EuroTrash

"that is what democracy is all about. If the vote is to leave, even by a narrow margin, then that is the wish of the people - right or wrong." But when people get what they think they want, it sometimes turns out not what they wanted at all. Democracy voted for Hollande but very soon realised it had got it wrong.

On the information given it seems pretty clear that France is still your 'home', since everyone has to have a domicile and a fiscal residence somewhere and France seems to be the only contender. Therefore you will continue to declare your worldwide income there, and since you can't demonstrate that it has already been taxed elsewhere, since it hasn't then France will tax it. Being in France for more than half the year is a factor that will likely make you fiscally resident here but being out of France for more than half the year does not mean that you automatically stop being fiscally resident. If in fact you spent more time in France than any other country, I don't think there can be any question about it.

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/dgi/public/popup;jsessionid=YQNTMLJVWTLHFQFIEIQCFEY?espId=1&typePage=cpr02&docOid=documentstandard_6069&temNvlPopUp=true might help you decide whether or not you need to fill in a tax return or not. If you used to be resident but want to claim you have left, you will need to give a date when you left, fill in a tax return up to that date, and tell them where you are tax resident now, so that they can tie it all up with your new home country. Also bear in mind that your home in France will become a residence secondaire, you will lose your carte vitale, etc, etc...

I would like to think I would vote for whatever I thought would be best for the UK - so no my opinion shouldn't change depending on whether I was resident there or not. But frankly it's so hard to know what to believe out of all the biased garbage that is published on both sides, that I haven't a clue which would be worse. And the shame of it that I'm almost past caring one way or the other. It's been dragging on for too long and there are too many people jumping on too many bandwagons.

Or you could beat the dreaded campervans at their own game. If you have a patch of land where they can park, and some home-grown or home-made products that you could offer for sale, you could consider joining France Passion: http://www.france-passion.com/fr_accueillants.php

Unfortunately I have to agree about the Dutch bringing their own food, can't say I've ever met many Belgians, but also I meet English who are proud of having their freezer full of enough Tesco ready meals to feed them for a fortnight. They ignore the local gasto delights all around them and eat Tesco chicken, it makes me so sad. But I think more people buy local than Quillan suggests - either that or they tell lies, because it's an oft-discussed subject on aires. Most French people claim to eat out one evening in two. And even the Brits use the boulangeries. In fact up until recently I used to work summer seasons on campsites and live in my van from March to September, so it spent very little time on my drive (also I didn't buy it new, it's a classic Merc Hymer and if anything has probably appreciated in value over the 10 years I've owned it), but I realise that that isn't typical of CC owners. But as a result mine really is home from home and staying in an unfamiliar B+B could not compete for relaxation and feeling bien dans ma peau. I take your point you can just turn up at a B+B - but first you have to find it, and book in, and unload what you need for the night, which seems so pointless when have your own sitting room to chill out in with your own music to listen to and your own books to read, and your bed is ready made right in front of you. Then, few B+Bs offer the you the chance to go to sleep and wake up in such stunning spots, e.g. I have yet to see a B+B just yards from dramatic cliffs where you can lie in bed watching the sun setting over the ocean (Pointe du Raz), or right on the golden beach where you can listen to the waves and then in the morning you go for a run along the sands and get back in time for when the boulanger van comes round to the aire (Erquy and many more). All that to try to explain why a B+B break would never tempt me as a like for like substitute for a camping car expedition - as Quillan has pointed out, it's not a money thing, it's a lifestyle thing.

"Ban the dreaded camper vans"??? We go off for long weekends in the van maybe 10 or 15 times a year. Sometimes for longer. But for the long weekends it's always a last minute decision, depends on workflow, deadlines and grabbing an opportunity to snatch a break; often it's semi-planned but doesn't happen in the end because a job comes in. No way am I going to start booking B+Bs weeks or even days ahead. We head to the coast, or somewhere peaceful and picturesque, and have a stress free day, and when it starts getting evening we look for somewhere to spend the night and either go out for a meal or cook in the van. In the morning we move on to discover another new place. If your village/town closed its aire, we'd simply stop somewhere else so your local commerces and restaurants would lose trade. We always make a point of shopping and spending money in the commune where we stay, as do most motorhomers, and that's why communes build aires to welcome us. Half a dozen camping cars on the communal aire every night is half a dozen couples or families spending many hundreds of euros between them in the shops and restaurants. And you want to ban them because you think it might get you an extra booking? I'm sorry you're having a bad year and I'm sure your B+B is lovely, but camping caristes aren't your customers. If we liked sleeping under other people's rooves and committing ourselves in advance to dates and places, and if we valued comfort and being looked after over independence and freedom, we wouldn't have gone to the expense of buying campîng cars, would we?

... many people in the country prefer to sick with Orange.. Been eating too many carrots perhaps?

I agree, I guess that is how they feel, and that being the case it is normal that at the end of the holiday they will go home. So I don't think the OP need worry too much about why people are leaving.

Just want to echo 'don't believe what you read in the papers' - as often as not journalists post a couple of adverts asking a certain group of people; such as returning ex-pats, to get in touch and tell their stories, they get a handful of responses, and that's their research done. I would slightly disagee that those who come here to work are more likely to give up and go home than those who come here to retire; Obviously some haven't done their homework and don't make a go of it, but I think those who do put down stronger roots and are more likely to make it their forever home. Having been working here for several years I am often stunned at how little some (not all; by any means) of the retired brigade know about the country they have lived in for as long as I have if not longer - they know all the UK news but they don't know what,s going on in their own village, they are surprised to find the local shops closed on French public holidays, and they always talk about the UK as 'back at home'. To me they seem like they're here on an extended holiday.

The big question is, are you intending to work, and if not are you UK retirement age yet, and if not, how far off? £15 000 pa will go a lot further if you don't have to set aside several thousand a year for private healthcare, which you may have to if you are intending to be 'early retired', or as the French term it 'inactif''.

Unfortunately that's why there are so many perfectly nice houses standing empty and unloved in France - because the heirs can't all be found or can't agree on what to do with them.

As said, it depends entirely on what you want to do. You can't really start applying for jobs now if you're not moving till next year, and the picture might change a lot between now and then (though hard to see it will get much better). But you could start looking to get a feel for what there is out there - not a lot - and the qualifications that you would need to apply for type of work you want to apply for. If you google something like 'emploi en ligne' you will find loads of sites, the one I probably look at most is http://www.indeed.fr/, they seem to catch most of the jobs that you find on the other sites. But at this stage it probably makes more sense to focus on identifying companies you would like to work for and send them your CV and lettre de motivation, in French of course. I wish you all the luck of the Irish.

Seems to me that comes to the same thing, ideally your bank and your service providers both need a copy of the same (correct) mandate. Is it your bank that has changed its codes, or your supplier's bank? Either way I guess you need to re-do whatever you did to set it up in the first place. Presumably your service provider gave you a form to fill in originally so ask for another one, fill it in, send it back to the supplier and ask them to update their records, and send a copy to the bank.

When I can't log on it's usually because my siret number is wrong. I once typed it with a digit missed out, and that is the number that my browser insists on remembering - it ignores all the dozens of times I've typed it correctly and always autofills the box with the wrong number. You also have to put your name in exactly as they have it recorded.

Could it be that regardless of where you pick the car up from, contracts with UK residents are classed as UK transactions and contracts with French residents are classed as French transactions, with all that that involves in accountancy terms - business taxes, pricing etc.Still and all it seems a big difference.

I thought most insurers offered limited mileage policies, you pick the mileage you expect to do in a year and the lower the figure the lower the premium. With mine, you submit your mileage at the end of the year and get a refund per mile on anything below. And I'm quids in because my car clocks up in miles and the limit is in KM, but the insurers said they couldn't cope with that so ignore it! That is with MMA.

As said - you need to consult a notaire about the French estate. It will all depend on what clauses were or were not inserted into the purchase contract at the time when her father bought the property in France. Did he buy it jointly with his wife, is she named on the deeds? Basically, in the absence of any legal provisions to the contrary, if the spouse inherited part of the estate, then that share would indeed pass to her children after her death. An estate always passes down the bloodline; under Napoleonic law, which is what the French laws of succession are based on, children are 'protected heirs' and cannot be disinherited, even if their parents hate them and would prefer not to leave them a penny. So if part of the estate passed to her on your friend's father's death, then even if she died the next day, from the moment she inherited it onwards that share belongs to her bloodline It's just unfortunate for your friend that her father died before the spouse. Not sure what 'the French estate should pay for the costs of the English estate' means. Re the English estate, who is the executor? If the solicitor is acting as 'executor' (for which he will pay himself a very large fee, out of the estate), it is up to him to settle the funeral costs out of the estate. If your friend isn't the executor, which it sounds like she isn't, she needn't worry about it. Since you say she has 'inherited', yet she clearly doesn't have access to the funds yet, it sounds like it hasn't all been wound up. Two years is a long time but it can take longer than that, especially if there is no will and the executor is having to track down insurance policies, bank accounts, pensions, etc, etc. But if the solicitor is her father's executor, he shouldn't be 'acting' for any individual(s). He should be executing the estate as the law requires. It is very unfortunate that her father didn't make a will. Dying intestate makes it messy for those left behind.

As said. Not easy for the French to find good jobs at the moment, unemployment is a lot higher than in in the UK. So he would be competing with native French speakers with French qualifications who are familiar with French business culture and expectations. Many well-qualified expats are only too happy to find jobs in factories or at checkouts. He will need to be very persistent and send his CV with a letter of motivation (in French) to every company he can find. Another site to try is www.indeed.fr.

I get this form to fill in every year, but that's probably because I don't have a TV. No doubt one of these good years it will say that you have to pay if you have a computer capable of receiving TV broadcasts, but hopefully not this year?

The codes are case sensitive. If they are in uppercase you have to type them in upper case otherwise it will never work. There must be a way to toggle between upper and lower case on your kindle. (Failing that,you could change your livebox code to get rid of the u/case characters - but that would be a lot of hassle and shouldn't be necessary!)

The foyer principale is the main ring on the hob.

And I can even tell you what box you will write the figure in - if it's the same as last year it will be box 5TE, 5UE or 5VE (according to activity) on form 2042C. :)

Yes you have to declare your AE earnings on your tax return, it is not included when calculating tax payable but obviously it has to be included in calculating your revenue de reference fiscale, to see if your total household earnings are low enough to qualify you for any benefits. There is a special box on the tax form where you enter AE earnings that have already been taxed. You will probably receive a form from URSSAF within the next month or so that confirms the figure you declared for earnings in 2012, and it will actually tell you which box to enter it on the tax return. But even if you don't receive this bit of paper, the tax form and the instructions make it quite clear.

As an inactif you have to have lived here legally for 5 years before you can apply to join the French system as a resident. Hopefully you have been filing your annual declarations since you arrived, and that being the case you will already be part way there and will just need private health insurance for the rest of the 5 year period. Alternatively if you have a fairly substantial income you may be able to get into the state system by paying contributions based on your income, but (a) most CPAMs don't offer this unless you insist and (b) it may not work out any cheaper - bear in mind that once you are in the French health system direct you may become liable for CSG on your pension, depending on its source, and on any other worldwide income.