Quillan

You won't be able to work in France as a builder unless you are registered, have a SIRET number and carry insurance. To do this you are required to prove you are qualified (College certificates, professional qualifications etc, apprenticeship deeds will also do I believe) in the trade in which you will work. Before they will let you work you will need to go on a weeks course, in French then fill in your forms for your SIRET number etc (although some trades can now register online). The equivalent of NI in France is very high, much higher than the UK although income tax is about the same so overall your tax and NI contributions will eat into your wages quite a bit which is why builders etc are so expensive in France. As a foreigner you will inevitably be denounced (reported) to the local tax office by French builders because they will think you're working on the black (off the cards) but the tax office will check and leave you alone if you are properly registered. Working on the black in France is not really an option. French regulations are quite different to UK when it comes to ground works etc so you will have to learn those a well, probably involves a course, in French. The following website (in French) is probably a good place to start http://www.artisanat.fr/  

[quote user="idun"]Quillan, my thought when I saw the price you were asking for a full english breakfast was of words that this site would not allow to be shown! So, where do you get proper sausages from? Just wondering as I hate every last french sausage I have ever had the misfortune to taste, from diots, to merguez (which some english people I know call mergeez, drives me mad) chipolatas and ofcourse the absolutely dreaded andouillette.  Now my family loves them all, well husband loves andouillette and kids love all the others, I do not! [/quote]   Sausage Toulouse and the English freezer section in the local supermarket does bacon. Thats a discounted price by the way, it's normally 60 Euros plus you have to bring, alive, both you grand parents with you. We can whip across the broder to Spain and visit the Iceland supermarket there for Walls and Richmond sausages but after eating the Toulouse sausage, thats the one with meat in, I can't face either brand, it's like eating sawdust. I also make my own sausages from just about anything i.e. beef, pork, lamb, duck, old car tyres etc.

[quote user="EuroTrash"]http://www.wordreference.com/fren/h%C3%B4te[/quote]   So what your saying is it can mean either and from an owners point of view I have only heard it refered to as a room of hosts and that includes Deborah Hunt's book about starting and owning a "B&B" in France as publish by the Torygragh and for sale on Amazon UK. Anyway is it really worth arguing about just because I am right. [:P] [;-)]

First to say I am not implying that 'Bill' is like those I am about to pass comment on.   When you listen to Brits over here banging on about immigrants in the UK taking all the jobs mainly in the building industry and agriculture because they will work for lower wages than the Brits it is quite interesting to see that some (not all) are quite happy to bring cheaper British labour over to France to basically do the same thing and on the black to boot. I don't think they quite grasp that it is the employer in France that gets fined or worse if there is an accident. Remember years ago after the storms down south the guy working on the black who fell of some chaps roof (Montpelier way if memory serves, it was in all the newspapers down here at the time) while fixing lose tiles and broke his back? Cost the owner his house. I remember because I employed our neighbours 16 year old girl to clean rooms and she tripped over the power cord to the vacume cleaner. I thought I was doing us both a favour, bit of pocket money for her during the holidays and helped me out during a busy time. After reading that I had to 'sack' her which was sad all round but it is simply not worth the risk.  

Well Mint that is what I assumed, dangerous I know, but just to check I had a look and lo and behold some say they speak French and some don't. Just to point out I am talking about Booking.com here and not elswhere.   Anyway at the end of the day very few people ever look at any of this 'trivia' when making a reservation via Booking, they just look for the cheapest priced room. We have one room that is described as only 10m2 and suitable for a max of two nights according to Booking. It is actually 9.8m2 but in France the minimum size is 10m2. Excellent for people passing through as it is quick to clean and OK for a night or two. It was Booking that put the room for sale and not me. They are also the ones that measured it and it seems their measure is different to mine. The thing is nobody ever clicks on the room details they simply look at the photos which if you look shows a bed with a night stand each side and a wall each side of them. People book this room for 5, 7 and even 14 nights and the look on their faces when they arrive is priceless even though when I contact them to confirm the reservation I tell them again that it is under 10m2 (I actually say it is 9.8m2 excluding bathroom).   I was thinking about Idun's comment about breakfast and British B&B's. We offer a full english, bacon, eggs, sausages, baked beans, tomatoes, black pudding, white pudding, mushrooms with hash browns, mug of tea and two slices (toast) all for 35 Euros supplement. Not many takers on that one. [;-)] (Oh look my spelling checker is working again)

[quote user="EuroTrash"]Yes I always assumed it meant 'guest room'. 'Host room' doesn't make much sense to me. I hope Quillan's smell checker is working again - try blowing your nose hard, that might do the trick.[/quote]   Well I always thought it ment host and having checked in my Roberts French/English English/French dictionary I was right.   Anyway re the English thing on the Booking website. I contacted them about this as some in my local area say French and some don't. It appears there is no logic, ot is up to the website people which boxes they click on when building the page. Even some French owned hotels here and abouts do not include French as a language spoken.   Wooly "Black Velvet" drunk in Galway, quite a bit during the oyster festival, is a good one (Guiness and Champagne, half and half). I tried it with Blanquet de Limoux, quite nice actually. (Snell checker till not burping.)

Wooly - Lager and blackcurrent would you believe. You should try Tokyo, finest French red mixed with Coca Cola. [geek]   Norman - I wouldn't mind if they picked me out because as you have pointed out I have always said I slaughter the language but I do try and can on the whole carry a conversation in French. Their comment was aimed at the other guests and don't forget the French do the same thing when they are on holiday outside of France in non French speaking countries. Go to Belsize Park in north London and all you will hear is French being spoken. I too have a problem with Brits who live here and make no effort to speak the language. I know one woman who I see in the supermarket quite often over the last 5 or 6 years and still talks English to the checkout staff expecting them to understand. It's the same woman who I heard in the bar chatting to some English people who said she left the UK becuase nobody spoke English anymore "I mean you only have to stand in the gueue in Tesco's to hear nobody speaking English", how she made me laugh, what an idiot. Sorry for the typos my smell checker has stopped working.

[quote user="idun"]I would love every one who is bothered about another persons colour to take a DNA test! [/quote]   There was a UK TV program years ago where they did DNA tests on people. I remember one woman who thought herself extremely British to the point where there may not be anyone more British than her. They also talk to Ian Wright (the footballer) and to her absolute horror it turned out he was more British than her. Turns out she was a decendant of Romany gypsies. Of course the DNA test was totally wrong, she said. I love it when people like that get their cum-uppance. I would like to see the same happen to this fella, god would I laugh, till the tears ran down my legs.

To answer two questions in one post.   Booking.com are not the only place you will find reviews. Indeed these people didn't come via Booking.   CdH loosely translated means room of hosts, a room in a private house as part of the family. There is a limit on the number of rooms (5) and guests (14 I think), you eat at a communal table with the owner, in other words the hosts share their house, breakfast and dinner with the guests. Initially it was a way for the farmers wife to gain a little extra money. UK B&B's originally were like that, I remember staying in a few as a child but they have moved on quite a bit these days. Many are basically mini hotels often with between 8 and 12 rooms some of which may be family rooms taking two adults and a couple of kids.

[quote user="sid"]Spain where "everyone" speaks English and all you have to do to make yourself understood is shout louder![/quote]   Trust me the Spanish do the same thing even to each other. Seems a lot of the time they can only shout and not speak. [;-)] Perhaps the English in Spain have caught on that to get heard in Spain you need to shout whatever the language.   What was quite funny a couple of weeks back when we were full with French couples was a  chap who I just could not understand at all because of his accent. He got a bit fed up with me because I didn't understand him and being a long distance lorry driver who visited the UK regularly spoke to me in English. I asked another guy (in French) "Please don't think me being funny but I have a real problem understand M. XXXX", "Don't worry" the guy said "Neither can any of us, he comes from Marseille" and he wasn’t joking.   As to being on holiday in UK B&B I woudn't give a toss what languages other people wee speaking. Indeed if I owned a B&B in the UK (which is quite different to a CdH by the way) I wouldn't give a toss what language the guests spoke. Bums in beds, money in till, thats the name of the game, I adore the sound the till makes when it opens, it is like music to my ears. I swear mine is like Arkwrights.

The man is clearly a racist from some of his comments and if it were in the UK the lawyers would have a field day with him. Why racist, well given he was born in Algeria and his family had lived there since the 1850's the only difference between him and the people he is commenting on is his colour because he was born in and comes from the same place as them. Indeed who knows he might even have a bit of African blood in him. I would love for him to take a dna test.

We have had the conversation many times about people coming to live in France and the need to speak the language but holiday makers? We get a lot of Catalans and whilst many also speak Spanish they also speak English yet few speak French. I find that interesting as Catalonia spreads well into France.   Like it or not and to be fair pretty handy for us Brits English is the second language of the world. We have had Polish, Czech, Bulgarian, Russian and most of Scandinavia to name just the northern hemisphere and they all speak enough English to get by. Actually it is quite amazing how well Russians speak English given modern history. Most of them speak little or no French.   The point is there is no prerequisite to speak the language of the place you go on holiday although of course the odd phrase comes in handy. The fact that many do speak some English and use it to converse with other guests is convenient for many. Part of the CdH experience is to have breakfast and/or dinner together talking about and sharing your experiences of the day along with any suggestion you might have on places you've visited. In some ways I feel sorry for the French because they get locked out of these conversations.   Given the quantity of people visiting France and the badly needed money they spend when they get here the attitude of some French borders on biting th hand that feeds you.

when it comes to languages and inparticular English.   Now before you all go off on one I am not talking in reference to us Brits living here, more about people visiting France, let me explain.   We get visitors from all over the world of which only about 20% of them are native English speakers. It is quite normal to have four different nationalities at breakfast and dinner. The one thing they have in common, except for the French couple, is they all speak English at various levels. So you have Italian, Israeli, Romanian and French. Three couples quite happily talk about their visits the day before over breakfast and pass on suggestions of places to visit to each other except the French who don't understand a word being said. On top of that they have the audacity to give a review that says you need to speak English if you want to stay here. Needless to say their review got a swift reply putting them straight although the words lazy and ignorant were censored out. I would like to point out that I did talk to them in French and if there were other French couples here I would, of course, talk to them in French.   So given that English is the official second language of the EU and that from the 14th July 2014 to the 14th July 2015 83.7M people holidayed in France (making it the most visited holiday destination in the world and a nice little earner for the French) and  most of whom spoke English as a foreign language you would like to think the French would make a little effort if only to take the money of them. You have to hand it to the Spanish and Greeks, at least they make an effort because they know they need to speak it to get their hands on the money.

[quote user="Jonzjob"]Just as well you didn't Spoonerise that Q [:-))] [/quote]   Why would I use a spoon? You will have to explain that one.

[quote user="woolybanana"]Doesn't that make Norman a lab rat?[/quote]   Refering to "The Vicar of Dibley" No, no, no, no, yes. [;-)]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/29/french-mayor-beziers-accused-of-laboratory-of-the-far-right  

[quote user="woolybanana"]Accepted offer via agent. Now we hold our breath for the paperwork and deposit. Price is bearable.[/quote]   But, but, but...... the man from Ebay said you would never sell and he is an expert it so how is this possible. [:'(]   Well done anyway and good luck moving on.

We get people from all over the world as opposed to just Europe. We currently have, in couples, French, German Russian and Israeli and they are all very nice getting on well with each other despite the languages involved. You get to learn a lot from them rather than reading newspapers etc. Some have very interesting jobs or have lead interesting lives.   Anyway we are at two ends of the business so we get totally different types of guests. Our business is more labour intensive with far more guest contact but then the earning potential is much, much, higher (around 3k a week in the summer). The money and smiling faces is the reward for all the hard work.  

Our French neighbour with who we have been very good friends for many years sold his house to a Dutch couple two/three years back. The French round here, and myself, refer to them as "the special people" so enough said.   A talking point last year at our local Clevacance AGM is that these foreign versions of Four in a Bed are turning program lovers into 'aggressive' reviewers looking for the tiniest things wrong that they can. Many French round here also refer to them, in a joking way, much as the English do about the Scots (in a joking way), short arms and deep pockets. They do rather expect to only pay the price of a bottle of lemonade and get a bottle of Champagne. We do find them ‘difficult’ at times but we don’t get that many down here.   Having your tea, coffee and toilet rolls taken is pretty trivial really. We had a whole low voltage lighting system removed from a bathroom years ago. We had the shower fitting ripped out of a shower and taken once not to mention a few personal accidents in beds from both orifices which they try to hide before they go. One group drank two bottles of Scotch that were not even out on display (might explain why there was vomit all over the bathroom next day).   Anyway it “goes with the turf” as they say so you just carry on. Over the coming years you will learn a lot about the business but more, probably, about people than you ever thought you knew before.  

[quote user="woolybanana"]I have just turned down two offers on my house! Or was I dreaming?[/quote]   I hope you were only dreaming because you can't afford to turn any offer down Wooly. Far be it from me, a simple newly promoted dish washer (who still has not got his payrise), but our resident property speculating expert (him what spent a fortune sending his kids to private school and they still didn't get enough results to get a uni place) said, if I remember corectly, something along the lines that your place was an over valued dump. I assume he was looking at quite different pictures to me but then as I said, I am no expert.

Don't suppose "We at Prophecy Central" have next weeks Euro Millions winning numbers then the early Autumn in France would be insignificant.

[quote user="Chancer"] What about savings interest from the UK?   Stupidly I did not keep a copy of my déclarations but I do have the figures that I submitted (although dont know what columns they were put under) and have my subsequent avis d'import.   It differs from the above because they have given me an abattement of 71% against my locations meublées non proffessional, the 29% net income was subjected to social charges totalling 15.5% but I see no mention anywhere on my avis of the savings income that I declared of £961 and I certainly havnt paid any charges on it.   Have they perhaps missed the figure completely? Should I have paid charges on it? Should it not appear somewhere to at least be included in my revenue de reference? [/quote]   So what happens when you get an S1? Do you still get the 71% abattement but pay no social charges of 15.5%?

[quote user="NickP"]The washer upper said ..... [/quote]   Promotion at last, do I get a payrise as well? [:D]

[quote user="NickP"]Well why don't you give yourself the message you gave me when I complained about the "new format" and the problems. "If you don't like it go somewhere else". [:P] [/quote] Well you Nick unlike you I am not complaining I simply bought other peoples complaints to the notice of the forum owners who, it would seem by the lack of any change, do not consider there to be a problem either. Therefore as I said before if you don't like the current forum format go somewhere else.

I know first hand that some are taking French citizenship. Re The Guardian piece, read some of the comments, they truly are outstanding and shows a complete ignorance of how the EU functions and what effects an exit could have on the UK. The cause of this I believe is the lack of education of people on behalf of the government. The Pro lobby should already be out there shouting very loudly and dispelling all the myths about the EU and the UK's part within it.