Henry87

There was a long piece in the paper about the airport, new terminal, etc a few weeks back. The airport director said they were almost certainly going to start charge for the car park in the near future because so many people abuse it leaving cars there for months on end. He didn't mention anything about towing cars away though - I would imagine a parking fee will be enough to discourage most.

I agree - get a second opinion. The last document I read on the subject said that recent changes in the law meant your home was automatically protected in the event of an EI failing. Can't remember the exact document, but it was something I got from my accountant or the CCI. Henry.

Can anyone recommend a decent account around Limoges, Bellac, or anywhere in between? English-speaking would be a bonus, but not essential. I thought I'd seen this subject mentioned before, but can't seem to find it... Thanks in advance, Henry.

Glad the links were useful. It's certainly possible to open and maintain Spreadbet and CFD accounts in the UK whilst resident in France (I still keep both for rainy day fun) as well as standard brokerage accounts. However, as a French resident all your worldwide income is taxable by the French authorities anyway, and so the tax-free benefits of a SB account are negated. Given that fact, I would never recommend SpreadBetting as a trading vehicle to someone living here. The SBs cos are making their own market, and you are effectively trading against them, so it will always be in their interests for you to lose. It is possible to make money from them, but the games they play with regards to moving prices, taking out stops, and particularly with varying the spread, make the task a lot more difficult. So, as you're going to have to pay tax on the profits anyway, I personally think you're much better off using a standard brokerage account and trading stocks or futures. Futures have the benefit of requiring a much lower account balance, stocks on the other hand (Nasdaq ones at least) are a darn site easier to profit from. The best explanation  that I read of why that is so was in http://www.day-trading-freedom.com The other alternative worth considering is forex - foreign exchange. It's pretty easy (although it's all relative!) to trade, you can open an account for peanuts with brokers like http://www.fxcm.com, and it trades 24 hours. On the other hand, economic releases can kill you if you're not around to take care of them, and the whole thing generally moves much more slowly. Ultimately it's all horses for courses. Trading is not an "easy" way to get rich, but there are so many ways of extracting profit from so many different markets, I agree that it is well worthy of consideration by anyone looking to make a living in France, and am just as suprised as you that the subject gets so little mention on this board. Just my personal thoughts. Henry.

As a full time trader (although not these days) I researched this before moving here a year ago, and concluded that there is no clear conclusion, like so many things in France. The best I could come up with is that tax-wise you are a profession liberale, which means registering with the URSSAF. Spreadbetting and CFDs are fine I believe, but all your income is taxable, and with the social charges as well, you are looking at paying out a total of 60% at the top whack. Making the French understand what you do for a living is an uphill struggle, they seem to want to believe you must be a broker! There is a tax section on this French traders forum which might help more: http://www.pro-at.com/ and the "Novices" board also has some related posts. Also the French section of the Interactive Brokers forum has some relevent messages and is worth a read (http://www.interactivebrokers.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.pl - requires free registration to access). Sorry can't be of more help. I reckon the safest thing is to try and find a good accountant who knows the subject.

I'm in the Limousin; both my neighbours have had aircon installed in the last month - thats one shop and one private home. Hardly representative of an entre region I know, but it might offer some encouragement! I do remember seeing something on the news about long waiting lists to get aircon installed as it is very much in demand after last years canicule. Henry

I reckon a booster is worth a try. I have one here - without it I get nothing, absolutely nothing. Plug the booster in and hey presto, crystal clear perfect picture. On the other hand, analogue satellite setups arent that much more expensive anyway... Henry

>I recently bought this documentary and >found it far more interesting >and informative than Farenheit 9-11. > >I'd be interested to know whether >anyone else has seen it >yet, and if so, what >they thought about it. Yes, I saw it when it was shown on France 3 a few weeks ago. Thought it was excellent, although I couldn't compare it to the other film having not seen that. I was suprised at how open and frank the ex-CIA agents were in their interviews. Not much of it was 'new', but the way the film is structured and builds up the complete picture makes it quite an eye-opener. It was a shame it was shown as such an unsociable hour, but I don't suppose it's exactly prime time material. My deux centimes worth. Henry

If you buy in France, you need to bear in mind you'll get a French (AZERTY) keyboard on it, not a "standard" QWERTY one, as well as a French version of Windows. This may or may not bother you, and you can of course change the software for English versions, but typing on a French keyboard with and English keyboard driver could be confusing - at least if you are used to looking at the keys! Mail order from the US is the best value with the current exchange rate, but make sure the power supply is dual voltage if you go that way. Henry

ADSL will (alledgedly) be here in another 5 weeks - yay! At the moment I have ISDN (ITOO). I know ADSL needs a POTS line, but I'm wondering if that switchover will be done as part and parcel of any ADSL installation, or if it will save time if I get the ISDN taken away first - anyone already done this? Cheers, Henry

I used http://www.agence-beaulieu.com/ - in Limoges, I found them very helpful. Henry

The weekly freebie classified ad papers always have lots of adverts for wood. Handy for checking prices if nothing else. Henry.

If you are looking to rent a property in the traditional sense, rather than taking a long term gite, then I think you will find it difficult without having work in place. Most agencies and landlords want to see proof of income to the value of several times the rent in order to protect themselves from laws which give all the rights to the tenents. Bonne chance. Henry

Build a web site on a subject that interests you, work hard on inbound links so it ranks well with search engines, stir in some advertising and sprinkle with a few affiliate links to other peoples related products, leave to simmer for a few months and sit back and relax as the residual income starts to flow. Then build another one, and so on. Another alternative, use pay per click search engines to advertise affiliate products, it's quicker but involves a little more risk as the initial costs are slightly higher. Personally I do both, never gonna get rich from it but, it's nice 'bonus' income and doesn't require a lot of time (none once it's up and running). Henry

There's a fairly extensive article in the money section of this weekends Le Monde all about buying for investment. It talks about purchasing various alternative types of property such as student accomodation, parking spaces and garages in cities and so on, and discusses the lesgislative and fiscal considerations involved in each option. I haven't looked, but I expect the article is probably available via their website too. Henry.

I'm a tenant in France and a landlord in the UK, and wouldn't consider doing it the other way round in a million years. The law protects tenants here much more than it does the landlord. For example if I chose to not pay my rent for six months over the winter there is absolutely nothing my landlord could do about it. So really just to echo what others here have said, I would tread very carefully and take lots of legal advice. Henry

Bought mine with me, works fine. Same connections as the washing machine. Henry.