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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila - Newsletter #68
Pezenas - France - October 30, 2003 To see this newsletter on-line http://francevoila.com/archives/68.html 1. Tour de France 2003 2. Halloween 3. Restaurant Reviews 4. Dwindling 5. Web Hosting and other services 6. The How to Book For Rental Properties in France 7. Discounts and Coupons from Us 8. International Finance 9. Pools- law officially adopted and enforcement dates set 10. Nizas Ray at the Poisson Fa 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. ===== http://rentalsfrance.com/ ===== Word of the week! Les Citrouilles - Pumpkins. I've decided it is one of the most difficult for the non-French mouth to pronounce...(see/troo/ee)...and one of the most fun. Some people have told me that les citrouilles are mostly grown for the pigs here. Capitalistic farmers have realized that October turns this pig food into big business, they go for about 3 Euros for a basket ball sized fruit (yes, I'm told it is a fruit). Some farmers grow them for fun, others leave them to rot in the field for mulch. I just think they are great gorgeous gourds! Happy Halloween! Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== 1. Tour de France... 2003 is the 100th Anniversary of the Tour de France. This year's race will follow the original route of the 1st race in 1903. The Tour committee has unveiled a special design for this year's medal and the French post office will be issuing a special stamp to commemorate the event. For all of you who have anxiously been awaiting the course announcement, you can find it and other Tour news by following this link. http://www.letour.fr/2003/presentationus/index.html Accommodations will be at a premium, so we encourage you to book a comfy home early. On our site, homes along the route will have a special Tour De France logo on their listing. The Logos will be shown starting December 1st 2002 and if you confirm your reservation by 25% deposit between Dec. 1- Dec. 31, 2002 you will get a nice gift on your arrival at your vacation home in July. We are also preparing a special Tour de France pack for your stay. Get the "Tips and Tricks of the Tour de France" from us at FranceVoila! Start perusing your home choices now: http://rentalsfrance.com/ ===== BOATING HOLIDAYS Hello Tony I am hoping to have a boating holiday on the canal du midi during the summer of 2003. I would appreciate any brochures you can send me. Andy == Hello Andy We do not have a printed brochure - we find they are out of date as soon as they are printed, plus it puts up the cost of our offers. We've just added new boats to our site which would have been impossible with a brochure. http://frenchcanalvacations.com/ Do check regularly for any special offers or new boats best wishes Tony ===== SPRING AND SUMMER ON THE CANAL DU MIDI Did you know you could rent a fully equipped, new, boat and cruise the Canal Du Midi for about the same price as a cottage? The Canal is the sunniest waterway in France, so choose a spring sail for seasonal savings. Navigating the locks guarantees not just relaxation, but good fun too. Dock the boat and stroll the nearby village streets. Or take a bike ride through town. On board, lounge in the French sun or retire to the cool shade of a private cabin. Prepare your own meals in your fully-equipped kitchen or try out some of your hosts recommendations along the route. You can choose boats to accommodate up to 12! And, for a truly luxury experience, hire your own captain to pilot you along. Better yet, hire a gourmet chef-captain for a once in a lifetime cruise! http://frenchcanalvacations.com/ ===== 2. Halloween in France It wasn't long ago that Halloween was just a strange American tradition (though, I am informed that it's roots are Irish). Now, French stores feature sound-effect CDs, the TV is chock full of special candy advertisements (my favorite features tap-dancing, top-hat-sporting skeletons), and even the supermarket has displays of cheap witch hats complete with fake hair. Several relatively new families here in the Charente have decided to host a Ghoulish open house. After nearly 2 years of renovation work, the old school no longer is the town eyesore. My contribution to the party was to design the invitations in English and French, and find pumpkins. Despite my poor vocabulary in the area of costumes, party games and prizes, the invitations are being well received. We expect about 100 guests and are now worried about parking. Halloween night should see our village population triple! And, I scored big at a town meeting and located "les citrouilles." Since we are trying for a grand impression, we needed more pumpkins than our budget (zero) could afford from the market. It turns out the adjoint-mayor had a field full of "citrouilles" that he didn't know what to do with. His wife told me privately that he had good fun scattering the seeds last spring and never expected them to grow. My daughter and I went to claim the donation and found a tractor load full of HUGE citrouilles. My car was sagging in the back by the time I got them loaded and 2 were so large that I couldn't lift them. The farmer's son kindly turned up with those an hour later on the tractor! I was carving two of the little pumpkins for the kids when he arrived. Jack-o-lanterns are still quite a novelty here. I've been asked several times whether there is a special technique for scooping out what my daughter and I call the "pumpkin brains." I've never been considered talented a pumpkin carving, but years of practice in the US has I guess put me ahead of my French and English counterparts. I did win the Girl Scout pumpkin carving contest one year. But my older sister helped me. We constructed Cinderella's carriage from pumpkin pieces assembled with hundreds of toothpicks. I was 9 and I've never won a title since! Maybe I'm a late bloomer. Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== Tony, We rented a house in St. Maximin, next to Uzes for 3 weeks in Sept. As you will recall there were terrible floods. The house we rented had a roof that leaked, the caretaker of the house told us he had informed the owners of the leaks before we rented. Do you have discloser laws in France? In other words, do the owners have to tell you of problems with their house before you rent from them? Here in the States you have to disclose, so that it would be up to the tenants to rent or not to rent. Thanks in advance, Marilyn == Hello Marilyn The law (I understand, I am not a lawyer) is very simple - if you did not receive what you paid for - you can claim you money back plus you can now claim compensation. A natural disaster is one thing, but if you have proof that the roof leaked before you arrived and that this was a known problem, then the owner and the agent are acting illegally. There are some articles with links to the relevant authorities you can complain to at... http://francevoila.com/rentals/ Hope this helps (rent from us next time :) from... http://rentalsfrance.com/ Tony ===== We are always trying to offer more and better services to the visitors of FranceVoila! and Rentals France. Part of that is expanding our offers and facilitating various arrival and departure days. BandB's or Chambres d'Hotes make excellent fill gaps for partial week stays and are quite nice all on their own! They allow for mid-week arrival and are excellent for 2-4 nights in one place. We are beginning to show some BandBs on our rental pages, however, we would like to expand our listings and booking services. Do you know a great BandB? Tell us about it! If you have a French BandB, consider using our web-hosting services. ===== 3. RESTAURANT REVIEWS Our soon-to-be neighbor and food critic in Nizas, Graham Tigg has now partnered with us to share his collections of reviews with our readers. We are now preparing 5 regional restaurant guides. The first edition will be for Languedoc - to be released as a printable E-book on November 15, 2002! ===== Tony- I took your advice and leased a car from Kemwel. They did everything they said they woud do and we got the car we wanted at a good savings I might add. Thanks for such a quality tip. It made things nice. Next trip we'll talk to you about a Midi barge trip. Sincerely, Terry and Ute Missouri, USA == Thank you Terry and Ute Hope to see you next trip Tony ===== If you use the car rental links from our site you get the best prices available and also help support us- They don't pay us much, but every little bit helps. http://rentalsfrance.com/carhire/ ===== 4. Dwindling Precious things are disappearing from the French countryside. There is an eery quiet in the stone courtyards. Bells ring, but no one stirs. The wind is often the loudest sound during lunchtime in the country village square. In the early evening, tractors rush down the lanes without fear of surprises. All the playful pranks of yesteryear seem to be suspended. The old ones remember teeming school yards full of children. Three classrooms filled to the brim with a total of 90 students. Those were the days. Every farm family had 5 or 6 children. Now the school has rented out the teacher's quarters to a young family, at least they have a child (one). The school sees about 60 children each day, but most are just in transit to a nearby village. Only 27 attend class in our village now. The village proper has only 50 residents- there are a few more scattered on surrounding farms. Most are old. The young families only have one or two children each. There are no properties left here for sale. The only "unowned" properties are subject to inheritance issues and no one really knows who they belong to. You'd never know that by looking at the school yard or the village streets. It seems that children are dwindling these days. Country schools are being consolidated, and children have longer and longer rides on the bus to school- not that it can compare to the 45 minute commute to school my daughter had in Los Angeles. If you are coming to France, plan on leaving something behind. Build a legacy, the best of all.... Teach your children to appreciate the countryside. After all, as adults, so many of us return seeking its' pleasures. Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== CHAMBRES D'HOTES Hi Tony Thank you for your fantastic news letters, we are looking forward to the next one already!! We have bought a 19th Century maison de maitre in Herault and would like to move out there full time and run a chambre d'hote. We would have 5 letting bedrooms and are wondering if you can advise us on any regulations controlling this and the tax implications also. We aren't fluent in French (yet) and would appreciate any English translations of the rules!! Thank you for your help Gill and Simon == Hello Gill and Simon Sounds like you will be close neighbours soon. Call in to Nizas when you are here. A chambre d'hote is very specific and has a special tax and income declaration. You have to register at the local department and get an "agrement" certificate. It has to be in you own property and you have to supply a meal, usually breakfast. The maximum is 15 people, otherwise you are a hotel with much stricter regulations. You pay an occupation tax for each person each night plus a local tourism tax, these are from 80 cents per person to 2 Euros per person depending on which are applicable. To operate any business in France you need to have a carte de sejour and be registered at the Chambres des Metiers and the chambre de commerce - there is a slight catch 22 here as you can't get one without the other, but your Mairie will usually help and you do them all at the same time. Other taxes you must pay are a tax CSG, which is a turnover tax on the revenue, local property taxes (tax fonciere and tax d'habitation), tax professional on your personal income and (if anything is left) income tax. A web site which may help is... http://www.impots.gouv.fr/ this is the page about the local tax http://www.impots.gouv.fr/taxe_fonciere_2002.htm Working in France, you will need to be fluent in French - there are many forms and you will require certified translations of everything. Hope this helps Tony ===== ADIEU TO A CYBER-FRIEND Hi Tony, I am writing in behalf of Urie, he was the one who subscribed to your newsletter in the hope that he'll still be able to travel overseas from home(Israel) but unfortunately his health declined rapidly. He just passed away 10 days ago. I was his caregiver and secretary & trying to tie loose ends for his wife. Anyway, she wants me to stop the subscription as she's not familiar with the workings of the computer & internet. But thank you very much for all you efforts. Urie liked checking your news during his better days. All the best, Rachel == France is a magical place for so many people all over the world. All of us working at France Voila! and Rentals France enjoy it for all its wonder and faults. Vive la France! May you continue to have this effect on the world. All of us. ===== 5. WEB-HOSTING AND OTHER SERVICES WE OFFER To get the quality and reliability we demand for our websites, wefound 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 anunequalled range of reliable, proven services to make your websitecount. You will be able to enjoy the same service we get for oursites like RentalsFrance.com and 1stVacations.com. We have a range of services which specialize in the needs of homerental sites. * free on-line availability calendar which you canaccess directly and update * free on-line guest book * free on-linenews page to post news and events in your area * free members forum soyou can write on-line to other registered owners to share news andknowledge 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 ===== SPAM AND VIRUSES Hello Tony There are as you probably know "web-bots" that harvest e-mail addresses from anyone with a web site so quite how to stop this I do not know. I also get inundated with all sorts of offers from naughty boys and girls as well as the usual "bargain buys" and virus laced e-mails and have found a useful little program that certainly cures some of it. Program is called "Mailwasher" web site is www.mailwasher.net. The program is shareware/freeware - the writer asking for a small payment if the program proves useful. Well worth a try The program allows you to access your mail on the ISP server before downloading it and send a "bounce" messageindicating that your address is invalid as well as deleting the message. Hope this helps Chris == Thank you Chris. We do use Mailwasher (as well as several other screening products) - the latest version is faster but has a few bugs. I still have to cope with thousands of virus and spam mails every week although 90% of our mail is filtered out. Best wishes Tony ===== 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. We've even included details such as dishes to provide and the pluses and minuses of different marketing techniques. We already offer a lot of free information on our site: http://francevoila.com/rentals/ 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. ===== SEASONS Dear Tony, I am probably blind, but can't find a definition by date of high, mid & low season. Would appreciate this. Many thanks, Gwen. == Hello Gwen- The problem we have is that all owners have different ideas about the high and low seasons and the dates to which these apply - we are changing this to simply indicate the maximum and minimum prices and then to work to get the best deal for everyone. In France the highest prices are in July and August, and the lowest prices in February, March and November. Some regions have slightly different seasons, and Paris can have lower summer prices and higher winter prices. Some owners have as many as ten different price bands, so we have to quote the best price at the time when we are asked - some properties also give special discounts at different times of the year, again we try to get everyone the best deal at the time. Hope this helps, please be assured we always look for the best deal for you. 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 printing 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. ===== 8. International Finance We are privileged to add international Finance articles to your weekly editions of this newsletter. We find that many of you love France, but have interests all over the world. Blevins Franks International provides this information. It will be posted and regularly updated at: http://francevoila.com/finance/ Since this is the Halloween edition, and I'm told it was originally Irish- the article this week is "The Luck of the Irish" by Bill Blevins. It features the international funds industry in Ireland. - Enjoy! ===== 9. POOL UPDATE Thanks go to John, one of our readers who spotted the law adoption on the senate web site this last week and forwarded us the information. In the process, I learned where to go to sort out all sorts or debates that we get involved in. If you read French, and love politics- you may enjoy searching through the site too. http://www.senat.fr/ We've got good and bad news on the Pool Safety Regulations. Good news: The law put forward by Senator Raffarin in July 2002 was officially adopted without major amendments from the original version on October 1, 2002. Enforcement has been specified using existing penal codes, which means that the police (Gendarmes) are responsible for enforcement. Bad news: The deadlines for compliance have been pushed back and they apply differently to private pools for collective use (gites, chambres d'hotes) and purely private (family) pools. For the moment, above ground pools are not included in the law, nor are indoor pools. Purely Private Pools: Starting January 1, 2004, all new pool installations must specify an approved security system on the building permit (declaration des travaux). Pools installed prior to January 1, 2004 must retro-fit a security system by January 1, 2006. Pools in Seasonal Rentals: Regardless of the original installation date, if your home is rented out as a seasonal rental you must install approved security prior to January 1, 2004. There are multiple penalties applying to this- all the way up to a 45,000 Euro fine! We are in contact with a member of the AFNOR committee responsible for "approving" the security systems. He assures us he will notify us of the report as soon as it is finalized. There will certainly be different systems approved. Most likely, they will range from basic fences of a specified height to safety covers and high-tech motion sensors. The law included stipulation that the technical requirement of declaring which system is to be used on the building permit (declaration des travaux), will be defined with in 3 months of the bill passage- therefore, by January 1, 2003, we should have firm clarification on which systems make the grade. Dawn Eleanor Ramsay ===== MASSAGE THERAPY IN FRANCE Dear Tony, I love your website and your enthusiasm in answering questions. I am interested in spending some time in Paris or other parts of France and would like to teach yoga and/or do massage therapy. I have been practicing in the US for over 20 years. Any suggestions as to where I might start and if this is actually possible??? I am thinking about three months to really get a feel as to whether I would like to stay longer. I do speak French fairly well and need a refresher course. Look forward to hearing from you Sincerely, Marilyn == Hello Marilyn, You can visit France and you could bring friends with you for a course. They could pay you in the US and it would be totally unofficial here. You could not advertise or teach in France without being registered and resident yourself. This is a lot of paperwork, money and time, but is essential. To register as a yoga teacher you have to inscribe at the "chambres des metiers" and acquire you 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 this. One depends on the other. Your Mairie will help and you should apply for the carte de sejour at the same time. You must also 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 euros a month, plus you will pay a fixed tax on turnover, your tax professionelle. This is before you earn anything, and 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 have as a business, but at no time did anyone ask me for diplomas etc, so I could have 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 or clients. Hope this helps best wishes Tony **Can I also add, that if you'd like to visit the Charente to test the idea out, I and all my friends would love to be guinea pigs? - Dawn ===== 10. Nizas- Ray at the Poisson Fa I have written about Ray Trop (retro?) and his trip on Dobbin (Black - his white Camargue pony) from Pezenas to Geneva to raise money for autistic people - The voyage finally ended last Saturday at his Ranch-house/Club/Bar/Cabin/Theatre/Shack/Home - whatever - known as the Poisson Fa (don't ask me what it means, nobody knows) The strange place is miles from anywhere in the middle of the Garrigue, the bushy scrub land of this region, and is a perfect place for jazz musicians to gather and play. Terry Thompson from my village of Nizas was playing for the first time this year, you can read a little about Terry at... http://nizas.com/terry/ and Ray at... http://www.black-et-ray.org/entryuk.html The trip raised over 5,000 euro for the charity - another wonderful outcome from this "last big adventure" as Ray describes the trip was that the publicity reunited him with his daughter who he had not seen for over 30 years and the discovery of three grandchildren he did not know existed. Now for the Nizas wine festival on halloween this year - spooky.. A Bientot Tony ===== GAS HEATERS Hi Tony, Thanks for your interesting newsletter. I am hoping to complete on house in the Vendee soon and have a few questions for you or your readers. 1) Will my UK bought Calor Gas heater work with French bottled gas? They seem to have different types or brand names of gas (gaz). 2) Is there a TV licence or equivalent in France? 3) Can you legally receive English Satellite TV broadcasts in France, i.e. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5? 4) Are you allowed to gather wood from forests etc. for your wood burning fires? Thanks again, Stephen == Hi Stephen- Quick answers 1. Bottled gas is either butane or propane - portable gas heaters are Butane - there are many suppliers and bottle sizes - most bottles are a simple screw fitting, some smaller bottles have a snap fitting and there are several proprietary fittings. Gas heaters are not expensive in France. You have to buy the adaptor for the bottles in France, no UK fittings work in France. 2. Yes you must have a licence for a TV (about 150 euro) severe penalties if you do not. UK sets do not work for French channels, France is on Secam standard, most French sets are dual or tri standard. If you buy a set in France you will be registered as a set owner. 3. It is illegal to receive a UK satellite transmission in France - you can only get the cards etc from a UK address and this is illegal in the UK I believe, however, many people have UK satellite TV in France although it is illegal. 4. If you have permission from the landowner you can gather wood - all forests are owned by someone - you are free to walk, but not to take anything without permission - it is much cheaper, simpler and better quality to have oak delivered, it costs us 45 euro a tonne. Hope this helps Tony |