EuroTrash

Owning property isn't a major criterion in determining residence, as has been said. It's where you live and work that counts. You work where you work and you live where you live, regardless of whether you rent or own or are in free accommodation provided by your employer. Property ownership and other considerations only come into it in a tie-breaker situation if someone works equally in 2 countries, spends equal time in 2 countries, and doesn't have immediate family ties firmly rooted in one or the other. Since the OP appears to do all their work, earn all (or most of) their income, and spend most of their time in the Middle East, and has no family ties to France, there's no reason for it to come to a tie-breaker. It seems perfectly clear cut. They live in the Middle East and their holiday home in France is simply a holiday home until such time as their lifestyle changes and they either start working in France or living here for long stretches.

Have you asked about extending your AA cover to Europe? Otherwise, if you take out another breakdown policy you will probably end up duplicating your existing UK cover, I don't think any UK breakdown insurance providers offer European-only cover, it comes as part of the package that also includes UK breakdown. In France, car insurance normally includes breakdown cover, it isn't something you take out separately and in any case not on a UK-reg car. FWIW I used to use Britannia Rescue because their European cover was more generous than most, it might even have been unlimited, can't remember now.

If you go straight to the French govt criteria for fiscal residence it seems pretty clear that the OP would not be fiscally resident here - their three criteria are where your family is based, where most of your working time is spent, and where most of your income is earned. If you fulfill one or more of these criteria you are fiscally resident but I don't see that the OP meets any. http://www.ufe.org/fiscalite/determiner-sa-residence-fiscale#détermination

Well without the ham it would be cheese on toast or a toasted cheese sandwich, wouldn't it! Nothing odd about cheese on toast, though it would be rather odd to call it a croque monsieur when it isn't.

Yes you need to fill a tax form in. Everybody who is resident in France has to submit a tax form every year, regardless of whether or not they work or run a business here, it is a legal requirement. Just go to the tax office in April and tell them who you are and what you do, they will give you all the forms you need. Once you've done one return and are 'in the system' you should receive them automatically. Yes it is easy to complete as far as your AE earnings go. Last year I received a form from somewhere (URSSAF? RSI?) just before the declaration was due, which told me the exact figure I needed to enter on my tax form, and even which box to put it in! However you also need to declare any other family income, pensions, allowances, income from the UK, etc, The people at the tax office will help you and even fill the form in for you if you want, lots of people ask them to do this, so when the time comes you may have a long wait! But they are very helpful, and when your form is filled in they can, if you ask, put all the data into their computer and predict what tax, if any, you will be asked to pay. Hope this helps.

[quote user="Ejc"] the dog has it down to a fine art he stands on the edge of his steel tea bowl and lets it clatter and bang until he either gets his cup of tea in the afternoon or his dinner at lunch time......[/quote] Where I lived in the UK, a neighbour moved in across the snicket. His house had a concrete yard facing my bedroom window and he had 3 rottweilers which he left out in the yard all night with metal bowls, and that's what they played at when they got bored of barking and howling. Neighbour must have had cloth ears. I never had a decent night's sleep all the time he lived there, which fortunately was only about 6 months because towards the end I was lying awake thinking up schemes to hide aspirins inside lumps of meat... I know it wasn't the rotties' fault but I hated those dogs like I'd never hated anything in my life before. In fact during those 6 months I learned several slightly disturbing things about what being driven to the limit can do to a normally rational and soft-hearted person.

Without the cg and not even knowing the name and address of the registered owner that you were supposed to have bought it from, I don't see how you could ever get it registered in France.

Some aires have hookups, some don't, some you can hook up for the length of your stay for free, some you can hook up but you have to pay, best is to buy an Aires guide and it will list exactly what is provided at each aire. Quite often there is a coin operated hookup point where you can plug in for 20mins or so to recharge your battery. France Passion is a superb scheme: http://www.france-passion.com/gb_formule.php?PHPSESSID=c4a4a4c42a78e778a40ac3e1ef7aa18c

Hard to see you ending up much better off (not much work around and how would you find it, you can't advertise if you're not registered) while on the other hand your plan is fraught with risks that could land you in serious financial trouble - getting dobbed in for illegal work by a French/Brit artisan who is fed up with unregistered and uninsured builders, having an accident whilst working and ending up with astronomical hospital bills to pay. You could well find yourself in the middle of a nightmare, dreaming of the days when you were safe in Ireland with regular jobseekers coming in, a house in France and nobody hounding you for ridiculous amounts of money that you don't have. The bottom line is, France is probably one of the last places to come to earn a quick buck. It looks after its own and does nothing to encourage people to move here unless they are prepared to pay in before they take out.

If you have a campervan, why stay on campsites? Aires are designed for motorhomes, have all you need (IMHO), enjoy better locations, are cheaper if not free - and nobody's going to want to see your doggies' vaccination certificates. And France Passion stopovers are even better in all of those respects.

I accompanied my partner when he learnt and I entirely sympathise. The less you interfere the better as it's all about them gaining experience. You just have to learn to look calm and nonchalant while the panic rises and your palms go sweaty, and rather than scream 'Move out, move out' say 'personally I would leave a bit more room but of course it's up to you dear." There was just one memorable incident while my partner was learning, which went something like this: "Waah, for fxxx sake get over!!!!" "Don't you swear at me!" Bang. "What the fxxx was that?" "You hit the bollard, and don't you swear at me either."

Yes you are absolutely right in assuming this. That's why An0 said take your cheque book!

5-element, your links are fine in my browser :) Babbles, you're asking the wrong question - what you should be asking is not how to SURVIVE France o your own, but how to ENJOY France, big difference! If you're not used to being on your own you will have to adjust and see how it goes - but don't look at it as a problem, more an opportunity. You can do what you want when you want, visit places, try new foods, meet new people, do as much or as little housework as you want, etc, etc. Have to admit I'm a natural loner but I would find it very hard to give up the independence at this stage, in fact I couldn't do it. Long winter nights - lay in plenty of good books, cook more elaborate meals, catch up with writing to friends, update your website and do all the business promotion stuff that you don't get time to do in season, etc, etc. Oh, and get a cat.

http://droit-finances.commentcamarche.net/faq/467-garage-et-reparations-automobiles-vos-droits-en-cas-de-litiges though it doesn't seem to cover your exact circumstances. However, if he didn't complete the repair he has not fulfilled his legal obligations so you certainly have some sort of a case. Have a word with the garage who fixed it?

The thing with banks in my experience is that the only address they will use is your residence principale, and before they will accept it you have to prove it, normally by showing them your tax forms with that address on. Suggest you google a few high street and internet banks and look at their tarifs so you can compare. Internet ones are reckoned to be cheaper. As an example, with CA I pay around 6 euros a month (at least I think it's every month, it might not be), it used to be about 4 but then I wanted internet banking and it went up. On top of that I pay around 50 euros each time a new card is issued, so once every 3 years. Then there's a bit to pay for certain special transactions, or for setting up direct debits other than to utilities companies which are free. So it's not megabucks, nothing to be scared of, although if you're used to free banking in the UK it takes a while to accept it. But I still think your main criteria might have to be to go to whichever bank will offer you a mortgage, it might not be easy to persuade them.

You can't open a resident account unless you are a full time resident here (i.e. maison secondaire doesn't count. you don't say whether your apartment is going to be your permanent home or not) but you can apply to open a non-resident account. You'll need to provide statements from your UK bank etc. I don't see how you could open an account at a local French branch from the UK but I believe you can with Britline, and you may be able to open a non-resident account with an internet bank, or have you looked at HSBC, they do international banking? If you don't have an income in France and you're going to try and get a mortgage on the basis of earnings in the UK, you might stand more chance with HSBC. Apart from that, French high street banks are much of a muchness really, some branches are better than others so local recommendation is always useful. The thing to watch is that they all have different accounts with different fees, and they might try to sell you one with bells and whistles rather than the cheap basic one. With CA (CA Normandie, not Britline) I can withdraw cash from any CA cash machine anywhere in France for free, and make a limited number of withdrawals per month fron other banks' cash machines - including overseas. If you exceed that number you get charged, but I never have. But if you're in the UK, and especially since you need a mortgage, I think HSBC might be the place to try first, though I don't know anything about their fees.

You do normally have to write and sign an attestation sur l'honneur to confirm you don't have a TV at the property, and give it to your Tresor or tax office, as they need to put it on file. Once they have that they will probably say you don't have to pay it, although in theory they can insist on you paying and then they will refund it. Don't stress, it's a formality, all they need is the right bit of paper but until they have that they can't do anything.

"My Oxford English Dictionary uses Rendezvous and not Rendez-Vous" I rest my case! If it's in the OED, it must be English!

Is this a googletranslate or something? If so, can we have the original? I wouldn't have thought it was entirely normal to have chunks of babelfish in a compromis, though maybe it is these days.

So Albert, your challenge is to help Oracle cook his herring without either burning his fingers or letting it fall out of the frying pan into the fire. :)

Of course rendez and vous are French words, and rendez-vous is also French, but IMHO rendezvous isn't. The point of the rosbif example was that I don't think you ought to take another language's words, adapt them so that they would be 'wrong' in the original language, and then say they still belong to the original language. I don't think the Académie Française would like it. Once a word's been anglicised, as far as I'm concerned it's English - or perhaps there should be an English equivalent of franglais. How about Ensh?

I beg to differ, 5-element. On that basis, rosbif would be an English word and I refuse to believe that it is.

If Oracle catches a fish, I'd be interested to see how he cooks it and serves it :)

:) :) IMHO the difference is that rendezvous is English and rendez-vous is French. RDV is quicker to type, universally understood and avoids the problem.

Or even La Prochaine Etape if you happen to be feeling grammatical. But I still think Chez Louise has a nice welcoming ring to it.