Miki
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Posts posted by Miki
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Dinard extended the runway and changed the reception and departure areas a bit......
Miki
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With G de Fr it would be normal to expect bedlinen to be provided but be cautious. Do you not have the address and contact number of the place you have hired?
G de Fr will let you know exactly what the gite you have booked supplies. There are minimum requirements the owner must supply and the more Epis (grading system)the gite has, the better (in general) you should expect to get.
Miki
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LAST EDITED ON 29-Mar-04 AT 08:17 PM (GMT)
Dominique,
In pages jaune look under Publicit.
They will have all kinds of companies offering self adhesive lettering (auto collants)and all manner of advertising. Many will be able to make you up a panneau to suit your enterprise. Max was around a 1m2 but as always, different regions or areas, different rules.
Miki -
Most of our French business or reservations seem to end with:
Sincres salutations
and not the more formal longer endings.
We have used that ending for a few years now by email.
Miki -
No, the lady behind the counter was right and, she would have been so, for many years previously as well.
To open up (register)your own business, the Ch de Com, if you do not possess a CDS, have simply asked to see your passport.
The new laws do not affect that, especially as it was never the case that a CDS was required to start a business anyway.
The logic being that to be able to support yourself, you either had to have X amount of regular income (pension etc) or a salary.
To gain a salary, you needed a CDS, to gain a CDS you needed an income! So by starting a "company" you could gain a CDS. (normally !)
C'est la belle France !
Miki
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LAST EDITED ON 02-Mar-04 AT 01:32 PM (GMT)
SB,
I can send you a CV in the kind of layout our kids sent off their CV's for part time work here, if you like.
It took a few applications for them to finally land a part time job, not sure if it was their CV's that got them their jobs or lost them their chance of the other jobs !!
All our friends told them to keep any C.V's short and to the point.
Oh and importantly, most, if not all employers will expect you to enclose a letter of motivation with a passport size photo attached
Miki -
LAST EDITED ON 01-Mar-04 AT 06:21 PM (GMT)
For British run gtes, yes, that is pretty standard, the 100 probably being the security deposit against damages.
Deposits can range from as low as 10% risng in some cases to 50%.
Final payments can also range from a month before arrival to 2 months before.
Payment is usually required in full, if the date of arrival is within 4-8 weeks.
French law is a little different, in that no more than a 25% deposit is requested and, often it is just 4 weeks before arrival for final payment and some owners even ask it for it on arrival.
Miki
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LAST EDITED ON 28-Feb-04 AT 01:35 PM (GMT)
Coco,
Sorry, we have only just got our Electrics back on after another power cut.
The EDF chaps were seen over the other side of the commune putting up a new pole after the old had gone down in the early morning.
Well as you are fully aware by now, snow arrived again last night so, I guess your brother in law is on the ferry today?
Miki
(Sitting here keeping fingers crossed that all will be OK sparkswise for a while !) -
For anyone thinking of running a B&B.
The last 2 days the snow has fallen and with that a few cancellations and a couple of early departures.
A Belgian family rang om Wednesday for a four day booking in our family suite. I didn't take their credit card details as they said they were just about to leave Belgium (just after 8 a.m)and would be with us around 6-8 p.m, depending on where they stopped to see something on the way. They neither arrived nor called us to cancel.
Then today a family from Picardy who had been here for one night decided they would head home today, 3 days short of their intended length of stay.
Another call today from a booking for today rang to ask how the weather was and cancelled when we told them the truth about the snow.
This is not a moan, more a warning of the fickleness of this business. Many things can help or hinder your B&B, in this instance it us a good few hundred euros that we will have lost but I guess what you never actually had in your hand you won't miss but who knows what the rest of the year holds!!
Miki -
LAST EDITED ON 24-Feb-04 AT 11:31 AM (GMT)
I would never suggest anyone use electric showers in France. One of the reasons simply being the huge amount of kw power required. Usually a minimum of around 7kw, so times that by 2 and add on your other electrical requirements and you can see just why they are not a big seller (I doubt many french houses even have one?) in France.
I would suggest that a 200 litre chauffeau between the 2 rooms would in 99% of cases be quite sufficient. Cost of them these days can be as little as 100 euros on promo. If you are in a known hard water area, then paying more for a steatite type chauffeau would make sense.
Putting in good quality glass doors to the shower always pays dividends, as sorry to say it but, other people do not pay quite the same attention to your house as you do.
Miki -
LAST EDITED ON 21-Feb-04 AT 09:40 AM (GMT)
Anna,
As you have not had it explained and it is bit long winded, I was hoping someone would have offered you the answer by now but........
Firstly any seasonal type business can be "Saissoniere".
"Saissoniere" still means going to the C de Com and registering your business. That will then mean the Greffe de Tribunal sorting out all of your paperwork and all the caisses Sant, retraite, URSSAF etc) being informed.
So now you are on the system and with your little gite business (anything under min 4 quality gites will not earn you enough to live here) you would be an absolute fool to register, as they will take all your probable earnings away in cotisations.
What a saissonniere does is register at the start of their sesason, then wehn the season ends they simply go back to the C de Com and de-register. This saves paying for a certain period that you are not working.
I don't believe if this is done honestly, there is a lot to save.
You will save a bit on URSSAF quarterly charges but when you are de-registered or continue being registered, the yearly total is regularised, so whether you work 12 or 6 months, your seasons takings total is the yearly payment due anyway.
There are some benefits as your cotisations (health etc) can possibly be also smaller, not a great deal but possibly enough to make it worth it.
Your health cover continues while you are de-registered.
You will have the aggro of having to go back to the C de Com each year twice and paying the fees each year as well.
That is the basically the answer to your question. Many years ago we de-registered for 6 months due to circumstances but found that we almsost paid the same dues as the year before.
Simply, because at the end of the day your cotisation payments are due on your turnover so if you do the same in 3 months as others do in 12, the amount due can well be the same.
Hope that is of some help, sometimes it can just open up another set of questions.
You really ought to visit URSSAF or the C de Com and ask them the questions you want the answers to. You won't always get the straight replies you want but in the end, you will get there.
Miki -
LAST EDITED ON 16-Feb-04 AT 07:33 PM (GMT)
>Update. So far we have now
>a Siret number etc,done the
>extra house insurance and have
>been to the S.S, They
>told us to get E
>106 from Newcastle
Gastines,
I think you have gone out of sync. Did you go to the CPAM before the Ch de Com?
You have registered at the Ch de Com and still gone to the CPAM. They normally will not be your caisse de sant. You will have to chose a Caisse de Sant, which in your case, is probably OK to chose Redevance (ex Mutuelle Action)just along the road from the Ch de Com in Saint Malo.
You have registered at the Ch de Com, you are now registered with all the lovely cotisation people, who very soon, will be after the shirt on your back (OK, that's a little joke but..)
You won't need an E106 as the mutuelles will soon be sending you their offers. Did you not make a choice of pension, and sant organisations whilst you were at the Ch de Commerce? They often ask you then and there, so it can all get started without delay.
The E106 is really for those not intending to register a business in France but simply to cover their first couple of years in France for health cover at around 70% remboursement.
>and let
>the Chambre De Commerce sort
>the rest out. We have
>been told to go early
>March,for opening April.All depts. have
>told us that it is
>obligatory to register!
I still say they are not feeding you the correct info. At this moment in time, the laws do not insist on Chambres (under a certain number) or Gtes(also under a certain number) being registered at the Ch de Commerce.
Thanks for
>help given on this site.
>If we have any more
>news I will update again.
>Also just found the Community
>News site,one day too late
>for the curry evening at
>the Oyster Catcher,but will watch
>for the next event.Regards. 35.
See you there Gastines, you can buy me a pint !!
Miki
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I thought the saying was :
"Eat up, yer at yer aunties" !
Or as can be normal in a few homes; For what we are about to recieve etc.
Miki -
LAST EDITED ON 07-Feb-04 AT 05:32 PM (GMT)
>If, in the years to come,
>you found that you couldn't
>make a living, what would
>you do? Work at
>something else? Would you
>stay in France or go
>back? Tell me to
>f*** off, I won't mind!!
> I don't think I
>will ever go back to
>the UK.... couldn't afford to
>get back in the housing
>market for a start.
>No, my future is here
>I think. (What is
>left of it! Old
>crock that I am!)
Alexis,
I don't find that nosey and you seem far too nice to say **** off to !!
I am not sure, we have always had to work hard through our married life and we would be gutted to see our latest (5 years in Brittany now) venture go pear shaped.
At the moment, we would see a very good return on our house and business if we sold up but, we don't want to. We still have commitments to our kids and so still need an income from somewhere. I have been offered bits and pieces over the years, e.g working for estate agents, financial asistant in an Insurance company, running a large commercial campsite and a few other things but have never really fancied going back and working for someone else. I have worked for myself since 1973 (the year I got married, what a big chancer I was, getting married and going self employed in the same month !)
You can bet your life, that if I needed a job now, no one would want me ! so would we go back, well as is more the norm, the Mrs would go back tomorrow, me, well I was back in the UK last week for the funeral of my best mate (he was just 53) and work partner for 20 years and so many people were saying just how they are planning to move abroad, that if I went back, lots of my old pals would be over in mainland Europe and it would be like going back to a "foreign land".
As far as the housing issue is concerned I have to be honest and, say that we only left a terrace house in W.London and through luck or hard work whilst being in France, we could slip back in to similar accommodation. We have not lost out to the huge increase in housing mainly because we bought a run down campsite and gite/restaurant complex many years ago, which when sold gave us a decent profit but oh boy, we earned every penny of that profit.
Another point is that our 2 "youngest" are as much, if not more French in attitude and would have to be dragged back or left here so leaving would not be easy anyway and I ain't planning on leaving just yet !
Miki -
Today at a meeting with the Ch de Commerce, I asked once again, the question of the CDS. Now I have to admit that the Ch de Com are not the voice of legality on this matter. Only the right ministers at the governemnt know the facts, even if they have put them over badly.
They told me that as far as they are aware, those moving here from within the EU and NOT intending to work, will no longer need to apply for a CDS to live in France, when I questioned her about those wanting to work here, the lady I was talking to brought up on the screen the new rules.
Now they are pretty confusing, especially when sitting sideways on to the screen but she read it out and she stated that, those persons intending to work in France from within the EU must apply for a CDS (or now it states Titre de Sejour) with the express request for the TDS to allow the holder to work whilst in France. So no change there.
On talking further, I asked what the French would make of the fact that many thousands of EU immigrants would be walking around with no official ID and her thoughts were that something else would soon be along, as for the moment France were following the Brussels line!
If you think a passport will suffice, don't forget it has no address in France on it, UK European driving permit that ex pats now more commonly use in France, has no French address and, I can't believe that carrying a current utility bill around, will be the way forward.
So sorry whatever "Canary" reckons further down, my feelings are that this issue will create more problems than it might appear to solve and run for a while yet.
Miki -
LAST EDITED ON 04-Feb-04 AT 02:48 PM (GMT)
Further to the thread on "How many more" here is something that will cause rumblings perhaps?
In recent months we have been getting more and more persons staying here from the UK who want to start up gites or B&B. We, for many years, living in 3 different areas of the country, have offered help and information to these people, of how best to go about it all.
I spoke with another couple of friends (also in the B&B gite business and in fact for longer than us)today on this subject about assisting others and their reply has had me thinking hard.
They said that they no longer offer any more advice, other than, "the area is saturated, look elsewhere if you really want to do this". We thought about it and have to say, they are perhaps right in their attitude.
At the end of the day, for everyone that arrives in your village, area, region, is another one capable of taking some of your potential clients, so why should you assist them to become a competitor when the area is already saturated?
For those with families or anyone in fact, who need their B&B or gite livelihood to live on, why should they assist or help any others who wish to open a similar enterprise in their vicinity ?
What do others think ?
Miki
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LAST EDITED ON 28-Jan-04 AT 12:18 PM (GMT)
Well if that is what they have told you, then do as they say.
<<<<<,are advised ref.Activites Reglementees of 05/03/03 you must register if you provide any service,cleaning the room,breakfast,towels etc.>>>>>>>
That part is strange, how on earth can one do Chambres d'htes without cleaning the room, supplying towels and GIVING breakfasts, which with G de Fr is always in the nightly fee.
If you take a look through the extremely large Gites de Charmance (ex G de Fr chambres d'htes)guide book, I would wager that a large percentage of those chambres d'htes know through other legal channels that is not neccessarily the case.
All the ones we exchange our "overs" with are NOT registered with the C de C and legally trade as a B&B and most are with G de Fr or Clvacances.
Miki
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>Can anyone tell us about setting
>up a campsite in France?
>Trying to get an idea
>on viability/red tape etc...
>
>Cheers!
>
>Lu
Lu,
You would not believe the amount of red tape and the number of different government and local official departments who would need to be involved.
Even a small camping a la ferme has its rules and regs (if done legally that is of course, we know of a couple that describe themselves as such and are acting quite illegally)
To open something simple such as a 25 emplacement site with electric hook ups and a toilet block will cost a bomb and I promise you, you will have been through one hell of a game by the time you get it open.
Far better to buy an already trading campsite, maybe a run down site and, one you think you can do a far better job with than the sellers.
If you are talking 50 plus, then unless you have a bottomless wallet, forget it.
I am sorry but the list is too long to describe, of the how to's and who to ask's and where do I start etc.
It is extremely hard to open a medium to large site from scratch (open field and nothing else) and I would be very interested to hear of any Brit who has done such a thing.
Miki -
JP,
Yes we joined Metro some time ago now, one of the benefits is being able to buy in bulk. We buy the catering size packs of meat from them. In fact we buy all the serviettes (breakfast and evening meal) ice cream, well you could say just about everything really, rather than go through it item by item.
Since moving northwards in France 5 years ago and because Metro is now 40 minures away on the far side(for us)of Rennes we use Promocash in Saint Malo more often but I have to say Metro is probably better overall. Rumour has it that Metro are looking to come down to Saint Malo but, they said that 5 years ago !!
We also have an account with Carogel now called Brake France, others may know them better as Brake Bros in the UK. They are a large wholesale catering concern. Many of the large (and small) hotels use them.
We tend to get Pain au Chocolats from them for the kids we get here and also the Croissants, due in part to our boulangerie, not always having enough made early in the mornings. Although to be honest the croissants we get from Brake France are excellent. They are 60 grammes and the slightly more expensive ones are the ones that use Charente butter in the making of them. You get them out of the freezer in the evenings and by the morning they have risen and then 15 minutes in the oven at 180 c and believe me, you have a lovely tasty croissant and more importantly, we rarely if ever, get any back, client is happy and so are we!
You can also get mini pains (small bread) or demi pains (half baguette) but for bread, we prefer to use our boulangerie. Brake France will deliver (we go there, as it is on the way back from the daughters school but in summer we get them to deliver)and as far as I am aware you do not need a siret number etc to use them.
As JP said, going to Metro (or promocash)will save you money and in the summer, when the tourists are around and the shops and centres are buzzing, it will save you time (and a bit of money!)
You can go straight in, get what you want in no time (compared to the large shops). The policy is always to clear the 'cash outs' (term for wholesale "caisse" from UK can't think of the correct word)as quickly as possible, as they are aware of the importance of time to their clients.
Yes I agree, it would be nice to hear of plenty of other tips.
Miki
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LAST EDITED ON 17-Jan-04 AT 08:45 PM (GMT)
>New question folks, as I understand
>it, forgive me if I
>am wrong, there are four
>types of licences for food
>and alcohol, and these would
>be T1, T2, T3 and
>T4. Could somebody explain their
>use with regards to B&Bs
>and possibly how one should
>go about getting whatever is
>required.
>
>Many thanks in advance.
>
>Q
Q,
You need a simple table d'htes licence, you will not qualify for the licence 4 which is a full bar licence.
We got ours first time years ago in the Dordogne from the Maire who simply walked us round to the Tabac to sort it out, mind you we had the existing Green form (original form with the old owners name on it)with us, so the Maire just told her to renew it in our name !
Now days the Douanes are in charge of most licences and every year we pay the princely sum of around 8,00.
We went to the Douanes when we arrived here 5 years ago to get our first licence (not sure now if we went to the Mairie first to get a form?)and now we get a demand every year and that's it.
You will need to guard the green licence form, as that will be the one the gendarmes will want to see should they ever have need to visit your place? I am not sure that you need a licence if you give the wine away with the meal though.....
Try the Mairie and they should be able to put you straight.
Miki
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Sorry error !
Wrong thread have now put it on the Finance thread where it should have been originally.
Miki -
Would anyone know anything about a case where a teenager works part time (full time student) and the employer naturally pays all the necessary cotisations and she (the teenager) pays her monthly dues to health, retirement chomage etc (lots of little charges as normal)from her salary, how it would be best for her to declare her salary for tax purposes?
Some people have told me to declare it on my return, others have said it is perhaps more beneficial for her to declare her income herself on her own return, at the moment the tax returns haven't been sent out of course so at the moment, have time to hopefully sort it out by then, so any advice would be of value.
She is at Lyce at the moment not Uni, so lives at home , at Uni, hopefully next year, fingers crossed ! maybe the logement problem might be an issue perhaps?
Anyone have any ideas please?
Miki
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Hi,
Our daughter has (finally !) been allowed a mobile phone, partly due to the number of her pals who have them already and partly for us to be able to contact her whenever we need to. Seems that she is 10 years behind kids in the UK by the number of kids we saw walking around West sussex at Xmas with them.
Thanks to a posting on here ofering a website to get comparisons between different companies, rates etc she found that with Bouygues telephone, students can get a special deal (until 31.01.04) which is 28 per month and includes 6 hours of communications between 21.30 and 03.30 (student times !!) and I think she mumbled something about 60 free texts. Cost of phone was only 9 a Sagem My2x she could have chosen from a few other models. The contract is for 2 years.
To get this rate the person has to fill in a form and send it off to Bouygues with a current certificat de scolarit. In the meantime the person can still use the phone whilst waiting confirmation of validity.
We still carry on with our steam powered 8 year old, pay as you go !!
Miki -
Hi All,
I put this posting as an answer to someone in the Legal thread but thought it would be interesting to know what others in the B&B business thought, after what seems to have been a year of mass influx of new people into the B&B or gte business.
I really do have to say that in the last year or so, we have known at least 20 couples come through our place, all of whom wishing to do B&B or gites(we must make it look easy to do and, all we have to do is just open the satchel and let the guests throw the money in, if only!)and I am now seriously wondering just how many more B&B places France can take?
In our area I know of at least 10 new B&B's in the last year and when the new local brochure comes out I expect to find loads more !.
No problems at the moment in high season but, there are not enough guests out of season to go around. I say this in the hope that new people will see, that you will need to take a fair amount of euros, if it is to be your sole source of income.
Five bedrooms (maybe 4 if they are of excellent quality to allow you to increase the nightly price) must be the aim and all ensuite as well, if you are to take sufficient income to survive.
Some members have asked whether or not the market is getting saturated and, I have to say that I am now starting to firmly believe that at the present rate of new Brits opening up B&B's, Gtes etc in certain areas, that the day may come and in the not too distant future.
Miki
Main Residence or not
in French Legal Issues
Posted
Miki