patricia

Thanks a lot for your help. We've been busy reading up about taxe fonciere and taxe d'habitation, but I don't think that it will end up being too bad, especially as we only want a small property. We like to leave our car behind in the UK and just take our bikes and panniers on the ferry, but we could easily manage up to 50 miles inland provided we took the overnight ferry. [Www]

We really enjoy cycling in France and are considering buying a very small property in Brittany as a bolt-hole and to explore all those lovely lanes at our leisure.[:)]  But we won't be retiring for a few years yet so wouldn't be able to spend too much time there initially. What are the general annual running costs for a property in France, the costs that you pay whether you're there or not, like the equivalent of council tax, and water rates and sewage etc? We'd be really grateful to hear of anyone else's experiences of this.