tebee

[quote user="MargaretD"].....  Would the French system mean that a qualified chef from the UK would have to have a CAP to start up the business? [/quote] Not if it's their own business, but anyone employed must be suitably qualified. Tom

Well I’ve looked at my search and it seems that results for this forum are being returned, but often on the later pages. This is , unfortunately , probably just a refection of their position in the Google search rankings. The other two seem to dominate there probably just by their shear size and popularity.. I’ll have a look and see if  there is anyway I can influence the ranking to give preference to what I consider to be the more informative sites.   Oh and I’ve managed to find Peter’s list of forums and I seem to have included most of them. Of the ones that are missing some are general expat sites, to include them would bring in lots of confusing and irrelevant information that applies to other counties. I’ve also left out some very small sites and those that are now closed, also the MSN and Yahoo based ones as these are mostly out of date

Hi, I'm the man who wrote the search and, no it's not affiliated to any of the sites mentioned nor is it a  commercially sponsored search, it fact the whole of the grumpyoldgits site is none commercial, it run by its members for it’s members,  the Google ad’s it carries pay for the hosting and the like. It was just something I set up because I thought it would be useful.   It should be finding posts from  Living France/Complete France as I’ve added them to the site list to be searched,  in fact  Complete France was the forth site I added of currently 30 sites – though quite a few of them are the various Angloinfo’s !  I’ll go away and check why its not finding posts on here.   If anyone knows of any more sites that should be added please let me know, there used to be a list of all French forums on  Peter’s Languedoc page but I can’t find it now.   The search is freely available so if anyone wants to add it to their site just let me know and I’ll send you the code. Tom

We had a business, but have now had to close it down because of major problems with the property we  where leasing. I know the dust hasn’t settled yet on these new regulations but does anybody know what our situation now is re Healthcare entitlement? The business was radiated (closed down officially ) as of January this year but we still seem to be getting our costs paid by Ram rather than CMU, though we did have CMU-complimentaire until we moved departments a couple of months ago. We are currently trying to get this back as we are existing on RMI (we have kids) until we can sort out the wreckage from the last enterprise and, hopefully, start a new one next year, but the current situation seems to be confusing CPAM as to out entitlement to this as well. I'm diabetic so I fear it may be difficult to find alternative insurance, but the saving grace may be that my partner is non-EU with a titre de sjour so all this may or may not be relevant to us.   I get my diabetes prescriptions exonerated (100%) but I believe that this means the full amount is paid by the primary caisse so if I lose this does that then  mean I will have to pay all of this myself if I cannot find an insurer?   Confused of Brittany - otherwise known as Tom

Well this is a subject I now know a lot more about than this time last year, we leased a bar/restaurant, I had no experience in this field, but I had a partner who did. Unfortunately major structural problems in the building have now forced us to close, but we are actively  looking for a  new one , probably to purchase this time. I'll try  and gather my thoughts together and post a bit over the next days on what I know. Firstly it's not easy money , Like any business over here it's a lot of hard work, red tape and paper work . I think I saw somewhere that 10,000 bars a year are closing down in France, now quite a lot of these may be  "in someone's front room  in the middle of nowhere serving 3 houses " type run by one old lady  but you also see a lot of empty bars in large towns and small villages. Secondly , If you want a good location, you will pay a heavy premium for the business. It's usual, if you buy a bar that is running or at least has been open in the last couple of years, to pay one sum for the fonds ie. the business and another for the murs , litraly the walls or the physical building .  It seems  quite common practice to charge a high sum for the fonds  and a low one for the murs to avoid notare's fees but this can leave you open to a large capital gains bill if you sell the just building later. However, there are many bars available  in small villages and the like for just the value of the property, but often the reason for that is they have very little trade and very little chance getting significantly more trade! If you want to find the hours you are allowed to be open , every bar is supposed to display a legal notice giving details of the licensing laws - this  give details  of the hours , mine's packed away but from memory it's until 1 am with a ordinary bar except on certain special occasions, so just pop down to your local bar if you need to check - that's a good excuse!

Oops made a mess of the title there ... Sorry!   As to who and where we are .... We are in Central Brittany and met through a now defunct forum there.   As regards the non-profit association, what paper work do we need to have for one of these, Do we need to keep books ? Any ideas on the lightly cost of insurance?   Thanks,Tom   http://www.grumpyoldgitsinfrance.com      

We have a local group of expats who sometimes get together for a meal or a barbecue, We were thinking of organising some more events, eg a book sale , Christmas fair and getting a website and are wondering how we should organise ourselves. Would a non-profit association be the way to go or would the costs or paperwork be prohibitive?         Http://www.grumpyoldgitsinfrance.com

[quote user="P"] Now, to take this slightly off subject....... Go to an agent, sign the Bon de Visite view the house and then see it with another agent but, say, more land, inclusuion of an out building etc, i.e. it is not the same overall package. Would this mean that you could then view an buy it through the other agent disregarding the original Bon de Visite as the package is not the same. Paul [/quote]   I would guess not as , unless you where subdividing an existing area you would still be buying the original cadsatral plot plus some others   Tom Http://www.grumpyoldgitsinfrance.com

Is there anything in France similar in to the English concept of the flying freehold ie. where one person owns the land and another owns the rights to part of the airspace above it ? Or does any property so divided have to be a co-property?   Tom

Does the fact that access across a third parties land has been used for a number of years count for anything in France? We are looking at yet another house should which has access by a track that is part of someone’s field, not a public road. There appears to be nothing written down at the moment.   Tom

We are due to sign next week and are not going over, all that we had to do was sign and date a document the notaire sent to us. Do differerent notaires require more?   Tom 

Hi   We have been trying to buy a house in Brittany for just over a year, but problems with French inheratance laws have prevented us completing. The property consists of four parcels of land and after two deaths in the last year one parcel now has over 40 owners!   It has been suggested to us by the agents that we restart the process without that parcel as the ownership of the other three is considerably less complicated. The problem is the parcel is a narrow strip of land separating the house from the road, and we are wondering if this will cause any problems in the future although the agent assures us it will not.   The strip is roughly 50 meters long and one meter wide and is in front of the garden wall and that of the next building along. It is where the pavement would be, we where on the sort of road that had one! The workshop still reaches the road but the house would be separated from it, to get into the driveways you would have to cross this piece.   I presume it would be very difficult to get all the owners together and to agree on something that would cause us problems, but might we have problems with utility access and the like?   Anybody got any thoughts?     Tom