Alan Zoff

Although the article suggests the application can be made online, the Visa website indicates that a personal appearance at London, Manchester or Edinburgh will be required. Has anyone on here been through this process? I would be looking at the temporary long stay option.

This has some useful information: https://www.longtermrentalsinfrance.com/living-in-france/moving-to-france-after-brexit.html#:~:text=it is still perfectly possible,apply for permanent French Residency.

I made the mistake of allowing myself to be persuaded by rave reviews to watch the ridiculous Lupin series (Netflix). Utter dross. French mixture of Bond, the A Team, Batman and Die Hard, all done very very badly. Probably appeals to young teenagers or anyone who enjoys silly super-hero cartoons. One or two nice shots of Paris.

I don't pretend to know the legal position on this. But I do know from painful experience that French estate agents are no more reliable than British ones. OK, I shouldn't tar them all with the same brush but I would certainly not automatically treat what an agent has said as Gospel. They want an easy transaction - and their commission.

So is there more flexibility on the interpretation of "compelling reasons" than appears at first sight to be the case? Might there be, for example, a French equivalent of the Stanley Johnson "law" for Brit second home owners wishing to get the French house ready for sale? Or am I just confusing things, as often happens? Or maybe it's just pot luck?

With foreign exchange there are always two elements to take into account. To achieve the best result, you should compare both any fees and the exchange rate offered.

Gluestick and ssomon have summed it up perfectly

I don't think involving another Notaire will offer much benefit. Neither will get their hands dirty with day-to-day stuff in the property. You have equal rights with your brother in terms of the legal aspects which the Notaire will handle and account for. The problem as ever is possession - you need to be on the spot if you want to avoid brother taking advantage and it might already be too late for that in respect of moveable items in the house, especially if you do not have full details of what was there. Was an inventory made? (Apologies if that has already been covered.)

The Notaire should be impartial. You would do well to try to establish a report with him/her as quickly as possible. If the Notaire is not fluent in English and you not in French then find a French speaker who can speak for you. In my experience, talking in a friendly manner to officials - preferably in their own language - goes a long way.

When we first bought the French house, property taxes were a fraction of what we paid in UK. But French charges have gone through the roof (no pun intended) and are on a par now for a much less valuable property - including 18 months when we were unable to use it or any local services. When I spoke to the tax officer, he said that when the government introduced a waiver for older French residents, they had to recoup the shortfall from somewhere and he assumed foreign second-home owners were seen as an obvious target.

Yes, if your French is up to it and your circumstances and requirements are straightforward, write the French will yourself. Keep it as simple as possible. I wrote mine a couple of years ago, emailed a copy of my draft to our local Notaire (Lurcy-Levis), she approved it immediately (no charge) and it was done. Be careful to avoid revoking ALL previous wills if you have an earlier one in the UK or elsewhere which is to remain in force for non-French assets.

I can second the Boots Lateral Flow Test recommendation. Worked very well for me online. Same with Eurotunnel procedure. All sorted before I got to Calais and went straight through showing only my passport. Even managed to find my way round all the bollards which seemed to have been laid out by someone who had had more than their fair share of Pernod

I am hoping that now that I have swapped my van for an estate car they will take less interest in me in future. Not that I have anything to hide but it's a damned nuisance when the Douane soldiers take everything apart at services below Paris. I hope other travellers enjoyed seeing my smalls spread out in the car park. I was made to stand like a criminal while the boss man shoved his hands in my pockets to grab my wallet and ordered me not to move or speak. In their fruitless search beneath the van, they even managed to damage the fuel pipe (using MY tools! - the cheeky sods) so I was leaking diesel from then on and lucky to complete my journey. They disappeared from the site before I discovered the damage but a French lorry driver who had been watching the commotion told me that was probably just as well as you can never win if you get angry with armed Douane bods. I couldn't interest the gendarmes either so had to pay for the repair myself. Not impressed.

Don't pu.sh it, Norman

I watched both matches, in fact. Was just being silly. Great entertainment. Mbappe should have been substituted early on as it just wasn't his day. But, like others, I was half expecting him to do something brilliant at some point. Wasn't to be. Yes, there have been great performances by underdogs. Hungary impressed, too for a while. Wake-up call for the fancied teams but France dozed off when they thought they had already won it. The normally reliable Germans have been uncharacteristically erratic - let's hope they haven't got their act together this evening.