KenB

The buyer pays the agency and notaire fees on property purchases in France.

We Americans still need a carte de séjour. If you are British, no problem.

We had a ramoneur out this morning. He did the job quickly and cleanly. Charged us 48 euros and gave us the certificate our house insurance requires for coverage. I'd say get it done professionally and have the peace of mind.

Agreed, who "pays" the estate agent's fee is academic. It's just part of the cost of the transaction. But not everybody looks at it that way.

I just had to replace the original battery in my 6-year-old Peugeot 206. I went to the U.S. for the entire month of October and left the car in the garage during that time. It was not started at all for more that four weeks. When I came back to France I was just barely able to start the car, but I figured driving around for 20 or 30 miles would charge it back up. No luck. It gave up the ghost a few days later, after being parked outside for 2 days and not started. The mechanic who replaced it said it often happens that an old battery that sits unused for an extended period of time will just quit working. Now I have a new battery and all is well.

Ah the joys of living in France when one speaks no French. It is something to think about before making the move.

In the U.S., the seller pays the real estate agent's fee. I paid about $40,000.00 when I sold my house in California. How does that sound compared to what you might pay in France? Of course, here in France it's the buyer who pays. When I moved to France, I got hit coming and going. But it's all just part of the cost of such transactions. You can drive yourself crazy worrying about the details rather than just looking at the overall cost, and profits, of buying and selling property.

I needed an agent when I came to France looking for a house in 2002, despite the fact that I speak French fluently and had lived here (in Paris) for several years earlier in life. I lived in California in 2002, and on the Internet I had seen a lot of properties for sale in my area of choice, the Loire Valley east of Tours. But I need to see them for real to see if my plan was realistic. For various reasons, I could only take one week for an exploratory trip to France that year. I contacted an agent and he showed me 15 houses in four days time. He recommended a house that I would probably have rejected after seeing it on paper. But he was right -- it was the one I bought. He also smoothed the way to my getting a bank account opened and starting to work with a notaire. As a result, I bought a house in less than a week, with no fuss and no muss, as we say. I've been living here for the past three years and am very happy with it. For me, the 7% fee was acceptable because I got a good house at a very good price.

In my garden here in the Cher Valley south of Blois, I find big brown toads in the soil when I till the vegetable garden plots in the spring. I also see them nearer the house in summer. They have a way of scurrying around in little piles of dry leaves that makes enough noise so as to startle you when it is dark out. They also used to hiss at my dog before the poor old canine expired last spring. I'm glad to know the toads eat slugs and therefore are more than a curiosity in the garden. I will be careful about picking them up with my bare hands in the future. Last spring a little pond just beyond my property was full of what I assumed were frogs for a week or too. I mentioned it to a French neighbor and she got a disgusted look on her face and said they were just toads doing their spawning. There were many dozens of them in a very small body of water. Then there were hundreds of tadpoles in the water. I also find very small toads around my garden from time to time. They're not much bigger than a walnut. I think they live in and around the pipes that take rainwater from the gutters away from the house. Those must be dark, humid places. Ken

[quote user="Chrissie"]Also be aware that delivery times on new vehicles can be very long in France. Chrissie (81) [/quote] I had the same experience in 2003. I wanted to buy a Citroën Picasso. I went to a local dealer in mid-July and was told it would be mid- to late October before they could get the car for me. I ended up buying a second-hand Peugeot and am very happy with it. Ken

I paid a fine two years ago for a violation. I have a French licence. I have never been notified that points were taken off my licence.

I paid my deposit to my agent. He was never in a great hurry to get the money, I thought. The cooling-off period started when the vendor signed the Compromis, several weeks after I had signed it. All went smoothly.

When I moved here in 2003, I bought some living room furniture from Fly in Blois. The store didn't deliver, but they let us use one of their trucks to move the furniture to our house. I think they gave us two hours of truck rental free, and that was sufficient for our needs. Other places we have bought from -- Darty and local furniture stores -- have had free delivery.

Here in the Loir-et-Cher we were able to set up a prélèvement (automatic withdrawal) for both the taxe foncière and the taxe d'habitation.