Click here for white and yellow pages.

Lycos.
Minitel. Access the Minitel network through the Internet.
Voila.

Weather

Weather France

Meteo.fr.
Meteoconsult.
Lycos.
Pages Jaunes. Weather by city.
La Poste.
Yahoo.

International weather

BBC.
Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut. In Danish and partially English.
Meteocity.
TV5.

Le Memo. Vast directory of all necessary services for events, weddings, parties, shows, concerts etc.

Allo119.org: Child abuse: 24-hour free government helpline: 119.

Bientraitance.fr: Ill-treatment of the elderly, dependent or handicapped: government helpline: 3977 (Monday to Friday 9 AM to 7 PM, cost as a local call).

See also under Coaching.

See the page Crisis - How to Save Money in France to find out how to obtain cheaper train tickets and other reductions for families with children.

CAF. Caisse des Allocations Familiales. The public administration that pays child benefit, housing benefit, low-income support RSA, and other family related benefits.
Vies de famille. CAF's site with general advice and articles for families.
Mon-enfant. Public site provided by CAF to inform about and assist with child minding.

French bank holidays.

Anglobuddy. Site to connect native English speakers in France with French wanting to practice English. The expat may optionally charge up to €20/hour for their time.
Contact Expats. Contact other expats worldwide. Search facility per country, year etc.
Expat Meetup. Contact other expats worldwide. Search facility per country etc.
Expats Reunite. Find lost expat contacts online.
InterNations. Global networking site for expats.
Linkexpats. Global networking site for expats.
Meetin. Connect with expats online.
Messageparis.org. Contacts, activities, information & support to pregnant women & families living in France.

Conflict in the Family?

In case of conflict in a family, whether related to divorce, separation or other problems, the CAF can help finance some of the cost according to an income dependant tariff.

Fédération nationale de la médiation et des espaces familiaux (FENAMEF)
Association pour la médiation familiale (APMF)
Société française de la thérapie familiale psychanalytique
Société française de thérapie familiale

Servicesalapersonne.gouv.fr. Government site concerning the concept of personal or domestic services.

Mon-enfant.fr. Public site by the CAF to assist parents finding child minding solutions.

Quotatis. Compare personalised quotes.

A2micile.com. Household assistance, gardening, child minding, senior assistance etc.
Acadomia. Teachers for home school support, languages and more.
Adhapservices. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners. ADHAP is a network of independent, franchised businesses. The network does not seem to have a quality control in place, as it has been experienced that local businesses are run by incompetent directors severely underpaying and overworking staff and violating a long list of working regulations and breeching employment contracts. Furthermore, network management does not intervene when informed about malpractices. In troubled local businesses, this leads to high staff turnover with the risk of reduced service quality.
Agedorservices. Find providers of personal services. Focus on but not limited to seniors.
Aladom. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Aplus-qualite. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Assisteo. Find providers of baby-sitters, cleaning assistants etc.
Caisse d'Epargne. Find providers of baby-sitters, cleaning assistants etc.
CNP. Find providers of baby-sitters, cleaning assistants etc.
Domiserve. Find baby-sitters and other domestic helpers. 
Findatrade. A system that lets customers search in France, by area, for trades people, post details of jobs/work to be done and rate performance.
Fourmi Verte. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
France Domicile. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Genius-Laposte. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Maison et services. Find cleaning assistants.
Matmut Services à la personne. Find personal services such as senior assistance, shopping delivery, cleaning, gardening, DIY, IT assistance, baby-sitting, teaching assistance, accompanied transport.
ParticulierEmploi. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Personia. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Plaisirdaider. Find providers of personal services, for example hairdressers, language teachers, baby-sitters, gardeners.
Seniorvie. Various types of assistance for seniors. Service provided by CNP.
Tendea. Baby-sitters, extra teaching, senior assistance, animal sitting.
Yoopala. Baby-sitter search.

Regional

Provence

Présence Harmonie. Association providing direct employees for elderly care in the Luberon, Provence. 

Easy-verres
Happyview

Lost a user manual? Download it on
mesnotices.fr (French) - safemanuals.com (English)

Banking disputes, go to the section Banking in France.

Insurance and mutuelle disputes, go to the section Insurance.

Which ombudsman? Club des Mediateurs has a useful list telling you which ombudsman (médiateur) is competent for which type of complaint. You will notice that there is a gaping hole when it comes to general consumer complaints. France doesn't have any consumer ombudsman, contrary to certain other European countries more advanced in consumer protection.

UFC - Que Choisir. Leading French consumer association.
60 millions de consommateurs. INC's consumer magazine.
Institut National de la Consommation (INC). Public consumer association.
Adac. Association de Défense et d'Assistance des Consommateurs de France. Consumer association.
Association Léo Lagrange pour la défense des consommateurs. Consumer association.
Anil. Agence Nationale pour l'Information sur le Logement. Information about property occupation.
Adil Paris. Agence Départementale sur le Logement de Paris. Information about property occupation. Use the yellow pages at Pagesjaunes or 118 218 / Le Numéro to find ADIL in other départements.
Logement.org. Information regarding property lettings.
Afutt. Association Française des Utilisateurs des Télécommunications. For telecom users.
Ciao. Consumer forum. Very useful to read consumer comments about businesses.
Lesarnaques. Consumer forum for experience of swindle.
Raleur. Consumer forum. Very useful to read consumer comments about businesses.
Toluna. Consumer forum. Very useful to read consumer comments about businesses.
Commission de la Sécurité des Consommateurs. Commission charged with enforcing product safety.
Service Public. Government site with plenty of practical information.
Direction Générale de la Concurrence, Consommation et Répression des Fraudes (DGCCRF). Government site for competition, consumption and suppression of fraud. Online form to ask for help with consumer problems. However, this authority increasing apply a laisser-faire policy of not intervening regardless of obvious breaches of consumer law for which they are competent to intervene. France has no general consumer ombudsman, so consumers should not expect much assistance from the French authorities in cases of breach of consumer law.
Médiateur du Ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et de l'Industrie. Mediator for individuals and business in case of problems with any area under this ministry.
Pacitel. Avoid unsolicited sales phone calls.
Signal Spam. Forward spam to the authorities.

© Copyright Finn Skovgaard 2001, 2011. All rights reserved.