Warn me about the downside of moving to France

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martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »


Webdoc
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Post by Webdoc »

martyn94 wrote:Corinna’s position is, so far, entirely hypothetical:
One significant hypothetical aspect is that she doesn't have experience of living here and doesn't know if she'd like it.

The members of this forum are, almost by definition, the select bunch who love it here.

Although the financial aspects are far from trivial I would compare it to parenthood. There is absolutely no financial argument in favour of having children but those who do (and suffer the loss of money and independence that parenthood brings) would, almost universally, say that it's the best thing they ever did.

I rather feel that renting for a year might be the answer and, if like me, they fall in love with the place they are in a good position to find their forever-home.
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russell
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Post by russell »

You could do worse than to download Blevins Franks' French Tax Guide:

https://www.blevinsfranks.com/download/tax-guides

Russell
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jethro
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Post by jethro »

This is two years old, but largely still relevant.

http://www.englishinformerinfrance.com/ ... e-Tax-2015
an' the wun' cried Mary.
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Post by jethro »

This is two years old, but still largely relevant.

http://www.englishinformerinfrance.com/ ... e-Tax-2015
an' the wun' cried Mary.
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Post by jethro »

As is this, but it requires a modicum of French. Basically, it says that if you have a Form S1, which means that ultimately Britain pays your medical expenses, you don't have to pay the whole Social Charge, which Macron has increased and put largely on the backs of the wealthy retired people.

http://leparticulier.lefigaro.fr/jcms/p ... -de-la-csg
an' the wun' cried Mary.
martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

jethro wrote:As is this, but it requires a modicum of French. Basically, it says that if you have a Form S1, which means that ultimately Britain pays your medical expenses, you don't have to pay the whole Social Charge, which Macron has increased and put largely on the backs of the wealthy retired people.

http://leparticulier.lefigaro.fr/jcms/p ... -de-la-csg
This and your earlier post are well meant, but the links they pointed to contain fairly random bits of information. The piece about tax formalities is not particularly useful to someone not yet living here (though the possibility of double taxation relief claims may or may not be relevant to them in future). And the stuff about CSG even less so: it seems impossible to believe that Corinna and her husband have any past CSG to claim back, and we have no particular reason to think that they will have any significant income eligible for CSG exemption in the future.

I think that this reinforces Allan’s point about not relying on snippets of information from the internet: even if they are accurate, and you interpret them correctly, they do not necessarily give a complete picture for you. For us to give useful advice, Corinna would have to give us the most exhaustive details of her and her husband’s income and finances. Even if she were mad enough to give it, I don’t want to have it. And if I did have it, my advice would be lousy anyway, especially when it raised issues falling outside my own very simple affairs. This is a job for professionals.
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Post by NigelS »

Hi everyone, so much good information - I thank you all VERY much!!

Basically, the address Alan gave us has hit the jackpot - for 100 Euros we can get a rough tax calculatiion and when we move these people can help us register the business and do all sorts of wonderful things for us. Their fees seem very reasonable.

Today we are in the Ariege and tomorrow we will be spending 2 days in the P.O. I have been dozens of times in France throughout my life and now I am looking at the country through the lenses of our new home. I am liking it!!

We got lost in the woods today and arrived wet and cold in a dark Sieux. We went into a cafe asking for a number for a taxi. The landlord immediately offered to drive us to our car that was 3 km away. So much kindness! A good omen?
Webdoc
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Post by Webdoc »

Sorry to be a bore and repeat myself but there's a huge premium weather-wise of being near the Med, especially in the winter.

There's a good web page here to compare the weather of two towns - try Foix and Ceret:

http://www.meteofrance.com/climat/comparateur
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Post by Florence »

I suppose it´s OK if you´ve got the money to pay a company to do all that for you. When we can here, there were no forums or anything. I found it quite simple to register my husband´s micro, the tax office were very helpfull and all the other paperwork URSAFF, etc was quite straightforward. I had to do a 4 day course at the chambre de metiers where they explained how to run a business in France with lots of advice on what to do and what not to do.
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Post by Richard and Sharon »

Webdoc is bang on about the weather by the Med, it was one of the priorites for us. Be careful of the weather comparison site, it is a bit "broad brush", for example the beach resort of Ageles and the Ski resort of Mont Louis both use Perpignan weather stats.
Not much I can contribute here in comparison to you long termers. Good job!
I am in England today (back in PO on Wednesday) and yesterday enjoyed the simple pleasure of cheese beano made with extra mature cheddar melted over Heinz beans on doorstep toast. Just as well the choice of food in french shops is fantastic, especially fresh produce, fish, cheeses and bread, because a proper cheese beano would cost way over its worth to make in France.
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martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

I don’t if it’s my browser, or the way this site works, but long links seem to get truncated. The link in my post above ends “Béarâ€￾ not “Béâ€￾.

You may not be bothered anyway: but it may be the nearest weather station to Argèles, if you are interested in there.
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Richard and Sharon
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Post by Richard and Sharon »

Ha ha, I was being a bit tongue in cheek about the cheese beano, but thanks for the tips, it could be useful in a moment of need!

Re the weather, I was referring to the link to the "comparateur" posted by Webdoc.

For a clothing sanity check before venturing out, I just type "weather" and the place into google, that gives me a simple and fairly accurate 7 day forcast with sun/cloud, wind and prcipiatation. Of course there are many other weather sites. An interesting one that I like for accuracy and detail is windguru.cz Not just for the Czech Republic, its global. It facilitates customised forcasts for Cap Bear or any other spot that you care to specify on their map.
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Post by Richard and Sharon »

Yerk! Heinz tinned spagetti. I fully agree, dreadful stuff. I cringed when overhearing a woman in my local supermarket asking a stacker where she could find tinned spagetti bolognaise. Why would you? She must have been planning to punish somebody or deter her kids friends from ever coming round to tea again!
martyn94
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Richard and Sharon wrote:Yerk! Heinz tinned spagetti. I fully agree, dreadful stuff. I cringed when overhearing a woman in my local supermarket asking a stacker where she could find tinned spagetti bolognaise. Why would you? She must have been planning to punish somebody or deter her kids friends from ever coming round to tea again!
I guess I agree, if it exists. But there are infinite degrees of snobbery and one-upmanship between tinned spag bol and tagliatelle al ragu. Some of the intermediate stages can be OK, if you don’t come from Bologna. At the worst, they take you back to your youth.

And some tinned foods which might seem superficially similar can be not too bad: decent tinned cassoulet for example. It’s a shame that it rarely gets cold enough round here (and I exert myself enough) to make me think I deserve it.
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Post by Richard and Sharon »

Agreed, and I am too bothered if it exists or not. Maybe that makes me a snob, but spag bol is student fodder and I confess to being happy to eat it when my daughter cooked it for me in her uni digs, but when seen on a Bologna menu, we walk on by, clearly catering to tourists!
As for tinned cassoulet, tres bon! It is a different beast altogether. We have one on standby now, for tomorrow when we arrive from the UK on the train from the airport, too late to buy anything fresh.
I do respect the French for their general non acceptance of mediocre food. This started some 40 years ago when my father was a fisherman in Cornwall and all the monkfish, spider crabs, gurnard and any other "exotic" fish you dont get in your average chippy, got exported to France because the English would not buy it. Because the price was so low to him, we had to eat good fish all the time!
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Post by martyn94 »

Richard and Sharon wrote:Agreed, and I am too bothered if it exists or not. Maybe that makes me a snob, but spag bol is student fodder and I confess to being happy to eat it when my daughter cooked it for me in her uni digs, but when seen on a Bologna menu, we walk on by, clearly catering to tourists!
As for tinned cassoulet, tres bon! It is a different beast altogether. We have one on standby now, for tomorrow when we arrive from the UK on the train from the airport, too late to buy anything fresh.
I do respect the French for their general non acceptance of mediocre food. This started some 40 years ago when my father was a fisherman in Cornwall and all the monkfish, spider crabs, gurnard and any other "exotic" fish you dont get in your average chippy, got exported to France because the English would not buy it. Because the price was so low to him, we had to eat good fish all the time!
I stopped in Castelnaudary a few years ago while biking down the Canal du Midi. Cassoulet is not really what I want on a warm day in late June, but it seems to be essentially compulsory there, particularly on a Sunday evening. I don’t know whether mine came out of a tin, but they should have left it in the microwave a bit longer. Apart from that, a pleasant spot. And it’s a pleasant bike ride, at least until they cut all the trees down.

I used to go in the same pub, after work, as the humble fisherfolk in Bangor (Gwynedd, not NI). A couple of times I got big fat monkfish for the price of a pint. I think restaurants had woken up to them by then (it used to be said that they sold them as scampi), but they hadn’t caught enough to make up a box. And a lovely salmon trout once (or sewin, as they call them round there).
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Post by martyn94 »

Richard and Sharon wrote:Agreed, and I am too bothered if it exists or not. Maybe that makes me a snob, but spag bol is student fodder and I confess to being happy to eat it when my daughter cooked it for me in her uni digs, but when seen on a Bologna menu, we walk on by, clearly catering to tourists!
I do like ragu (and Bologna), but there’s more than enough fuss made about it: you must/absolutely must not use pork/beef/chicken livers/garlic/tomato paste/milk/cream/red wine/white wine.
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Post by Richard and Sharon »

It amuses me how precious people get about their regional dishes. Ragu, Paella, Cassoulet or Pasties. Cassoulet is claimed by Castelnaudary, Toulouse and probably several other places, each was the first and all the others are fake. Surely these ancient concoctions must have been variable depending on what was available on the day. That remains my excuse for rarely following a recipe with any diligence. Satisfaction comes from breaking the rules and enjoying the results. The canned version sufficed when we got in just after 10 last night, and the temperature in the empty house justified it.
We love most things Italian. and have spent a fair amount of time there. In fact we looking to buy in Italy before we settled on PO. No regrets though.
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