nimportequoi

There is a coloured lady (Audrey?) who regularly reads the news on France 3 at 19h30.

I hope it arrives a little earlier than it did in the trial last year. I received it less than a week before the 31st of May and although salary details were filled which is helpful, there were still plenty of other boxes to fill in.

I don't understand why you are getting quite so agitated about this. Did you read my post properly? I am not against the organisations at all, I have no sour grapes about one of my properties not conforming, the other two do, but I choose not to go with them. I like doing my own advertising and marketing and I have bookings for 11 months of the year. So I think I do know what I'm talking about. I did not imply that ALL G de F properties were coal holes at all. All I can go on are the comments from French guests who I have had staying here who much preferred my accommodation even though it didn't conform to G de F criteria. I can earn more by NOT being with G de F than I could by joining the organisation. So that is what I have done.  I gather by your rather defensive reply that I rather hit an open nerve, I presume that you're having a tough time with bookings.

Chambre d'hotes are different to gites in that case. I understand there are advantages to belonging to a group like Clévacances or G de F but with website advertising now people get a pretty good idea of what they will get for their money. I get plenty of bookings from my other advertising, from the French as well as the UK market. If I went with G de F I would have to half my tariffs as well as pay them for the pleasure of being a member. I also fail to see that meeting their criteria is necessarily a guarantee of quality. I would rather have a clean, nicely furnished place with a beam that is slightly under 2m than a coalhole which conforms because it is the right size and has a pressure cooker. I was speaking to a French gite owner only yesterday who has always been with G de F but wanted to know where else he could advertise because he is fed up with the amount he is paying G de F.

Yes, that's my case, I'm not with either organisation. Don't get me started on their criteria of rating. My accommodation is far superior to a lot of G de F properties (the opinion of all the French people who have stayed here) but two of my properties do not qualify on technicalities, e.g. in one of them a beam being 2 cm too low in the living area.

It's worth adding that you are only allowed to join the scheme if you are with either G de F or Clévacances. ANCV explained this when they rejected my application last week!

Mags 85, I don't know if you are aware, but three of the links on your homepage navigation menu don't work, about the vendee, tariffs and location.

Speaking the language is the most important thing. I live in the country, run gites and work in a city. I have made friends in both places, but I spoke French well before moving out here. If you don't speak French, watching French TV is a good way to learn, but if you do, it is nice to have the choice of watching either UK or French TV (UK is slightly more interesting). In the winter, get used to seeing people (even your neighbours) infrequently, the summer is much more sociable! Try and attend as many local events as possible and never complain about anyone to anyone else if you live in the the country as chances are they are related in some (albeit distant) way.

If you are female, have a job as a fonctionnaire and have 3 children, you can retire after only 15 years service. Incroyable! So 45 is not out of the question. As long as you are a fonctionnaire.

We have a similar size business/turnover to Eslier's. I work as well, but only because I enjoy it more than staying at home all day during the winter and I earn a lot more  than I pay someone else to do the DIY and decorating required. I agree about the marketing, I spend about 4/5% of turnover of this on advertising, if you skimp on this you won't get the bookings.

I have a relatively small gite complex, but I think the fact that it is in a good location (not too far from the beach) and has a pool is a big plus. I agree that most people probably prefer a private villa, but if the choice is between a private house without pool or a gite complex with a pool, the gite complex with a pool wins. Families who stay with us in peak season enjoy the fact that there are other children around for their kids to make friends with. The prices are usually quite a lot cheaper too. Personally, I have not experienced any difficulties in filling my gites at all, however, I agree that there are an awful lot of complexes for sale, so that does indicate that there is a problem in some areas of France. Regarding viability of running a gite complex, there has recently been an interesting discussion about this on the LayMyHat website if you are interested: http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1594  

I think that you need a little more info on the homepage about the gites - how many people each one sleeps etc. and lthe ocation - where exactly in France are you? I don't like too much text on the homepage, but you need to have enough to grab the attention of potential customers and there is some basic info that I would make sure goes in there. Some key phrases used in the text would also help on the search engine listings. Good luck!  

On the France 3 news tonight they confirmed that an agreement has been reached with Poland so TVA for renovations is confirmed at the rate of 5.5% until 2010.

I don't mean to be rude, but I have to ask, how did you manage to get 4 A levels with spelling as bad as that? Bon courage with your venture in France, learning the language is the main thing (French that is).

This is known as 'une sieste crapuleuse'. Never seen anything in the gites like this so far, they tend to come away for slightly longer crapulous sessions. But I guess in the B&B/hotel business, it is quite common! I am also surprised by the large number of male/female couples who lunch together during the lunch hour(s). I'm sure they are not all married, but then flirting does seem to be a national pastime. 

Your employment earning details are also filled in (that is if you are a salarié). If you are a non salarié, I'm not sure if you can get hold of them earlier to fill them in. I only had about a week from receiving the form last year to the deadline of getting it back to the centre d'impôts.

I understand the centre d'impots are going nationwide with the trial they did on pre-filled in tax forms last year (one of which was in dept 35 where I am) and the form didn't come through to me until the beginning of May, I'm sure it will be the same thing this year for 2005 tax forms.

I changed mine recently, but didn't need to fill in any complicated forms, just the usual stuff of name, address, place of birth etc.I went through my Mairie who were very helpful. All the info they need is on your UK driving licence which you send off with the form and two recent mugshot photos plus a self stamped addressed envelope. I received it after a couple of weeks. Shortly after followed the notification of the loss of 1 point relating to a speeding offence I had commited a few months earlier on the Nantes ring road.

I suppose it must differ from area to area - my own experience in Brittany is that after the half term break at the end of October, I generally don't get many UK guests (unless it is the odd house hunter, or regular guests who have family in the area) until Easter. I do get quite a few French guests, which suits me as they generally only stay 2 or 3 nights over a weekend, therefore not using too much wood or electricity in heating the properties. Some of the French guests are local, looking for a big house for a family /friends get together, but a lot are from further away, they also come because we are fairly close to St Malo and Mont St Michel, which are very popular places to visit. I would say it is worth getting a wood burner in anyway - at Easter/October it can still be cold enough to need heating, so it is always an advantage to offer this facility. You don't want your guests being cold, especially if you live on the doorstep.

For very good quality towels at reasonable prices, try this company in France: http://www.ltitex.com/bath-towel.php

I guess that's another plus for Brittany then, if people like le bouffon don't consider staying here. Strangely enough, there are people who choose Brittany because of the climate, particularly if they have young children. There are also quite a lot of places of interest to see, plus a coastline, so on balance I think it's not a bad area to be in, despite the (sometimes) not-so-hot weather!

How do you measure the occupancy of gites? For example I am not registered with the local tourist office, as far as I am concerned it is only me who knows what the occupancy is in my gites. I advertise on with a number of rental sites and no doubt they could give some stats on what potential holidaymakers are requesting, area, facilities etc., which may be useful, but they do not know about actual bookings. Over the last four years, my occupancy rate has increased, so the "saturation" of gites in France does not seem to have affected my bookings. I know of others in the area who are finding it hard to fill capacity over the peak summer period. I would hazard a guess that to be in a popular area is a plus (I am in Brittany), and we also have a heated pool which is the main attraction. I also pay quite a lot to market the properties. There are so many different variables it is impossible to say that the gite market is "saturated" - it may be in some areas and for some gites, but for others in the right areas, who are providing what people are looking for now (and I have to say that a pool seems to be a feature) there is still a good market. My gites are already fully booked for next summer, far ahead of bookings previous years and I am not alone in this. You may find it useful to look at this: http://www.laymyhat.com/forum ,there are a few gite owners (including me!) who post there from different areas of France (and the rest of the world) so you might be able to pick up some tips there based on other peoples experience.

I'm very suprised at this - I thought that moles tasted disgusting - certainly my cat caught loads of them but never ate them, although he ate everything else he caught! We have discovered an excellent mole deterrent - it's a device that you set in a hole which has an explosive device on it. It doesn't only blow up the mole who sets it off, it seems to send enough shock waves around the garden to deter others from coming near. Available from all DIY/gardening shops. We have been mole free ever since discovering it 3 years ago. The only thing is, it is dangerous - my OH set it once and it accidentally went off, nearly taking his head with it.

Here is a link to the tarifs. http://particuliers.edf.fr/article564.html I can only agree with what the others have said, go to EDF or they will get an advisor to phone you and they can recommend the best tarif for you. You just have to have the facts on how many people live in the house, electrical appliances used and heating method. I saved myself hundreds of euros by going to see them and switching from the tarif the previous owner had to the tempo rate for 2 of my gites and the swimming pool as most electricity is used in the summer when the rate is really cheap. If you use most electricity in the winter, another tarif would be cheaper.

"...more & more language schools & businesses are weeding out unqualified teachers & going for QUALITY  - and having done a CELTA course is proof of that."   Really?? I thought the CELTA qualification took only 5 weeks to do and consisted largely of writing out words on bits of paper and moving them around the desks. Is this really a quality option rather than employing experienced teachers? From my point of view I don't think I learnt anything from the course I did, but have learnt an awful lot in the 3 years I have been teaching. Maybe I'm being stupid, but isn't all teaching learner focused? - I've never done a lesson that was anything else. Intentionally that is. For any cynical TEFL teachers with a sense of humour, you might want to have a look at this website: www.englishdroid.com and this article:   http://www.englishdroid.com/