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French Artisans (its a tough game)


monsieur macon
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Arriving in France at the age of 20, i've been an artisan for some time now and i can say that whilst you may have some cowboys in the trade, the artisanal way of life is someting you do from passion, and not because you think you are gonna earn heaps of cash.  France is not, i repeat not the UK, its a differenet economic climat.  tradesman in the UK can apparently earn big bucks, but here in france we pay dearly for our social securuty cover.  Frankly i appreciate the fact that i am well protected, protection though comes at a price.  I would rather be here anyday than in cut throat britian, from all that i've heard english people say about it.  Small businesses though pay more than there fair share of cotisations in france, I loose around 47% of my brut earnings.  Most Brits i know here are retired, they are outside of the work economy.   It is very easy to thus say that artisans are either late, too esxpensive, not festidious enough etc...an artisan is obliged to charge upwards of 250e a day...he is also obliged to juggle many jobs at once, if you dont you sink, simple as that. 

My advice to any one searching an Artisan is go word of mouth....get on the waiting list of someone who is booked up for the next 6months....he wont let you down!!!!   Its like choosing a table in the packed restaurant...there's a reason why all the locals are eating there!!!

hope this helps....

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On behalf of many decent hardworking artisans (my OH but I am actively involved too) I thank you for your excellent posting. Speaking to my brother tonight in the UK who is a site manager for a multi million pound development in north London he was full of moans about being swamped by Poles,Georgians,Czecs and other e.European nationals coming in and taking over the sites without one word of english between them and demanding all sorts which makes him very uneasy these days.  I get sick too of the cowboys coming here to rip off fellow brits, most of whom are not rich millionaires and can ill-afford to lose a lot of money for a rubbish job and then they disappear leaving a trail of heartache.  People have to learn to be patient and wait for an artisan to start their work, you cannot give any exact dates here,it just does not work like that and very few artisans will sign contracts with late penalty clauses inserted.
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"an artisan is obliged to charge upwards of 250e a day"  ????????

Give it a break, I normally keep out of these threads but it just gets too much sometimes, it's a wind up. I've been here over 11 years now and I've never charged anything like that and I manage to pay my charges and live a modest lifestyle.

If you want to charge a lot, fine, but please, all of you stop justifying it with all this charges stuff, it just isn't true.

That's my sum input to this.

Chris (a working man)

 

 

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[quote user="chris pp"]

"an artisan is obliged to charge upwards of 250e a day"  ????????

Give it a break, I normally keep out of these threads but it just gets too much sometimes, it's a wind up. I've been here over 11 years now and I've never charged anything like that and I manage to pay my charges and live a modest lifestyle.

If you want to charge a lot, fine, but please, all of you stop justifying it with all this charges stuff, it just isn't true.

That's my sum input to this.

Chris (a working man)

[/quote]

Wish I could charge 250€ a day - I know I'm worth it but not sure my clients would agree! 

* Tongue in cheek comment before the forum voyoux jump in with sarcastic comments [:P]

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I don't reckon (but then I wouldn't) that 250€/day is and unreasonable expectation. Problem is, IME, you can't ever do a full day/week/month or whatever, because of all the unpaid work you are forced to do (you know, devis, invoices, unpaid tax collector & the like). I reckon no more than 70% of my time is productive.

Any Artisan with any sense will quote a large lump of dosh for the labour element & leave it at that. If the (potential) client can find a cheaper/better quote, they should go for it!

 

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