Saturday 4 July 2009
Saturday 4 July 2009
Underground becoming all the rage.
Guiding you through the paperwork minefield.
Perpignan’s surreal smelly socks election saga.
Expat women in Belgium and France most satisfied.
A moving piece about a 'school refuser' son.
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SOS Help is France's only English-speaking crisis line. Sometimes the crisis is a full-blown emotional breakdown. Sometimes it's figuring out the gas bill. And sometimes it's a homesick holiday. They're ready to hear it all at the place they call the Listening Post.The trained 'listeners' at SOS Help don't want you to wait until you're on the brink to call them. On the other hand, if you get to the brink, they are there to catch you — if you want to be caught.
''We deal with everything from if you lost your cat to you can't understand the tax forms you just received from the mairie to where to get orange juice at 11pm on a Saturday in Paris," says the operation's outgoing chairperson Alex, who gives no last name, even to a reporter, as he and all his fellow 'listeners' operate under strict anonymity.
Strictly anonymous
SOS Help is an English-language 'crisis line' operating out of an undisclosed Paris location for the past 30 years; a non-profit association, it's run completely by volunteers who keep their names a secret but who provide a sympathetic ear for 300 to 400 calls a month.
The calls run the gamut from the banal — how to find a plumber or a hospital with English-speaking staff — to full-blown suicide calls.
The listeners are there to be helpful for practical problems, like finding that plumber or figuring out the gas bill, but they hasten to explain they are not the English-speaking A-Z Listings.
Where you don't have to work hard to communicate
Most of the calls require only one technique: to listen, with empathy, and, hopefully, in the end to help the caller solve their own problem.
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SOS Help is just a phone call away |
Our expert Steven Grover delves into the murky waters of French healthcare for expats and asks how recent changes affect them?
Tax and estate planning figure prominently in the list of priorities of many financially secure expatriate residents of France.
From Gaelic clubs to Canadian Alumni organisations, there is bound to be an English-speaking club for you in France.
This is what you need to consider when making an early choice between purchasing or renting accommodation in France.
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