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Very useful list, Gb. I would add: Inform the local tax office concerning taxes foncières and taxe d'habitation. Immediately after sale is signed, call water, electricity and phone suppliers with your final meter readings. (I did this from the car park, minutes after signing away my house.) Warn your U.K. bank that a large sum of money will be arriving, and what is is for, so they don’t suspect you of money-laundering. Keep your French bank account going for several more months, in case there are small reimbursements trickling in from your former suppliers, or tax office.

Back in 2021 I sold my property in the Lot which took 23 weeks from the day I entered an estate agent until the attestation de vente was signed with the notary and buyer. On this site I posted a contemporaneous summary of a blog I maintained throughout the sale and afterwards. The entries made here have disappeared. However, the blog remains and has been updated with a couple of events which have occurred this year, see https://domainesale.weebly.com Readers visiting this forum may find it of interest although it is quite long but it does mention all the steps taken and hoops jumped through that I had to take to complete the sale, viz (not necessarily in the order they were encountered): 1. Assistance from estate agent and notary + notary’s questions 2. Diagnostic Technique Immobilier (DTI) 3. Service Public de l’Assainissement Non Collectif (SPANC) 4. Buyer’s right of retraction 5 . Property offered to Mairie for option to buy 6. Introduction to Societe Accreditee de Representation Fiscale (SARF) - fiscal representative dealing with capital gains tax + SARF questions 7. Dealings with propane gaz company for recovery of tank 8. Transfer of Residency (TOR) 9. Removal of goods and chattels 10. UK car purchase and sale of French cars, arrangement of UK car insurance with no claims discount brought from French insurance company 11. Comments on using foreign exchange broker for buying sterling 12. Recovery of erroneous charge for taxe d’habitation gb

Is there not also a fear amongst the Unions that they must put on a show of force against the government? I understand that France has one of the lowest unions rates in the EU. I doubt they will win, but they must be seen to try to maintain their strength. What I do find abhorrent is the fact that school children can also form a "blockhaus". It happened to our kids Lycée where the students blocked the school gate with chairs. The teachers were not allowed to pass this barricade, so no school. Its happening at the moment too. Madness.

As we are talking 'absurdities' I'm sure everyone is surprised , but now' informed' that the pension reforms are unpopular! who would have known that? Several weeks have now passed with it being the No.1 topic on the news channels and newspapers. Still, don't get me wrong; I'm sure there is someone who was living in a mine somewhere who has just surfaced and needed to be' brought up to date'!!!

Rather than talk about the absurdity of ‘the real Ken’ or ‘the fake Ken’ (both fill me with horror), I though that it might be better to return to the original point of the thread. A very high percentage of French citizens when asked if they’re in favour of the pension reforms being forced through by Macron say ......... “No”. Not terribly surprising. If I was asked the same question and I was (for example) a 50yo, I’d say the same thing. Then ask ........ “Do you perhaps accept that the current circumstances are unaffordable on an ongoing basis?” I just think that you’d get a different answer from the majority of people ............ if they replied honestly to the question. I can only speak for what I hear and witness around here in (very) rural France. Many, if not most, feel that the State will provide from taxes gained from ‘the rich’. They don’t feel that it’s for them to contribute in any way, mostly to the point of evading taxation. Deluded, frankly. Don’t get me wrong - lived here for nearly 20 yrs and wouldn’t move back to the UK unless we absolutely had to. But the French are really quite blinkered.

Or "architecture a lucarne"

I think it's a "chien assis".

@alittlebitfrench, by the way, do you know what is the name of those windows on the roof? Is there a specific name for that?

Are you kidding! I couldn't afford a bleeding pedal bike let alone a Granada! Well I did , eventually, get a Lambretta on the 'knock' of course and then I was 'jack the lad'!

30th March 2023, 4pm UK time https://www.frenchentree.com/registering-for-the-frenchentree-buying-in-france-webinars/ The free FrenchEntrée webinar is hosted by Zoë Smith who will put all your most frequently asked questions regarding French taxes, tax returns, and wealth tax to the expert advisor from Elitax - you can watch back previous webinars on the youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchEntreeMagazine/videos Great opportunity to find out more about this year's new tax Declaration d’Occupation

I have access to your email addresses which I use to weed out the commercial pests but there is no way that I could see if an account had been hacked, provided that the email address remained the same.

I’m more Parklife…than Pond life. You know wot I mean ? Hey Ken, did you used ta drive a Ford Granada back in the days. ? Around Camden and all that. I imagine you in a Ford Granada. Parming it around.

How do you know I'm slim and shady? I could be fat and illuminated!!! Am I on the track of the 'pond life' perhaps!!!!! (only joking, you are too 'up front' to be 'pond life'!)

It is indeed. You might have just narrowed my area by a lot. Thanks.

The architecture of the house in question is quite unique. Look at the physical features. They are your main clues. If you google and click on images of such houses in and around Cahors they do tend to have the same characteristics ! Cahors is a good shout.

Will the real slim shady…please stand up…please stand up

It does look similar. And it is not too far, still Occitanie and in reach from Toulouse. There is roughly 1 hour in between the 2 cities.

But both Kens have the same number of posts, so the fake Ken has the same number of posts as the real one.

I was about to post to say that the slate roof made the property look to be a bit farther north than the region suggested. But this one https://properties.lefigaro.com/announces/chateau-lot-midi+pyrenees-france/52933854/ is near Cahors, and looks uncannily similar…

Have started discussing pensions with our youngest, who has been contribution to the French state scheme for 3 years. Having a hard job getting him interested in the subject though. As you seem keen to take your children's future French pension out of the hand of the government, where will you have their contributions go? The stock market controls my wife's, as yet untouched, UK pension pot. She made it up by contributions. As far as I am aware, one of the reasons the "idiots" in government stepped in in the UK during the most recent financial crisis was to prop up private pension funds (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/06/bank-of-england-confirms-pension-funds-almost-collapsed-amid-market-meltdown). Can an individual in France opt out completely from the government pension scheme and leave it in the hands of their more competent father?

Is in not just someone who has copied your name and cat photo? Should it not be the policy of a forum that "names" are unique to avoid this situation. (to be honest I had not noticed that you had a doppelganger till you mentioned it!)

If I ever manage to find it I'll share it here. Thanks.

I cant see the weird thing that you are describing ?? I have spent enough time trying to track down this house. It is a needle in a haystack unless we have more info. There is nothing in those photos that gives us a slightest clue.

You may be right. Who ever is doing it must have some idea with regards 'playing with computers' I wouldn't know where to start. Someone who perhaps takes offence easily when given short shrift, there are one or two here!!!

I would have been surprised if you were 'thinking of my sensibilities. Not in character at all.