Driving in France: what you need to know

Driving in France: what you need to know This article covers driving in France: paperwork, insurance, and how to obtain it. Buying a car. In case of accident. Items you are required to have in the car. If you are British, you may want to follow this link for regulations post-Brexit. DRIVER'S LICENSE: Generally speaking (because there are of course exceptions, this IS France) if you are in France for over a year and your driver's license is not European, French law requires you to have valid French driving papers for driving in France. This one year period starts on the date of your first carte de séjour. Etudiant status is one of the exceptions; as a student you can drive with your foreign license for the duration of your studies. Some US states and other countries allow an exchange of licenses, other states and countries do not and you'll be required to pass the French exam to obtain the French license. Keep in mind an exchange must be done within the one year grace …
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Bill & Rosa’s Book Room

What is Bill & Rosa's Book Room ? 

First of all, for us, a Book Room is a comfortable place to spend some time. Think of it as the reading lounge on the ocean liners of yore with a western bent. Our maître-mots are

Read, Write, Relax. Buy, Borrow, Donate.

Bill & Rosa's Book Room has several aspects. It is first a USED BOOK SHOP and a LENDING LIBRARY. There are many novels of all genres for sale plus non-fiction, biographies, history, some poetry, cookbooks, cats, books on Paris or France, memoirs and children's books. Most books are in English, but also in French and even a few bilingual. Prices start at just 2€.

The 500 volume lending library has four sections :

The Sylvie and Henry Noullet Library: novels mostly in English Bill and Rosa's Library of the American West includes no…
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Bicycle visibility

Darkness is coming: Visibility for biking and jogging When daylight savings time ends and you have daylight from only 8 am to 4 pm there's a lot of bike riding that is done in the dark. How can you put the odds of being seen on your side? Bicycle visibility = Shine! Some things are pretty obvious: florescent shirt or jacket, reflective vest, headlights and tail lights. That's the minimum. But you can do more and with more panache too! I ride with multiple forms of light and reflectors and for that matter I use all of my visibility techniques during broad daylight too. The way I see it you can never be too visible. The next FUB 'Cyclists, Shine!' ‘Cyclistes, brillez !’ Campaign will be held from November 1-7, 2021. The FUB (FÉDÉRATION FRANÇAISE DES USAGERS DE LA BICYCLETTE) invites its associations, partners and all defenders of active modes to mobilize and make cyclists aware of the importance of good lighting: in fact, in autumn and winter, cyclists without lighting o…
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The Saints on the map of Paris

Whether you walk across Paris or look at the metro or street map, you often see places named after a Saint. Such familiar names as St Genevieve, St Denis, St Vincent de Paul etc... Have you ever wondered who were these saints on the map of Paris and what their history was? We did! Here is a bit of history on the Saints on the map of Paris.

Sainte Geneviève

Logically the patron saint of Paris, St. Geneviève, is the one you come across most often. Her statue by Paul Landowski graces the Pont de La Tournelle in the 4th district. There is also one in Jardin du Luxembourg. She is on the front of Notre Dame as well. The Catholic church is celebrating the 1600th anniversary of Genevieve this year. A relic, her index finger, and her sarcophagus is in a chapel dedicated to her in the church of St Etienne du Mont a church in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte Geneviève where she lived and prayed.

She was born in Nanterre in about the …
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Furnishing your Paris apartment creatively and on a budget

Furniture

Ikea is practical, intelligent, not too expensive and usually looks good. It is not a bad way to furnish your Paris apartment. But you do have to first bring it home then spend hours putting it together (unless you call someone to do it for you – see the Services section). But perhaps you’d like something different in your Paris apartment, after all everyone shops at Ikea - it is far from unique. Here are a few ideas for some personalization that doesn’t cost too much.

FUSAC For Sale ads and other websites are a treasure trove of used items. If you find an ad for a moving sale just after it goes up you can possibly furnish a whole Parisian apartment at once! And more than just furniture you’ll find the practical items like small appliances and ironing boards for a song. If you find more than you can carry give a quick call to one of the man with a Van ads to schedule a pickup (again see the Services section).

Izidore: Is the online « garage sale …

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Click and Collect at Bill & Rosa’s Book Room

Follow the links below to view pdf files of the current inventory of Bill and Rosa's Book Room. More than 7000 titles!

Available for Click and Collect pick up or delivery, just email fusac.office@gmail.com with your selection, we'll send you a link for payment via CB (or take check or cash when you get the books) and arrange for pick up. 

Are you in the Yvelines? Free delivery to these towns: Villepreux, Les Clayes-sous-Bois, Plaisir, Feucherolles, St Nom-la-Bretèche, Rennemoulin, Fontenay-le-Fleury, Noisy-le-Grand, Bailly. Minimum order 25€.

Anyone who orders 5+ books will receive a free copy of Elaine Sciolino's La Séduction (A book about France and the French and how seductions of all types, not just sexual, make them tick.)

The inventory list is organized by Sections and within the section by author. To find out more about a particular book you could copy the ISBN number and do an internet search. Nearly all of them …

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Paris Apartments: Glossary of French-English terms

Paris Apartment: Glossary of French-English terms To help English speaking renters and owners to wend their way through contracts, leases and advertisements as the hunt for the Paris apartment moves along, FUSAC has compiled a glossary of terms for Housing. accusé de réception: receipt that is signed by the recipient of a letter and sent back to the sender as proof of reception acompte: advance payment, down payment agence immobilière: estate agency [UK], real estate agency [US] ancien: built more than 20 years ago appareils électriques: appliances appartement vide: unfurnished flat [UK], unfurnished apartment [US] armoire: storage cabinet assurance habitation: homeowner's or renter's insurance. Note: it is obligatory for renters to have an insurance policy. bail, contrat de location (plural = baux): (rental) lease / contract bien immobilier: property box: enclosed parking space with a locked door cage d'escalier: stairwell canapé: sofa, settee canapé-lit, ca…
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Rental Lease and contract in France

The City of Paris is constantly trying to better or at least adjust the rental system. In an attempt to make Paris less expensive to live in, they are now reinstating rent ceilings for a 5 year test period for all new or renewed leases signed as of July 1st, 2019. You can find out the average price of rent in an area given in price per month per square meter based on the address, size and age of the building which you put into the rent calculator (in French). 

More information:

https://www.service-public.fr/

https://www.paris.fr/

Also recently created is also a new type of lease called the Bail Mobilité. This rental lease applies only to furnished rentals that are a maximum of 10 months. There is no security deposit and rents must be within the regular ceilings. The lease must state why this type of lease is needed. If the rental goes past ten months, it becomes a normal furnished apartment lease renewable annually.

Once …

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Brighten your day. Books are the perfect antidote for the gray and gloomy.

At Bill & Rosa’s Book Room, we have the perfect antidote for the gray and gloomy winter weather: books, a lot of them, to suit all tastes and demands! Iasmina has selected a few to help pass the time and brighten your day. All our books are pre-loved so you'll love the prices too!

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (4€), The Full Cupboard of Life (3€) The Kalahari Typing School for Men (4€) by Alexander McCall Smith

There’s nothing better to take your mind off the cold and the rain than a plunge into the world of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, a series of detective novels by Alexander McCall Smith. Travel far away from rainy days with this novel set in Botswana and featuring Precious Ramotswe, the founder of the first and only female-run detective agency in the country. With unique characters, a good dose of kindness and vivid descriptions of Botswanan life, these are detective novels like no other. These thre…

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