Yes, as I said, I'm not exactly inexperienced in buying and selling French property and I'm perfectly aware that you normally pay everything including tax, notaires fees etc. at the actual signing of the acte. but one reply confirms this and the other says that it is perfectly normal for a notaire to take a deposit but not for the compromis. Problem is that our buyer was specifically told that it was for the compromis to be prepared. So it's not much clearer really!