Catalpa

That's great. I can't remember: do you have a property to sell yourselves? Whatever the circumstances, may all proceed smoothly to the Acte/s.

Hello - Not a town or area I know so I'll just wish you all the best with your move next year. 👍 You've a fair few arrangments to make! Take things step by step and my advice is 'never assume' - always double check you know / understand what's needed.

@Lori - Very Important Question here... your air fryer - can you cook cakes in it?! 🤔 On other matters - OH and I have long pondered the question of moving (permanently) from the grey winter skies of Normandy (usually November through April) to somewhere with a better climate. After all, we reason, if it's 30°+ in July and August, once retired we would just avoid doing much in the afternoons. But the last couple of years - particularly this year - have taught me to be careful what you wish for. I'm not convinced 35°-40° are freak occurrences and if it's too hot here in southern Normandy, the heat would be too activity-limiting further south. However, moving is expensive. If I were already in the south and the layout of the property allowed for it, rather than move I'd probably look at providing myself with summer quarters - lots of shade on the north side of the house, a covered summer kitchen, perhaps more insulation, etc. We don't have clima but even in our south-facing house, the 2-3 ft thick stone walls, shutters + insulation and a ceiling fan has kept things bearable indoors, at worst 24-26°C max. We have absurd quantities of foiliage against the walls which helps. Our bedroom is behind the greenery. We have massive pruning sessions in late September.

Salut, Mint. 😊 I think the problem with finding articles like that in the MSM, the Times / Telegraph / Mail (as egs) is factual reporting like the Lichfield article doesn't carry the political bias - generally uncritically pro-Tory, even pro-Boris, pro-rightwing. So unless you're looking at the Guardian (not without its bias or selectivity) or Byline Times (definitely worth a look) factual, accurate reporting isn't the news they care to print or comment on. I think it's a real problem. Starmer - and other parties generally - have the same problem in that if the majority of big name news distributors aren't reporting their announcements, views and activities, how do they make themselves heard over all the Tory party noise? If you use Twitter, you can follow people like Lichfield, Annette Dittert, Byline Times, etc, and if you carefully select who / what you follow, I find Twitter a really useful tool for finding good quality reporting.

A further thought - for a few years, when I was managing projects in Germany and the NL (commuting from the UK) I was in the countries most weeks. Post-Brexit, I suspect I wouldn't have had sufficient days left over for our holiday visits to France once my work trips had been totted up. 😬 Going through those passport stamps at Dover would have been a nightmare. There's no electronic registration system to deliver this info at border control, afaIaa?

The forum no longer allows for new topics? That doesn't bode well. I tend to trust journalist John Lichfield and he has written a piece for The Local on the chaos at Dover. Frankly, even if all border check booths had been open earlier, I don't see last weekend being managed much better. Or this. It's the extra checks, innit? Which will increase once people have half-a-dozen arrival / departure stamps in their passports and officials decide to figure out total number of nights spent across all EU countries in the previous 180 (or whatever). Lichfield article link: https://www.thelocal.fr/20220725/opinion-uk-france-travel-crisis-will-only-be-solved-when-the-british-get-real-about-brexit/

Snap. I have a very fast fibre connection and all other sites load in seconds (or even faster!) but this site just hangs until it finally loads. Then it takes forever to move from topic to topic or page to page. I usually get impatient and go elsewhere. I've up-to-date Windows, ditto Firefox so no obvious version / compatibility issues. I realise there's nothing to be done atm with - as the Banana explains - lack of helpful and informed tech support but I thought it was worth commenting that I'm another with access problems.

Basically, if you are a now a permanent, full-time French resident, you do need to register with the tax authorities. The fact you have no France-derived income doesn't necessarily mean your pensions are exempt from any French contributions, etc. If you have a local tax office, go along and speak to them - you'll need to register anyway to ensure you get sent a tax form next year. You say your CdeS was issued in July 2021 but presumably you arrived before that? What was your 'official' moved to France date? That tends to be the date that matters.

I do find these clichés tedious. Someone's experience of France - or any country - is just that: their experience. If others have different experiences and perceptions - and, unsurprisingly, they do - their's are no less important or less valid or anything else. Just different. Which is fine. Macron (and any previous president) may have exacerbated if not caused various rifts in France but duh! Brexit and the UK? Johnson and the UK? Scottish independence? The UK not a bitterly divided nation at present? ? Germany has its problems too. And that's before we look further east. Macron's France and its challenges in the 2020s is not unique. And a re an earlier ALBF remark: << Sell house UK buy cheap house France. Retire, convert it into a gîte, set up some dumb tourist business and live a fruitful life in France. Mostly all move to the same places and try and do the same thing. Which is as dumb as the idea in the first place. They never ask the question why French people don't do this. >> ? If ideas and people have to be referred to as "dumb" in order to (try to) make a point, I don't think that argument is particularly strong or even well thought through. To say the least. ? However, tens of thousands of French people clearly do operate successful gîtes and b&b businesses. That's bleddy obvious! In fact, plenty of nationalities are successful and do make adequate livings from them. They might not be able to support a family of 5 on their earnings but as a supplementary income, good quality properties and the right location will deliver - particularly in this new Covid world where many tourists want a holiday where they retain some control over their environment. I don't know why people who find a niche and do something well and receive an income from it should be described as dumb. That's just petty and negative.

<< Is the confrontational attitude in the responses of some/many members responsible for the waning popularity of this Forum? >> Yes. Definitely. Part of the problem is there isn't the variety of posters and experiences that there used to be. So the permanently and vocal depressed who blame France for their woes rather than themselves are foremost in their disparagement of others' questions and experiences rather than being just a part of the background noise of forum life. We purchased this house in 2000, moved permanently in 2004, have run businesses and been employees at various times over the past 18 years (cannot recommend being an employee of a good French company highly enough! it makes life so simple) and life here is good. France is not utopia, no country is once the tax bills start to arrive, but it is a very good place to be. We did not speak perfect French on arrival, I don't even now and though OH has worked - as the only British person - in a French company for the past 8 years, he would not say his French is perfect. Enough French and making the effort to learn combined with a positive personality gets you a long way. OH retires this year and his boss has asked him if he has any British compatriots with a similar work ethic (primarily not clock-watching) who would be interested in joining the company. There are a lot of companies out there who need staff and to begin with, enough French to understand the health & safety videos is all that's asked for. I have many positive things to say about France but (having contributed to Living / Complete France forums in various guises for 22 years) I don't find this forum is the place to do that nowadays. Which is a shame.

I forgot to reply to this: You didn't mention how well-grown the tree is. When a tree (or shrub) is recently transplanted in spring, if it bursts too enthusiastically into leaf, that may place stress on the existing root system by summer, esp if it's a dry season. If it's a particularly bushy specimen, it might be worth thinning it out the shoots for this year so it doesn't have too much lush, leafy growth to support.

To start off your research, I recommend talking to your local Office de Tourisme and, if you're in a very touristy area, your Mairie may also be aware of the process. You'll need to register at the Mairie anyway if you decide to go ahead. Do you intend this to be your main source of income - more than, say, pensions or other business ventures? You don't need to tell us but that will probably affect how you set up your business. This forum might also be of help - https://www.startbusinessinfrance.com/ You pay for services (it's her business) but they're realistic sums; Valerie has been around for years and seems to have plenty of satisfied customers. I don't know her, have never used her services personally, but I do know people who have and they've been happy with the advice and info she provided. You could try asking your questions on the laymyhat forum - there's a b&b section there. It is pretty quiet nowadays, though. Which probably tells you there aren't a lot of new people starting up. https://www.laymyhat.com/forum/ I don't think it's the worst time to be starting a b&b or gîte. A lot of people have stopped doing both during the past 2 years because it's often done to supplement a pension or other activity and fewer (older) people want to have possibly diseased strangers passing through their home on a regular basis if they don't have to. So there may be less competition now. For some holidaymakers, the prospect of travelling long distances on metal tubes with recycled air is not as appealing as it might have been 2 years ago so they are looking for easier, closer options where they have control over their environment and who is in it. It's obvious but still worth saying: don't plan to rely on British visitors... to be successful, you need to appeal to the French market and, depending on where you are, probably Belgian and Dutch holidaymakers too. Perhaps Italian and German as well. Hope that starts you off with a few ideas.

If it was "transplanted late last year" I read that as transplanted somewhere between October and December 2021. So it has been in its new spot for less than 6 months? If that is correct, as you've moved it once, I don't see any reason not to move it again before the end of this month as it won't have put much effort into growing new roots. Move it on a day where there is no frost in the ground, prepare the hole carefully so that it doesn't run the risk of becoming waterlogged if you get a lot of rain in early spring, and try not to lose any of the existing soil from around the root ball. If we move a tree or shrub that was well-established, we run a few lengths of old hose pipe under the rootball and out of the earth at the surface. We poke a few holes in the hose pipe where it runs under the plant. If it turns out to be a very dry spring or summer, we can water the plant (or tree) by putting water down the hosepipe from the surface so that water goes where it is needed and encourages the roots to grow down to the water source.

UK registered transit van. He lives in the UK, his holiday home here is exactly that.

ps: presumably you've seen this article in Complete France: https://www.completefrance.com/french-property/legal/renting-out-a-french-holiday-home-tax-implications-8666684