Saintly Tim

We plan to sell our house in England and move to a rented house in France while we house hunt.  Any observations would be welcome, but in particular I wonder what's best to do with all our stuff!  Some could be sold, some accommodated in the rented house, but we will probably have to pay for storage of a lot of our favourite furniture etc. (we live in a 4 bed house, no kids but all the rooms are full....). Would it be best to do this in France do you reckon?

Come on Albert, where are you!? Or indeed anyone else with some experience of the process..... The talk a while ago was that lots of ex-pats would use AE as a way into the health service, with much opinion that it was too good to be true, or even slightly unethical. Perhaps that hasn't come to pass after all?

So far, so good, and I note the warnings about what may happen in the future (and the frustrations of French bureaucracy!). I don't need to rely on the AE route for health care (I might take out private insurance anyway as i have some income from my occupational pension) but I like to know all my options! I don't see my business as ever bringing in a substantial income, so other possible schemes, with more complex accounting procedures, are not attractive. Has anybody actually successfully registered with the French health care system through an AE business that wasn't initially making a profit (not enough to live on at least)? If so, what problems did you encounter? Any info from personal experience would be much appreciated.

Some time ago there was a thread concerning this issue (“Reunica” 2009) but comments were speculative because the auto entrepreneur system was just getting going. Is there a more recent discussion anybody can point me to? If not, I would welcome any comment on my situation. I will be moving permanently to France in about 6 months. I will be 62 (so no entitlement as a British pensioner) and, as I have been living off my occupational pension and savings for the last 3 years, I have insufficient recent National Insurance contributions to cover me for an interim period (despite 40 years of contributions previously!).  Paying for private insurance cover is obviously an option, but I plan to register as an auto entrepreneur anyway. I foresee only a small income from this for the first 12 months, but wonder if I would nevertheless be able to register for the health system.