Any Pine Furniture Punters?

[ThePineManAndy]

Hi everyone (anyone?),

We are seriously hoping to move to either sw France or se Spain later this year, but one obvious major consideration is earning a living! We plan to visit both countries, and maybe Italy, and will have a good nose around each (good way of getting three short holidays in one year!). If we decide on France then it would probably be the southern Charente region.

At present I make pine furniture, both free standing and fitted, which I have done for 20 years or so - so it can't be too bad! I'm trying to get an idea as to whether there would be a market for it there, and not just with the Brits. I would also advertise for general carpentry, tiling, decorating etc which I can do to a good standard (not trying to blow my own trumpet!). We would probably buy a renovation project and so hopefully would have several months in which to become known locally before needing to start work again anyway.

If anyone's still awake after reading this, I'd be glad of your thoughts!

[zeb]

You shouldn't have many problems in getting lots of work making furniture or carpentry if you are as good as you say!

Read up how to get registered (the process takes a while) and learn French (you'll need it if you are going to deal with French beaurocrats when setting up a business!)

bon chance

[Mpprh]

Hi

In our area there are several furniture shops selling pine.

At least 2 of them use "English" as a selling point. One has a red phone box outside.

Probably worth a visit around France to check out the opportunities ?

Peter

[Will]

There's a company based near us at Le Havre which makes upmarket English-style furniture, including waxed pine and painted MDF, which seems to be very popular with the trendier French. It has shops and stockists all over France - if you want more information, and to see the sort of things that the French make and buy in this style, look at http://www.interiors.fr. There are numerous small furniture makers all over France, though they tend to make things in the heavier, carved, regional styles, in dark wood.

If you are going to do this seriously you will definitely need to go through the formalities of registering as an artisan through your local Chambre de Metiers. If it's a toss-up vetween France and Spain, then dare I say it, you may find it much easier to set up in business in Spain. Bureaucracy there looks bad enough, but it doesn't hold a candle to the punitive French system that seems designed to kill off any enterprising individual's enthusiasm. It's not just a joke that French is the only language that doesn't have a word for entrepreneur (the word does, of course, come from French but it has come to mean a building contractor rather than the English, and original French, definition).