Baggycat

Strikes me he or she is about to become an expert in bankruptcy... now there's an up and coming profession, there'll be plenty of work for the business undertakers this year!

Well, the £ - € has certainly made it impossible to contemplate a move, even if other factors had been in our favour. One thing that I have had though in recent weeks is a lot of calls and emails from French estate agents offering significantly reduced prices on their properties. Either they were vastly overpriced in the first instance or the property market is imploding, I suggest that it may be a combination of the two. Either way, the prices being offered now still don't amount to the same prices as were effective in August when the exchange rate was more appropriate. It will be an interesting year, no doubt, in French property, but I can't foresee that being an agent selling predominantly to Brits will be much of an earner.

Well, back from Carcassonne and lots of things learned. Not the least that to hit the ground running over there you have to be fluent in French... so lessons start in September! Carcassonne centre and Cité were very nice, but we wouldn't want to live there too big and too messy outside the centre. The places we did like were Limoux and Mirepoix so we will go back early next year and have another look - when better armed with the language. As for working over there? It is clear that the French don't spend oodles of dosh on their houses so I'm not even going to bother going down the furniture route. We have a number of other options, but unfortunately my father-in-law was fairly disinterested in the whole idea, so unless we went to Limoux or Quillan where there is a sizable English contingent it would be impossible to take him... and for the time being, if he isn't going then neither are we! We will plan longer term, spend more time over there, become fluent - I was surprised how much French I remembered! - and plan slowly. Thanks for all your comments and advice, at least we won't have to worry about the inheritance situation!

Latest update - just been up to fill up for the airport tomorrow morning Tesco have lowered their prices by a whopping .... 2p a litre! So while you fortunate frogophiles have seen a drop of 14c, ca 11p, we have managed a drop of 2p. Anyone think that this is right? . . . Oh, you must be a Tesco shareholder then!

Diesel prices haven't moved here yet, still at £1.309/litre. Independents are saying that they will "lower their prices in due course"!

Quick update on oil prices... down to $123/barrel... so why haven't prices fallen as quickly as they were previously rising? Stupid question, it's not about cost, it's about profit!

Yes, I know, but from what I understand they are a better class of immigrants than those who go to Spain!

Thanks for the tip, we'll have a ride out and grab some lunch for two or three hours :-)

I'll be able to tell you better after next week! We fly out on Monday, back on Thursday. One property we are going to look at is in Berriac, but we have friends in Limoux. Quillan has also been suggested but we would prefer to be closer to the Cité.

Yes, did that no sooner than I asked the question. This is a good link with loads of info... no harm in posting it again: http://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/inheritance/overview/

It seems to me that the French have been taking lessons from the Americans. The regulations there are pathetic to say the least. So many things have to be alarmed, doors to be locked, fences built, maintained, inspected, planting has to be approved so that it can't be climbed... talk about treating everyone as retarded infants...hmm, this is Americans we are talking about... At least the Swedes have got it right.

Thanks for that info, it doesn't appear to include income tax, neither does it make any mention of tax free personal allowances, which I presume there must be some, or how would anyone on a low income be able to survive? One other aspect that has been mentioned to my wife today by one of her friends who owns a house just north of Nice and that is inheritance laws. From what she has said is that dear old Napoleon saddled France wit what perhaps seemed like a great idea at the time, but has worked out to be an absolute nightmare: and that is that instead of estate passing to surviving spouse as in UK law, 50% of the estate immediately goes to surviving children with the spouse only having the right to abode as long as the children permit it! This could be enough to stop me dead in my tracks... unless this is wrong or there is a way around it? Anyone know?

When you see reports coming out of places like Vietnam showing inflation running at 27% it becomes crystal clear that 3rd world countries spiking demand is pure garbage. Think about it logically... if WE can't afford to pay ridiculous prices for oil and gas, then how on earth do they expect Vietnam, China and India to effectively outbid us for the supposedly short-supplied commodities? It's blindingly obvious, they can't! The price of oil, based on true supply and demand, should be under $100/barrel and petrol should be less than £1/litre - diesel in the UK has no business whatsoever being 16p a litre more than unleaded, its just another example of naked profiteering.

The main reason why oil prices are so high is because of the actions of traders, and especially major merchant banks who have moved into commodities to try and recoup their losses elsewhere. There is now 8 times as much oil traded than is actually produced, and as a result the price is hiked up, also fed by the donkeys in the media who lurve printing scary stories because it sells their rags. It is noticeable in the past that there were virtually riots when petrol went up by 5p a litre, but since the media so willingly primed the pumps for the speculators by 'warning the public that prices may hit £1/litre' etc etc the consumer was instantly disempowered, giving the speculators free reign to push the prices as far as they dare. Personally, I think that the wheels are going to fall off that wagon and they will recede, not wend their way to to £2/litre or $200/barrel. Don't believe everything you read in the papers.

Thanks for all your replies. My situation is possibly a little less than normal, but I did simplify it by only referring to kitchens. There are several reasons for wanting to move, not least that in Peterborough we are living in what has become a septic tank. The city is the number 1 dumping ground for immigrants from eastern europe and beyond. We have had over 30,000 of them flood the city, in addition to the already large Asian population. We would rather be foreigners in a pleasant place than feel like foreigners in Peterborough. Work here has come to a very dramatic halt. Literally the taps turned off overnight. Up until three months ago I was working six or seven days a week to keep up. We had an extended holiday in May - I was almost burned out and desperately needed it! - and since then I have only done two bathrooms in two months. My wife is a textile designer and lecturer and would very much like to run courses in a holiday location like the S of F. My father-in-law would also come with us. The overall proposal is not necessarily that I 'export' the furniture side, but it is a good option if the work is there. If it isn't then I can do other things - I'm also a qualified Apple Service Engineer. I will have to become fluent in French anyway, so that will be a period of time that I hoped to be spending viably, maybe working within the ex-pat community initially. I also want to look at renovations and possibly buy a property with gites attached. The furniture business is a limited company, the manufacturing side is run by a good friend of mine so there is a strong link, but not a formal one. However, if it is beneficial, then all things are possible. Ideally, I would like to mess about with gites, do some building, write my novels and look after a few macs while my wife does all the work! In the meantime, we fly to Carcassonne on Monday and will have a good butchers and see what we all think, the old man included... I say old, although he's 84, he will probably outlive us all he's that damned fit!