CatherineS2

Quatre cent soixante-quatre Euros et 31 centimes This is what I would write, I think it is more or less correct...

I took my husband to Paris for a birthday surprise last year and we stayed at the Millesime Hotel in St Germain. I found it in the Alastair "Special Places to Stay" guide to Paris hotels. http://www.millesimehotel.com/ http://www.specialplacestostay.com/search/display.php?FileID=ph1292 It was small and intimate, and I would definitely recommend it - perfect for a romantic getaway! It has just 22 rooms and is not part of a chain, and their superior double rooms are 205 Euros, so just within your budget. Another thing which I would thoroughly recommend, is to take a dinner dance cruise on the Bateaux Parisiens - http://www.bateauxparisiens.com/english/main.htm. Make sure you book the "Select Service" which costs 115Euros - you are then guaranteed a table by the window. I thought that the food would be a bit naff, as it is such a touristy thing to do and being served on a boat I wasn't expecting much from the kitchen, but was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I think it was the nicest meal we had during our weekend, and it was so magical cruising past all the sights all lit up at night. Hope you have a great time, whatever you choose to do.  

If you are anywhere near Forges-les-Eaux (which is where we are), we buy a lot of stuff from the depot-vente opposite the casino. They have a lot of semi-expensive antiques in the main window, but a large room at the back with old wardrobes, chests of drawers etc). It's kind of hit and miss, sometimes we go in and there is loads of stuff we like, and at other times not... They also often have very nice old garden furniture.

Yes, you can get your bills immediately on the France telecom website -  login to the "Espace Client", then "Ma Consommation", then you enter the From/To dates you require and you can get an itemised bill which you can print out. I'm not too sure how up to the minute it is, but I just did a search on 19/05/2005 to 20/05/2005 and got the following results: La consommation globale de votre ligne 0232890558 entre le jeudi 19/05/2005 à 00h00 et le vendredi 20/05/2005 à 22h17 représente... so it appears to be up to about 20 minutes ago. We tell our guests that they can have unlimited use of the phone and that we will deduct the cost from their security deposit at the end of their stay (we even tell them that it is cheaper for them to use our phone than it is to use their mobiles), and yet very few people do actually use it! And those that did only used a couple of Euros worth so we did not bother to charge them. Hope this helps.  

I don't have a pool and know almost nothing about the rules and regulations, so please ignore me if I am talking a load of twaddle. However, I wonder whether there are any rules about the hygiene aspect? I think I remember reading somewhere about a load of peope dying in Holland due to a contaminated jacuzzi . I don't want to scaremonger, but I imagined that the swimming pool regs were not only concerned with safety barriers, but also with the cleanliness of the water. If I were you, I would just check this out too, just to be on the safe side.

It's "Baignade Interdite" (interdite because it's "la baignade").

Thank you all for your replies. I asked the guy about the ABC certificate and he said that they are not independently auditted. I then contacted 4 existing Normandy advertisers which I found on the website - only one of them had ever had a booking via the site or magazine, and that one was two years ago; none of them were going to renew their subscription. I have decided to give this one a miss...

Thanks for the info Will. I'll ask them about the ABC certificates. And I made a mistake with the website, it's actually www.thevillafinder.com which is a much nicer-looking site than the first one I mentioned (but will it pull in the customers?!!!!)  

I have received a phone call from someone trying to persuade me to advertise in a magazine called "Exclusive Holidays". For the special introductory price of £200 (It's normally £550) my advert would feature in the magazine for a whole year (4 issues), as well as being on their website www.villafinder.com for a year as well. I had never heard of either of these, but it does sound like a good deal. Apparently the magazine has a circulation of 25,000 and is sold in Smiths, Waitrose etc. Does anyone else have any experience of this publication? My house is in Normandy, but the magazine/website covers properties worldwide.

I think you only need to be worried if they "transfer"  a sum larger than you are requesting, and then ask you to refund them the difference! DO NOT, under any circumstances, refund the difference until you are absolutely sure that the money has cleared and is really in your account. There has been a lot of discussion about this subject recently on the laymyhat.com forum, and in fact they now have a "Scam Email Enquiries" forum just on this subject. Hope this helps!

Have sent details in a private message. If anyone else wants these details, please PM me.

I live in the UK and rent out a house in Normandy. I use the services of a UK-based accountancy firm who specialise in French taxation. They prepare my year-end accounts and tax return (for both French tax, and the bit of my UK tax return concerned with the rental property). It costs me £400 p.a. and some people may throw their hands up in horror and say what a waste of money, you could do it yourself - but this gives me peace of mind and quite frankly life's too short... at the end of the year I just send them a breakdown of my receipts and outgoings and then a few weeks later I get a copy of my tax form which they send in to the French authorities for me. (So far I haven't paid any tax because I haven't made a profit). They can advise on all things taxation and if you want their name/address, please PM me.  To answer some of your questions, we are able to offset all the mortgage interest against our income, but this is because our mortgage is a French one, raised against the French house. I don't know whether you can do this if your mortgage is against your UK property. The accountant would be able to give you advice. Also, I know that if you make a loss in your first years, these can be offset against any future profits which you may make. Hope this helps!  

www.VisitFrance.co.uk have a Last Minute listing facility (it's on the left of the home page). Basically you have to register with them - the cost is £99 + Vat p.a. Then, once registered, you can create "Special Offer ads" - for Late Availability, Spring Breaks, Special Offers etc. But when I first registered with them they were offering a 3 month trial period - I presume they still do, and if so you could do this for no initial outlay.

Just thought of something else - they could drive to Charles De Gaulle airport, which is well signposted, and I'm sure there must be a train or airport bus into Paris from there? And at the end of the day, they will be on the right side of Paris to continue their onward trip to Bonn (I think).

We are near Rouen but were shocked at how expensive it was for a family of 4 to travel by train into Paris, as well as taking about 2 hours (it's quicker to drive). Now we always recommend to our guests to drive to Cergy Le Haut, which is just off the motorway, has plenty of parking, and is at the end of the RER so they can get into the heart of Paris within about 30 minutes, and on a cheap metro day-pass. Not sure how convenient it is to get to Cergy Le Haut from Caen, but you could check if there are any other RER terminii a bit further south, presumably they all have good parking...

I totally agree with you about Farrow and Ball paint. For many years I resisted buying it because it is more expensive, but once I did, I would never use any other paint! As you say, it covers really well, it is fast drying and so easy to use, and there is very little odour. By the way - did you say they had discontinued Claydon Blue? That's a shame because it is a very good colour and I too had considered using it for our shutters, but husband and I disagreed and in the end we went for Mouse's Back - he loves it but I think it is too drab...

I've just been speaking to the guests who are currently staying in our gite near Rouen. They told me that they had bought their P&O Portsmouth-LeHavre tickets back in January on the "early booking" scheme, but that when they checked the prices again last week on the website they were shocked to see that the price was now £150 cheaper than they had originally paid (and when they phoned P&O they would not give them a refund). I asked them how much they had paid and I nearly fell off my chair when they told me that it was £350 for a car and 4 people. We were out at the house last week and paid £30 return for a car and 4 people on Speedferries (OK, I know that this was a special deal of only 50,000 tickets at that price and that the normal price works out at about £50-£60, but still!!!). Given that we are 1 hour from Le Havre and only 1.5 hours from Boulogne, from now on I will always be advising my guests to consider travelling via Speedferries. Sorry to those of you who are trying to support the Portsmouth-Le Havre route, but for anyone travelling to the East/South-East of Le Havre it really is a no-brainer...

Whereabouts in France are you? Are you in a "touristy" area?

Opel fruit - I agree with you about the availability calendar - it is so cumbersome that I don't update it as often as I should because life is too short!

I am very disappointed with French Connections - I have only had 2 enquiries via their website this year (compared to 24 from VisitFrance) and I have just contacted them to ask when we will be able to make our own changes to the text of our adverts rather than having to pay them £20 every time we wish to amend some text or a photo.  (I thought I would try to make some changes to my ad to see if it makes any difference before I make the final decision as to whether to renew my subscription in June). Anyway, it seems that they are "unable to give you a precise time table, as this is still a project under construction." They then suggested that I am "able to make changes free of charge at renewal.  In the light of this, you may wish to take advantage of this and pay the renewal invoice ahead of time, in order to take full advantages of the free text changes" !!!! I find this suggestion both insulting and ludicrous! I wondered how other people are getting on now with French Connections as the new website has had 3 months to settle in?

Maria, I too was very concerned by your post and have investigated the subject with my insurer. I have a "Domifacile" policy with Aviva, specifically for second home owners who also let the property as a gite. I rang my agent and asked him what would happen if for example one of my guests burnt the house down. He confirmed that yes Aviva would pay me for the damage, but that they would then in turn claim against the guests' house insurance, which would cover them for public liability as standard. When I told him that most of my guests are British, and that I very much doubt that their house insurance would cover them for damage done to another property in a different country, he told me that I ought to ensure that they do have adequate cover. He did not actually come out and say that Aviva would not actually pay me if they in turn could not claim from the guests' insurance, but he did indicate that it would make things "very complicated". I then checked my Annual Travel insurance policy, and note that I am covered for up to £2,000.000 for Personal Liability which indemnifies me in respect of my "legal liability arising from accidental bodily injury to third parties or accidental loss of or damage to third party property" - which I presume would cover me if I were to set fire to someone else's gite while staying there on holiday... So I think that is the answer - as gite owners we ought to ensure that our guests have taken out proper travel insurance which includes personal liability, to cover them for any damage they do to our property. Until now, the rental contract which I get my guests to sign states that I "strongly recommend" that they take out adequate travel insurance to cover them in case they have to cancel at the last minute. I am going to change the wording to state that they "must" take out insurance which includes adequate personal liability cover....

I am looking for an alternative to French Connections and came across www.french-country-cottages.com Does anyone have any experience of letting their property via this company? If so, can you give me your opinion on their service?  

We had exactly the same problem - we spent a fortune with Admiral last year, and we too have just switched to Liverpool Victoria. The basic cost of the insurance is slightly lower than it had been with Admiral, and as MCI says, it includes European cover, so no more frantic last-minute calls to Admiral from the motorway on our way to Dover (because we were always forgetting to sort it out in advance!). Funnily enough, the reason I started to shop around this time instead of just automatically renewing my policy as I have done in previous years, was because after all that I had spent with Admiral over the years, they had the temerity to charge me £18 to cover me for the courtesy car which I borrowed from my garage for 4 hours when my car went in for a service! The Liverpool Victoria policy also covers me for courtesy cars....

Nope, not me... As I've already mentioned elsewhere (there is currently a "lively" discussion about this on the LayMyHat.com forum), I have only had ONE enquiry from FC so far this year - and Jan/Feb are usually the busiest month for enquiries... Luckily we advertise elsewhere too, otherwise I would be very nervous by now!

All bar one of my bookings for July/August are for one week, and I have no problem with that. My charges factor in the cost of changeovers for every week, but I offer a £50 discount for 2-week bookings. I think that it is better to be flexible, and I am sure that I wouldn't have any problems filling in any odd weeks.