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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila - Newsletter #67
Pezenas - France - October 22, 2003 1. Property owner info to arrive soon! 2. How not to panic... a 6th birthday success 3. Restaurant Reviews 4. School 5. Web Hosting and other services 6. The How to Book For Rental Properties in France 7. Discounts and Coupons from us 8. Pools 9. Nizas Plus answers to some of your questions and a new regular series of restaurant reviews starts at... http://francevoila.com/ The archives with over 600 features and articles are at... http://francevoila.com/archives/ ====== Sent from France by.. http://francevoila.com/ All you need to know to visit - or live - in France. Full details to subscribe, change address and unsubscribe are at the end of this newsletter. Write to me at... mailto:tony@nizas.com I really do try to answer all letters - if you don't hear from me in a few days - write louder. ===== We are working hard to add many new properties and make our sites friendlier to use. Our email addresses are being changed to simple forms as the huge amount of unwanted mail and virus we receive takes hours every week to remove safely. There are a million things I would like to do to improve our services, but there seem to be only 24 hours in a day and even Microsoft can't change that, at least I don't think they can, can they? "Travel in a Troubled World" was the headline in a British paper this week. It referred to the terrorist bombings in Indonesia and the conclusion was that people are not going to be stopped from their vacations, but will look for safer places to travel. We came to France for sun and civilization - you can too !! http://rentalsfrance.com/ See you on the terrace with a glass of "primeur" Tony ===== I've just got to say "got!" To my new American language fans... who would have thought that a bit of water and a couple hundred years of being on our own would make us so different? Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== 1. French Property Owners listed on Rentals France... We will soon be sending out our guide for 2003. We hope that this speeds things up during your busy booking months ahead by answering many on-going concerns in one place. There have been several law changes this year and we are determined to keep pace with them and help you along in the process as well. This helps us all and protects your property as well as your guests. Our goal is to provide a successful marketing service to you all, while also providing an excellent service and value to your guests. If your contact details have changed since last season, please contact us at the Pezenas office so you are sure to get your information. Here is to a fun 2003! Dawn Eleanor Ramsay http://rentalsfrance.com/ ===== 2. How Not to Panic You've just arrived, put your children in school, most of your everyday stuff is out of boxes, your electricity is working, you have a flush toilet, and no one has awaken with hyper-thermia...yet. You are doing okay. Then the note comes home from school, "LES POUX ONT ATTAQUES L'ECOLE! SURVEILLEZ BIEN LA TETE DE VOTRE ENFANT!" On top of that you have a 5 year old that turns 6 in a week and wants all her friends from school over for a party, plus... a rabbit, black and white, please.... http://francevoila.com/features/ramsay/nopanic.html ===== Changing Francs Dear Tony, During the latter part of November I will be in Strasbourg and will ask you to arrange for a hotel for me. However, I have some French Francs that I would like to convert to Euro since they are no longer valid. Could you please advise me where in Strasbourg as well as the name of the bank I would be able to make such conversion. Many thanks and best regards, John == Hello John Only the National "Banque de France" will now change the old francs to euro. I cannot get a clear answer if their regional branches will exchange francs. You can contact their Strasbourg branch and ask. STRASBOURG 3 place Broglie B P 410 R 2 67002 STRASBOURG CEDEX 03 88 52 28 40 They have not listed their e-mail address. Hope this helps Tony ===== 3. RESTAURANT REVIEWS Our soon-to-be neighbor and food critic in Nizas, Graham Tigg passed by to see us and we enjoyed some very nice local wine. The result of that discussion and our personal enjoyment of his reviews over the last 5 years, is a soon-to-be-released series of regional restaurant reviews. You can eat in style and stay in style with Graham's recommendations for the food, and France Voila!'s recommendations for everything else! http://francevoila.com/ While we are getting that organized- there really is a design flaw in the 24 hour day, Carole and I visited a favorite you might like (Carole was nice enough to write about it!). http://francevoila.com/features/restos/calamar.html ===== 4. School France is about to take their 1st mid-term break for "Toussaint." This is a good time to evaluate everyone's progress. To request a short talk with the teachers, you can usually ask directly, or send a note with your child. Many foreign students enter school just after this break, having moved to France in September after high-season. It is a good idea to let the school know as early as possible of this plan. Our little school system is getting 4 new English speaking children... a lot for 2 teachers to handle on top of the 27 plus students they already have. I spoke to several families who have moved here within the last 2 years. Their advice was to start just before the mid-term break, even if it is just for a week. The children can see what lies ahead. They get a little taste, have time to get their school supplies sorted out and then start full time after the break. Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== SETTING UP SHOP Hello Tony We have sold our house in England with the intention of moving to St Cyprien. We are leaving in about a months time when we will be going there to find somewhere to rent to live, we are also looking to open a shop in the area (or close by, maybe Canet). Can you tell me what pitfalls we need to be aware of in regard to leasing a retail shop, and if there are many legal implications of doing so. We have had a business here, but feel that we need a better quality of life, and after visiting the area feel we've found the place to do that. Angela == Hello Angela To run any business in France you have to be registered with the local Chambers de Commerce - you will either have to inscribe yourself as an individual at the Chambres des Metiers and do a 5 day course on how to fill in forms, or you will have to form a company and be employed by the company. If you remain self employed you will have to do the same course (you pay for this). You will need a good accountant and they should be able to help you through the paperwork. Hope this helps Tony ===== Good afternoon Tony, We rent our home to several people mostly from Holland and some from UK and Belgium. I designed an international site to get also France people. I am sorry no French people yet have visited. Please visit our site and probably you can tell us what we are doing wrong. Thanks forward, Warm regards Johannes The Netherlands == Hi Johannes There are many reasons why your site will never be highly registered, or even indexed at all by the search engines or listed by the directories. You are on a "virtual server" this means you do not have your own unique address, but share the IP address with many other sites, In your case the header states that there was an error (Error 401 ). Unfortunately we did not detect the transfer page. Without researching this further, it is likely that you are running on a virtual server where the first DNS IP address in your virtual list points to an invalid web directory/site -- the site at the top of the virtual site list does not exist but still has an entry for that IP address. Also you are not using your keywords very well - the top 10 are: holiday- 7= 4.52%, gite- 7= 4.52% , ferienhaus- 6= 3.87%, vakantiehuis- 6= 3.87%, home- 5= 3.23%, cottage-4= 2.58%, dit- 4= 2.58%, veraneo- 4= 2.58%, var- 4= 2.58%, france- 4= 2.58%. While the words holiday, gite and cottage may seem useful - they are not of major importance. France is, but is rated last of your important words. The algorithms for placement are complex and changing all the time - for any site to be kept in a prominent position will take a minimum investment of skilled and experienced time of at least 10 hours a week. Search Engine Optimizers (SEO) charge from 50 to 120 euro an hour for this and it simply is not viable for a single property site. However, the main point is you now have to pay for most important search engines and directories. For a small site this can still run into thousands of euro a year and the cost is rising fast. The Internet is still the most cost effective way to market Internationally, but the cost to be seen by the millions of people using it is in the thousands of euro and it only really works for larger sites. You can consider using our services, there are details at http://francevoila.com/rentals/ There is no cost to you for any of our work in marketing, only a modest fee if you accept our clients. We are very successful. Best wishes Tony ===== 5. WEB-HOSTING AND OTHER SERVICES WE OFFER To get the quality and reliability we demand for our websites, we found the only way was to start our own web-hosting company 23333.com. (33 is Frances' country code!) You will find our hosting packages more than competitive with an unequalled range of reliable, proven services to make your website count. You will be able to enjoy the same service we get for our sites like RentalsFrance.com and 1stVacations.com. We have a range of services which specialize in the needs of home rental sites. * free on-line availability calendar which you can access directly and update * free on-line guest book * free on-line news page to post news and events in your area * free members forum so you can write on-line to other registered owners to share news and knowledge about renting your property * discounts and special offers on other travel services * web design and promotion To learn more about our services, which can be as little as $10 a month, write to Kevin at.. mailto:hosting@23333.com ===== Hi Tony, Your information on Paris Muse was great. Do any museums in Paris offer tours, perhaps at off-hours? We,too, have visited the museums, and have been overwhelmed. We took a tour at the Chantilly art museum but unfortunately it was in French and we didn't get much out of that information. Nancy == Nancy- Many of the museums in Paris do offer tours, but the majority of their programs are, as you may expect, in French. The most regular English tours are given at the Musee d'Orsay. Currently and through the winter they are offering English tours, a general overview of the collection, from Tuesdays through Saturdays at 11:30am (except on Nov 1 and Dec 25). Tickets are 6 euro, in addition to the price of the museum ticket. You are requested to meet at the Visitors Services desk 15 minutes before the tour begins. That information is subject to change, of course, so I would recommend checking in at the Visitors Services desk to verify. Information about other museum tours (and whether they do offer English versions of their tours) can be had at the individual web sites of each museum, normally in the "visites-conferences" section. Ellen Paris Muse You could always book a private tour with Paris Muse! They have focused their offering so they can truly be "experts" at what they do. It would really make a lasting memory for your next trip to Paris. To make a reservation, or find out more before your next trip, please use this link. We do get a little credit for it! Paris Muse - Expert Guides to Paris Museums ===== 6. THE HOW TO BOOK We have had an overwhelming response to our mention of "The How To Book." We look forward to helping you get the information you need to run a successful gite- from setting up a viable web site to registering a French business and protecting your investment. We already offer a lot of free information on our site: http://francevoila.com/rentals/ "HOW TO OWN AND OPERATE A RENTAL PROPERTY IN FRANCE." will provide a handbook based on our own experience working with successful owners, legal "experts" and official research. Since we have already addressed many of the issues, we are well placed to offer such a guide. If you are interested in THE HOW TO BOOK, please email : mailto:howto@francevoila.com We'll reserve you a copy and keep you posted on the progress. ===== STARTING A BUSINESS Tony, I have enjoyed your web sites and comments for some time and am at last in a position to ask something concrete. We are in the process of buying an 19th century house in a small town in the Allier region of the Auvergne. My wife is a qualified teacher in the UK teaching Art & Design in secondary school. I am an engineer by training but have been many things including photographer, software designer, educational administrator and small scale property developer. We are hoping to offer two self contained apartments as part of our conversion of this property and expect to offer Art courses and studio hire as part of a holiday package. I am hopeful that I might earn a little extra by once again practicing my photography. My questions:- Would you be interested in marketing an Auvergne holiday package? Are there obvious pitfalls to avoid when offering self contained apartments as part of your own home? How do the French classify 'un photographe', as a profession or as a craft? Looking forward to your reply. John == John To register as a "photograph" you have to inscribe at the "chambres des metiers" and acquire your Siret number, this allows you to invoice clients. You will also need a "carte de sejour" which also allows you to work (as opposed to a carte de sejour which is just for residency) - there is a slight catch 22 in that one depends on the other. Your Mairie will help and you should apply for the carte de sejour at the same time. You must pay for and book the course at the chambres des metiers to get your Siret number. This all takes up to 6 months. Once you have these papers, you will pay a forfait for your social security etc, this is about 500 euro a month, plus you will pay a fixed tax on turnover, your tax professionelle. This is before you earn anything, these are fixed costs for a 2 year period. I did this myself and I am officially a "photographe" in France (I did this as it is the only real qualification I had as a business, but at no time did anyone ask me for diplomas etc, so I could have been just about anything) - it is not classified as a profession. Once you have you papers and a carte de sejour that allows you to work in any professional activity, you can look for work - the bad news is that there isn't any. You can let vacation accommodation in your own home with little problem and some simple tax declarations. You cannot let other peoples' property without being a registered immobilier - (very expensive and difficult). The same rules apply if you plan to offer vacation courses here in art or photography as a resident. Hope this helps Tony ===== 7. Discounts and Coupons from us As we are firming up our 2003 agreements with property owners, we are finding that a few of the properties we are listing have different prices on some other sites. In earlier newsletters I explain some ways you can search for other listings for a property. I said then and repeat it now. WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD What I mean is that if you find any property rental we are showing on any of our sites listed at a lower price somewhere else, we will make sure you get that property at the best price available. Not only that, we will give you a voucher to use to reduce the cost even more. As a starter we are offering everyone who subscribes a free coupon. If you have not claimed yours, claim it now (only one per e-mail/surface-mail address) http://rentalsfrance.com/coupon/ The database will tell me if you are trying to print out more than one- so no cheating. Some agencies and owners we deal may offer discounts from time to time. We will be adding a special link on their property pages to instantly show special offers. ===== LONG TERM VISAS AND BANKRUPTCY Hello Tony, I recently learned in "Living and Working in France: A survival Handbook" by David Hampshire that to receive a long-stay visa one has to have an affidavit stating that bankruptcy has never been filed. How true is this? Thank you, Colleen == Hello Colleen- The answer to this depends on your nationality. I am American and recently went through the long-stay visa process. Americans do have to state whether or not you have declared bankruptcy, but there is a time period to which it applies. I can't remember what it is. (And, I was very bad and didn't keep a copy of the form!) Don't assume that because you have declared a bankruptcy that you won't be admitted to France. If you are solvent now, and can prove that you can support yourself during your intended length of stay, you shouldn't have a problem. The goal is to keep out "free-loaders." Do remember that you will have to prove your income again once you are in France to get your carte de sejour! No one informed me of this until I picked up my visa at the consulate! I then scrambled the day before I left to get the papers ready. If you have a concern, from my experience, you should simply ask the consulate. I developed a good relationship with the head of the Visa section in Los Angeles as she was quite intrigued by what I planned to do here in France. I found the consulate easy to contact via email- though they usually replied by letter. Let us know if I can help further. Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== 8. POOL UPDATE We've been searching for information on the Pool Protection law. So far, we've turned up helpful people who have as little information as we do. We are putting together a listing of pool professionals around France, and are striving to get an interpretation of the law direct from the commission establishing the rules. The eventual publication of the guidelines is sure to be published by AFNOR, but has not been put in place yet. At this point, it is certain that few properties will comply by January. We are still aiming to have all our properties compliant before renting them for the 2003 season. You can see what we have so far at: http://francevoila.com/features/ramsay/pools2.html ===== POOL ALTERNATIVES Dawn, Do you by any chance have the exact law number re the fencing of pools. If so could you let me have it so I can download the law from the official site. Understood from pool people at the Montpellier show that there is more than one way of handling the requirements. Regards John == John There are numerous types of fences that can be used to enclose your pool. In addition, I am hearing rumor that certain covers also qualify as well as the infrared system we mentioned in the last newsletter. However, I have not been able to get confirmation of that from any reliable source. Laws are commonly referred to according to the name of the person who introduced it and then the date when it took affect. This law was introduced by: Sénateur RAFFARIN. It was passed in the summer of 2002. I have consulted the official website at: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/ . And can not find any reference- nor the numbers they use. I am assured by a member of the AFNOR commission, that as of October 10, the report, and therefore the new official standards have not been established. We are waiting for further news, and will publish every means of compliance we can find as soon as we are assured of their validity. If you find a text that could enlighten us, I'd welcome any information. Dawn ===== 9. Nizas - wood piles, chestnuts and sausages We have started using our log pile on the fire, six ton of wood in the back yard will keep us through until March (we hope). To keep our supply ready we usually get another load in January which will serve us for next winter. In our first year here I went out in the pick-up and "gathered" wood - I found it was better and cheaper to have good oak delivered - I am not a pioneer. We had our first bottle of the primeur wine last week - ten days old and tastes (as usual) of bananas - I will never get tired of the novelty of drinking the undrinkable for a few days each year. Our Nizas wine festival is on Halloween - so it should be an very interesting experience. The tradition is to miss most of the long speeches and get there for the serious business of tasting the wines and eating the sausage. The Nizas sausage is one long coil cooked over an open wood fire - the feast is finished with as many roast chestnuts you can eat and there is music and dancing until morning. I have nearly recovered from the four days of stretching and yoga I did with Anne Soulet - she is a great teacher although I was an impossible student. Anne will be running some courses next year here in the South of France so book up early if you want to see me at my worst. I simply love the Canal du Midi, the memories of our weekend on the Berendina are still a warm glow, do look at our rebuilt site at http://frenchcanalvacations.com/ Four brand new boats for next year. Now for a glass of wine and some chestnuts A Bientot Tony ===== Tony, Our house is never rented out, do we still have to comply with the new pool rules? Thanks in anticipation, Janet == Janet- Yes, in fact, the law does apply to all privately owned pools, for "usage collective" or "usage privee." We are stressing the law to owners of rental properties and their potential clients due to their increased risk. Best wishes on your new building project! Keep a look out as we begin exploring different ways of compliance. Thank you, Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== We love to receive your letters and comments and we really try to answer all mail but it does get lost, filtered or vanishes somewhere. (Occasionally, it turns up again with the unmatched socks in the laundry basket) So, if you write and don't hear from me, please write again. mailto:tony@nizas.com |