Will

And there lies the dilemma. If you get a good legal advisor in a tricky transaction he can be worth the fee many times over. However, you never know if a transaction is going to sail through or get an attack of the hiccups until something starts to go wrong. And there are solicitors claiming to be experts in French property who are a total waste of space, all they achieve is prolonging the already-long process even further and winding everybody up. Even so, if people are seeking peace of mind then independent advice is well worth taking, because the French house buying system is so different from that which the buyers are used to in England. Also, most agents are trustworthy and give good advice, contrary to the impression forums like this often give, where you only read of the bad ones. Remember that in France the agent is working for you, the buyer. Although they want to get their commission, a satisfied client is equally, if not more, important.

I don't think it's a matter of  'getting past the préfecture with a UK V5C'. The préfectures basically require evidence of conformity. That can be a manufacturer's certificate, or for older vehicles a manufacturer's letter, or for non-standard or non-European vehicles an attestation from DREAL. When the UK registration certificate carries the type approval number, that number by itself should provide the evidence of conformity, and that is why some préfectures, like Pixietoadstool's, accept it. Arguably, all should, but as we know, not all apply the rules in the same way. Similarly, evidence of type approval on the registration document should be acceptable to CT stations, but as we know, many now want separate certificates.

Many of the people who give guidance (rather than 'opinion' or 'hearsay') here do speak French and have personal experience of the subjects on which they offer advice. Although I would agree that many tax people can be helpful, some of us have experienced quite the opposite, tinged with a touch of xenophobia from a few fonctionnaires.

[:D] [:D] [:D] You would think that so-called responsible people would have a better command of their own language...

French tax documents try to avoid references to '183 days' and specific time limits, the reason being that if somebody regularly spends time in three or more countries they may spend significantly fewer than 183 days in France, or any other individual country, but if they spend the majority of their time in France, they will thus fulfil the residence qualification. This largely avoids the need for the additional '90 day rule' which the UK authorities can invoke to overcome certain ex-pat tax avoidance issues. Anyway, the time spent in France is of minor importance when determining residence, something which this (admittedly unofficial, but as a result easy to understand) guide demonstrates.

Pix, regardless of age, your entitlement as a French resident who belongs to the French social security system is that, basically, 70% of the cost of consultations and 65% of the cost of most medications is refundable, as Coops says, from your primary health assurer (CPAM in most cases). The rest can be covered by a top-up insurance. Depending on the arrangements your doctor and pharmacy have with CPAM and your top-up provider you may have to pay and claim a refund (in which case you will get a brown form, 'feuille de soins'), or secondly, you pay and the refund will be made automatically via your carte vitale, or thirdly, you just had over your carte vitale and everything is processed automatically with no money actually changing hands. It's complicated, like all French official matters, but you should soon get the hang of it. As Coops' site will tell you, if you are in France under the S1(E106) form, and you arrived after November 2007 (as you did) then there may be a period between the expiry of the E form and either one of you reaching UK state retirement age and thus becoming eligible for the S1(E121), or five years after your arrival. During this period you will not be eligible for health cover under the French system, so you will need to take out full private health assurance or find a way into the system, e.g. through working.

Your lady friend will only have to include your income on her French tax form if you are married or in a legal partnership (PACS). I don't think you need to worry about having the 'centre of economic interest' contested because yours is clearly in that unnamed country (why the mystery?) where you live most of the time, work, and pay tax. Even if there is no double taxation agreement between that place and France you are clearly not taxable in France. Our situation has been rather more complicated than Andyh4's, but with the exception that we actually pay quite a lot of income tax in France, as well as UK (and have had a French tax investigation because they wanted us to pay even more), the same principles apply. Incidentally, the '183 day rule' does not exist, as such, in French tax law. Despite what I said above, just having a residence in France can be enough to make you taxable there, but unless you get married or PACSed it will not affect you. This, which I believe ANOther has posted here before, is probably about the best and most easily understood basic guide to whether or not you are French tax resident, but even that doesn't cover all the options.

[quote user="dragonrouge"]...Our bank is in Normandie and our local bank as we are not a customer will not accept them. Any thoughts[/quote] Even your own bank may not want them. I remember trying to pay in a reasonable amount of cash, including a lot of small-denomination coins, at a local branch of CA Normandie, and the only way I could do that was by going round the back and waiting in line with all the defaulters. [:)]

There is no time limit for autoentrepreneur businesses. The people who have told you otherwise have misunderstood the rules. If you make no declaration in a three year period, your AE registration lapses (it was previously only one year). There is (at present) no minimum turnover, so you could, in theory, declare earnings of 10€ once every three years and stay registered: "...if they have not lodged turnover figures" is the important part of Mr Novelli's statement. If you are using AE as a means of entry into the French system your health cover would lapse, probably a year or two after your AE registration ceased in line with other employment regimes. Most autoentrepreneurs, though, are already in the French system and have a carte vitale through their main employment or similar.

Are any of these the sort of thing you are asking about? Never used them personally, but that page came up on a search.

Is this site any use? Thiers is well known for its cutlery makers, the well-known Laguiole knives come from there. You may find something that meets your needs at this site.

No, you should not cancel (résiliation or révoquer) a prélèvement except as a last resort, or when you are absolutely 100% certain that no more payments will be taken. Cancellation gives no guarantee that some payees will not still be able to take money, plus penalties, and it could do serious harm to your credit rating in France. The correct way to do it, as NormanH says, is to 'faire opposition', which is a rather different thing. Some banks will allow you to 'faire opposition' on line. When everything works and the payments stop, as n Idun's case, then cancellation won't actually give you any problems. It's when either something is still owing, or an organisation still tries to take payments that the hassles start - and bodies like RSI/Radiance, as well as insurance and telecom companies, are notorious for taking money when they shouldn't.

Revenus de capitaux mobiliers is indeed savings and investment income, which is subject to 'social charges' regardless of its source. Rentes viagères à titre onéreux are annuities. Here is a Google translation of the official explanatory page, if that helps. This may also help - it's quite old, so the rates of taxation will have changed, but the principle remains the same. Similarly with this (though I am not too sure of the accuracy of a couple of the statements in there regarding pension income). This is more up to date than either of the above Living France guides, and is from a generally reliable source.

These people have been good in the past, but you would have to get the stuff to England: http://chinasearch.co.uk/sell-to-us/ We got a good price for some rare pattern discontinued Denby before we went to France, I can't recall who bought it though. I think it might have been a lady dealer who turned up at our garage sale on spec and asked if we had any decent china.

Thanks for the clarification Steve - my subject is ships and boats, not aircraft. Avgas is indeed petrol (high octane gasoline according to my sources) used to power piston-engined aircraft. And just as you say, jet aircraft use kerosene-type fuel (of which there appear to be several grades, just as with diesel). Just to confuse the issue even further, land-based and marine/offshore gas turbines, many of which are aero-derived, run on diesel fuel rather than kerosene (and a few even run on heavy fuel oil).

Chancer, yes, you are right. Kerosene and aviation fuel pretty much the same thing, and 'petrole' in France is paraffin, exactly as used in portable heaters, and another relation of kerosene. I'm probably just as notorious for not writing clearly enough in first draft - if you read it the way it was intended, it should say that petrole in France is totally different from petrol in English. The French equivalent to petrol is of course 'essence'. And you are right, petrole is often sold at filling stations. I'm old enough to remember when English garages usually had a paraffin pump (Esso Blue or similar), not to mention a dalek-like device on wheels with a big handle on the side for dispensing two-stroke fuel.

I don't know about work in the USA, but with both of us having worked in France I can say, categorically, that working life in France can be extremely difficult and stressful. Truthfully, I think the non-French are better off holidaying or retiring in France (though before anybody else mentions it dealing with CPAM and the like can often result in raised blood pressure for the early-retired). [:)]

'Diesel' can mean a lot of things. The sort you use in your car is known, at least in Britain, as Derv (I think it stands for diesel engine road vehicle or similar) and as 'gazole' in France. This is very similar to agricultural/marine diesel, and there are different quality grades of that too, including 'red' diesel. All of these are distillate fuels - i.e. they are distilled from crude oil. 'Diesel' is sometimes also used, erroneously, to refer to the residual heavy fuel oils - i.e. what is left over after distilling diesel and gasoline (petrol in English - 'petrole' in French is totally different) fuels used in large, specially-equipped diesel engines in ships and power stations. The major differences between the grades of diesel are, first, the amount of distillation. Lower-quality fuels will be distilled less and contain more 'crude' than Derv, resulting in a higher viscosity and a significantly lower 'cetane' (combustion quality). Also there may be additives in higher-quality fuels, used to improve combustion or stop the fuel freezing at low air temperatures. Higher-grade heating oil will contain an anti-freezing additive. French heating oil is a diesel fuel. The stuff in our fuel tank is exactly the same that our farming neighbours use in their tractors as well as their heating systems - we often combine orders to share a tanker load. It is also known as 'fioul' or 'mazout'. Although not as obvious as UK 'red' diesel it does contain a pink colouring to enable it to be identified as a lower-tax fuel. Car engines will run on fioul, but its use is illegal and can be detected by the douanes. Modern engines with high-pressure turbochargers, common-rail fuel systems, and exhaust gas recirculation valves may not run particularly well, and there may be a lot of visible smoke which can rather give the game away. English heating oil is kerosene, not a diesel fuel, and much closer in nature to French 'petrole'. Sorry to be boring and technical, but the different fuel grades are a hot topic at present in the field of marine engineering in which I work, due to tighter sulphur emissions regulations in some parts of the world, including the Channel and North Sea.

Yes, it will cost more to pay on the day than if you had booked in advance. I don't know by exactly how much. The cost varies anyway according to the time of day and the demand for any particular crossing. You can get advance booking discounts up to a day before travel, by booking online or by phone.

[quote user="WendyG"]Persons travelling as footpassengers have always been chargeds a much higher price fare than adding a passenger to origin al booking. [/quote] Not necessarily; it's something we have done several times, and recently it has been much more cost-effective to just book a separate foot passenger fare. In the past, especially if making the alteration by phone or in person at the port, it was cheap (or no charge at all) to add an additional passenger. If the number of passengers is known at the time of booking then it is more economical to have a different number of passengers each way (the booking system allows that - previously it was difficult) than make a separate foot passenger booking. The tunnel system is totally different; they aren't interested in the number of passengers so you can have as many or as few as you like on each leg of the trip. We did a trip recently with one person going out, two people and five animals (plus five more non-bookable animals) on the return, and that was no problem at all.

[quote user="Etoile"]Has anyone heard about a possible Dover/Folkestone - La Rochelle car only overnight Seacat? [/quote] The stuff of fantasy I'm afraid. First thing - no cabin accommodation (not permitted under high speed craft rules, except for crew). Second - it would need at least one refuelling stop, or fitting of long-range fuel tanks which would reduce capacity (and the fuel cost would most likely be astronomical). Third - anybody contemplating taking such a ship loaded with delciate passengers anywhere near the Bay of Biscay except in the height of summer is a prime candidate for certification.

[quote user="Quillan"] I've only got one... [/quote] I didn't have you down as being similarly afflicted to Hitler, Q? Regarding euro exchange rate forecasts, the 'expert economists' at Crown Currency Exchange thought they knew what was going to happen so they could offer rather generous terms to future euro purchasers. And they got it spectacularly wrong, so how are we likely to be any more accurate in our guesswork?

No, this person lives, and works, in England. He insists he is both legal and very savvy for saving a few pounds. We know otherwise, of course, but try telling him. [;-)]

With all due respects I think it is true, being one of a number of clarifications issued earlier this year. I suppose it's untrue to some extent, in that you can physically register a car to a holiday home in another country (I know somebody who has at least two vehicles registered to his French holiday home in order to avoid paying road fund licence and having an MoT done every year), but there are lots of things you can do that don't actually comply with the letter of the law. The FAQ section of the EU site covers the holiday home question to some extent. And if you feel your questions have not been answered or something has not been adequately covered, you can use the SOLVIT facility, available through the contact link on the EU site, to get a response.

Certainly not having a go at you personally, rather at a bit of misinformation on the site you linked to, which purports to be 'the complete guide to France' - which I suppose is why it gets its facts mixed up in an item about a Spanish resident. This is a rather more accessible version of EU law (Pickles' link refers mainly to taxation rather than registration) - though even here the the nature of the six month limit is implied rather than stated. Those who depend on (and enforce, of course) the law should always refer to the actual legal document rather than informal guidelines, online FAQs or a press release. I'm sure your bike could do with a good clean anyway [:)]