Ianhaycox

Personally I wouldn't buy a ride-on from a Brico place. If you go to a specialist shop (look up Motoculture de Plaisance in the yellow pages or pagesjaunes.fr) you may pay a little more but, you can get spare parts and accessories more easily, servicing is no problem (they usually collect and return), everything is guaranteed, you get advice about the right mower for you garden and you build up a relationship so when you come to buy a strimmer, hedge trimmer, quad bike !, discounts and customer service is better. Take note of original manufacturer. I bought a no-name rebadged mower made by Electrolux Home Products USA, which was identical to a friends Husqvarna (except the bodywork) but a fraction of the price. As a side issue, I reckon we have spent more money on petrol for the mower this year than on diesel for the car !

I think free.fr have been having some major DNS problems over the last few days. Their own web site dropped off the net over the weekend and ping times from the DNS servers have been > 1 sec (sometimes 2 or 3 secs). It's no good having a 45K connection with nowhere to go. This affects web surfing more than straight downloads because of the huge number of name resolutions you now need to perform on just a basic web site (ad's, sponsors etc.).

We looked into getting a grant for help with gite renovations and they are available, but it is quite a long haul. You need to prepare a dossier showing the need for tourism in the area and projected revenues etc. As Miki said, the work must be done by registered tradespeople, but the grant is only paid at the end of the work once Gites De France have 'labelised' your gite. I.e. it conforms with their standards. I think you must then keep it a gite for 10 ? years. The grant must be approved before work starts using the devi's provided by the trades. Gite de France do not provide the grant, the funding is provided (in our area), by the state (EU ?) , the region & the department in various proportions. My understanding is that the state and the dept. have withdrawn support for this year, but like everything in France it depends which area you live in. The cost savings are potentially high, and the work is done by professionals, but it will take longer. Good luck

Spoke to the accountant today and was told that I can employ a worker through my SARL on a short term contract, but only if the work is exceptional, i.e. not regular work, my renovation project would be classed as an exception. Apparently the restriction is something to do with the way the company is set up. The total cost of employing someone 3 days a week (8 hour days) at the minimum wage of 7.61€ per hour is 1,117€ per month. That works out as approx 785€ gross for wages (the worker pays any tax due in their end-of-year return) and then 332€ in social charges which my company also has to pay. Approx 40%. I think I'm going to have to encourage him to register as society and then just pay any factures presented to me. My accountant says it is much much simpler, except he must not setup a society just for this job. The administration will not allow it. I suspect this is to prevent tax avoidance like IR35 in the UK.

[quote]We are currently looking at property in the limousin area, the properties that we like have oodles of land and pool etc.. but no outbuildings, would planning be difficult to have gites built onto the ...[/quote] Planning does differ from area to area but the only 'sure-fire' way to know is to visit the Mairies office before you sign or buy anything. The Mairie will be able to tell you if planning is likely to be accepted for new or renovation projects. If necessary you can get a condition written into the house purchase contract that makes the sale conditional on getting planning permission for gites. I don't know limousin but in 22 we have found planning to be very similar to the laws in the UK and in some cases more strict. You do need planning for renovation and possibly change of use. It depends on the current classification of any out-buildings. Again, check at the Mairies on the cadastral plan to see. If the building is classified as a dwelling (rule of thumb, has it got a fireplace ?) then life is a bit easier. Renovation costs are quite expensive. Our experience has shown building new is most cheaper than renovating if you exclude the cost of the land. It's very finger in the air but don't be suprised if you spend 50,000 euros per gite. I'm sure other people have different experiences but in general common sense does apply.

I've used 5 parts sand to 1 part lime (chaux) for all my pointing. People have suggested adding white cement but personally I have found it goes off too quickly. The 5:1 mix can be left overnight then brushed with a stiff nylon brush to produce acceptable rresults with the minimum of effort.

I did a bit of this in the UK as an adjunct to my IT freelancing work. I actually found it quite difficult to make money. Most people took their PC's into PC World or some such under guarantee and those that didn't did not seem willing to pay market rates. I think you may have a similar problem here. Unless you speak very good French your market is going to English speakers. In 22 many are retired and again are reluctant to pay markets rates. As we know with PC's, things always take longer than you think and it's not always a SW problem, then you have to go and source replacement HW, fit, test and fingers crossed it now works. You will get alot of word-of-mouth business via the ex-pat community, but many escapees are not wealthy, and the travelling distances are potentially very large. I know it seems very negative, but unless it's just for pin money I think you may struggle. Good luck,

I just recently bought L'installation électrique de Thierry Gallauziaux, David Fedullo and found it very useful. It's 330 pages published 2004 and covers domestic installations, VMC, even telephone & door entry systems. Plenty of illustations I would recommend it but the only reservation is that is is in white/black and blue. No colour inllustations. Part of the Comme un Pro series.

I'm trying to encourage my future worker to register as an Artisan but, judging by the excellent advice in these forums, I think it may take quite a long time. I will be asking my accountant but it's still August and they are all on holiday. Before the meeting I was hoping to go armed with a basic idea of the options and potential costs. Thanks for the help and if anyone else has any additional info to add it would be much appreciated. Ian http://www.brittany-holiday-gites.com/

I have a renovation project for two gites starting this winter. The bulk of the masonery, roofs, fosse, etc. work is being done by a French enterprise. I am going to do most of the internal works and would like to employ a 'general labourer' for 3 to 6 months via our SARL. The person I have in mind is a French resident English speaker. He has a CDS but not sure what else. I would appreciate any advice on employing someone short time, how to pay his taxes etc. Thanks, Ian http://www.brittany-holiday-gites.com

I'm trying to find somewhere in France to buy rigger boots or the equivalent. They are steel toecapped, half length fur lined workmen boots, usually leather. I don't even know what they are called in French ? I have checked out a few builders merchants and DIY stores, near Dinan (22), but nothing. Thanks, Ian http://www.brittany-holiday-gites.com

You can check the effectiveness of your router/firewall by using Shields Up! from http://www.grc.com/ It runs a script to probe your PC and determines how vunerable it is. I use a software firewall and am very happy with http://www.zonealarm.com/ personal edition because I'm still waiting for ADSL. As well as re-installing and scaning with an AV package you may want to consider looking at http://www.lavasoft.de/ for their spyware checker. Ian http://www.brittany-holiday-gites.com

I'm suprised no-one has mentioned credit cards. We have a credit card machine from the bank and take all our deposits and balances via the card. The money goes straight into your account and doesn't 'bounce'. Any breakages just charge the credit card. Ian http://www.brittany-holiday-gites.com