Mountain dreams

We're planning to move to France in the Autumn, renting before we buy. We're looking for a minimum of 3-bed house with garden, which is dog and child-friendly. Looking primarily for a furnish gite initially, then moving on to an unfurnished let. If anyone has anything to offer, please get in touch. Thanks very much.

Thanks - all helfpul info. I live in a little village in the UK and have chosen to send my young kids to a larger school in another village, so I drive them around anyway, as well as being a taxi driver to my older son when he lived at home, so I am used to all that. I will also look into private schools as I haven't done any research on that yet.

Thanks. So does that mean that the presence or absence of school lunches should be a consideration in choosing a school? I am at the beck and call of the primary school here in the UK because I am not working at the moment and hadn't envisaged having to bring the children home for 2 hours every lunchtime in France. In France my partner will be working - although sometimes from home - and I will be setting up in business as soon as I can - which is unlikely to be based at home. Also, do you know whether you have to send your children to the nearest school or can you choose one further away? Some of the French village schools are tiny and, as well as no school lunches, it would not be a good idea for my children to be taught in the same class as the younger one really needs his own space, otherwise he is dominated by the older.

Hi we are currently looking at moving to quite a rural area of SW France. Looking at the government's education site www.education.gouv.fr, it appears that only a few of the ecole elemaintaires in the area have school lunches - I'm going by those with a knife and fork logo, labelled restauration scolaire. Is this the case that not all schools provide school lunches? If that is so, what do the children do? Do they all go home for lunch?

We are looking into spending a few months (around 3) in France to get a taster before deciding whether we want to make the big move. We have children age 5 & 6 and wondered whether it would be possible to get them into a local school for this period? Does anyone have any knowledge about this please?

We are looking to have a taster of living in France for around 3 months, in the Pyrenees Orientale area. Could anyone tell me how easy it is to rent property for this period, with a dog? Does anyone have any recommendations of websites, agencies etc? Thanks.

Could anyone tell me how easy it is to rent a property on a medium term (3 months) which would allow a dog. We are planning on a taster of living in SW France.

Hi, I've posted this on the B&B thread as well as it covers both, so apologies if you read it twice. I am new to the forum as hubby & I are earlyish in our plans with our grand move to France. We are looking at the possibility of running a small glamping & gite business and from what I've read it's quite difficult to get permission to open a new a campsite. I've also read that if any food is sold a gite business must register as a B&B. I wonder if anyone knows whether a small number of static, high end tents (yurts or safari), where meals are available, would actually qualify as a campsite or whether it could be classified as a B&B, and if so, is it easier to get this registered than a campsite?

New to the forum as hubby & I are earlyish in our plans with our grand move to France. We are looking at the possibility of running a small glamping & gite business and from what I've read it's quite difficult to get permission to open a new a campsite. I've also read that if any food is sold a gite business must register as a B&B. I wonder if anyone knows whether a small number of static, high end tents (yurts or safari), where meals are available, would actually qualify as a campsite or whether it could be classified as a B&B, and if so, is it easier to get this registered than a campsite?