go and see these guys: www.micro-station-france.com

I’ve opted for the WPL Micro Station D’epuration because the other two approved makes are in my opinion not as good or much too expensive.

The two main competitors to WPL in France are Klargester and Biokube. The Biokube I ruled out straight away because it’s way too expensive and requires too big a hole in the ground. The Klargester in France I ruled out because of reliability. Some of my friends have bought a Klargester system and several months later are still unable to get an Invoice, though in the last few hours we’ve heard that they’ve been promised one ASAP…. (a couple of weeks later and they are still waiting)

I’ve opted for the WPL unit because it comes from a leading manufacturer in the UK of sewage treatment plants, is EN 12566-3 approved and has a great guarantee with first rate build quality.

I’ve been in communication with WPL in the UK and they’ve put me in touch with a French registered company in Brittany who can supply and fit the unit at a very reasonable cost.

I picked up a lot of useful information about sewage treatment plants as an alternative to a septic tank installation in France from this site: Brittany-internet.com

For more information on WPL sewage treatment plants visit www.wpl.co.uk

I’ll post some picks when my system goes in the ground