We are actively adding lots of new articles about living / moving or buying in France on the Articles section of 1st for French Property. Here are some of the latest articles:

Famous Places in France

Here is our selection of the most famous places in France. Enjoy! ­ ­ 1. Fontainebleau Forest and Castle Fontainebleau is renowned for the large and scenic forest of Fontainebleau, a favourite weekend ….

Full article >> Famous Places in France

Plan Cadastral or Cadastre Plans

Plan Cadastral The Plan cadastral is the French equivalent of the UK’s land registry where all departmental areas in France are sliced up into numbered plots. It is very important when you buy a property in France. Your properties’s boundaries are identified by the place name ‘lieudit ….

Full article >> Plan Cadastral or Cadastre Plans

French Names Depict Creativity

­Names are used to identify the ethnicity and religious background of an individual. Many French names are not limited to France, but have been adopted by almost all the citizens of the 29 countries in the Franco Phone Zone. Surprisingly, a majority of common French Names are similar to English n ….

Full article >> French Names Depict Creativity

French Bread Recipe – Feast Yourself

­What do you associate with France? Well, near the top of my list is French Bread, and hence my interest in French Bread recipes! French Bread Introduction A classic French bread is made of white wheat flour with a crunchy crust. By making use of sour ….

Full article >> French Bread Recipe – Feast Yourself

France 2 and other French TV Channels

France 2 France 2 was established on 1967 and is a French public national channel. Unlike the BBC it raises revenue by accepting advertising (although is likely to be phased out under new laws) and a television licence fee. The analog signal uses SECAM and is not com ….

Full article >> France 2 and other French TV Channels

Use Google France in UK

Want to search Google.fr from the UK – simple to use plugin allows you to get Google France search results. Article describes how to install the plugin in the Chrome and Firefox browser ….

Full article >> Search Google France

If there’s anywhere I wanted to buy a holiday home, it’s the Auvergne region. Mountainous, verdant, laid back. My place of choice was the super-quaint village of Saint Bonnet de Montauroux in the Chaperoux Valley, about an hour’s drive from Le Puy-en-Velay.

At 8am, at 12pm and at 6pm, the village bells ring out majestically around the tranquil valley, the ebb and flow of the Chaperoux River carves itself a path out of the valley floor, and all is well with the world. I love this place, and that’s where I decided to invest my money in my dream French property.

However, I was foolish in that when I purchased a once derelict hotel in the valley, while I did think to use a travel insurance compare site to get my annual policy, I didn’t look into a home insurance compare site. Very strange – and upon hindsight, an absolutely foolish to have overlooked.

In fact, I didn’t actually look into buildings insurance at all, and found that when I came back to the house on one of my early monthly visits to check on the place and make my restoration plans, part of the roof had, since my last visit only weeks earlier, caved in.

Now it wasn’t a huge hole, but it was Winter, and the rain had penetrated not only the old wood in the roof, but the floorboards and walls below, some of the materials I had stored there – basically, this relatively small hole made an absolute wreck of my already-flagging old property.

And (as I’ve since found) while the people in the village are friendly and really look out for one another and their properties while the absentee owners are out of town, it was Winter, and not a soul could be found, so no one was there to see the disaster unfurl or, more importantly, try and get in touch to alert me.

So my advice, if you’re going to buy property anywhere in France, get yourself a decent buildings insurance policy as soon as the property’s been signed over to you. You’ll save yourself an awful lot of time, money and heartache – it’s just not worth it!

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Are you buying property in France? How is your French? Consider this, you are never too old for a French immersion program! At 58 I was the oldest in my class this summer and not for one minute did I feel the age difference. The immersion program to which I refer is in Angers France at the Catholic University of the West (UCO for short).

The first day, everyone took a placement test and then we were taken on a walking tour of Angers. We ended up at the Jean Lurçat Museum where the mayor welcomed all 164 of us with wine and cookies. There were people from all walks of life taking classes while I was there in July. We had the traditional students from various universities world-wide, nuns from a teaching convent in Brittany, CEOs from industry and people like me who wanted to strengthen their command of the language. Our abilities ranged from perfectly fluent in terms of speaking but in need of written improvement all the way down to knowing nothing. We had classes and listening labs every day and then on Saturdays we took grand excursions to the chateaux, D-Day battlefields and cemeteries, Mont St Michel and others.

I opted to live with a family so that I would have daily practice “at home” with my French family and absolutely loved my “French mere”. Besides helping me with my homework she and I also got to talk about French recipes and I came home with a wonderful little collection.

I enjoyed this program so much and feel like I learned so much that I am planning to return this summer. UCO is not the only immersion program in France so I highly encourage you to check out everything that is available out there. You won’t regret taking this step to improving your French if you plan on living in France.

The strikes and blockages, that have been dominating the news in France, is reaching crisis point.

If you plan to visit France next week, our partners in France are warning about petrol supplies. Petrol stations are running out of petrol so if you are travelling by car and need to re-fuel in France, then you may NOT find petrol! It will be half-term next week and traditionally a busy time for viewings.

Some agents are already short of petrol and unable to take clients to properties.

If you have booked viewings, please check with your agent that they will be open and will be able to take you to properties.

Related articles

• Petrol Pumps Run Dry Amid French Strikes (news.sky.com)
• French strikes and protests: live updates (guardian.co.uk)

Easy peasy….go on the cross channel booze cruise and buying wine in France to last you six months in one fell swoop. Not quite what I had in mind. I have been wondering why so many British with holiday homes – or first homes come to that – in la Belle France go to supermarkets rather than direct to the vigneron, the wine maker himself. First growth claret may well be best bought through a specialist wine merchant, but, for the rest, if you are in France and you want to buy French wine, then go to the man who makes it.

Buying Wine in France: Supermarkets

Agreed, the supermarket is easy. You can study the labels at leisure, you can check the prices to avoid unpleasant surprises and you don’t have to speak to anyone, except perhaps a for muffled ‘bonjour’ to the cashier. Once a year they put on wine fairs, as well, with better class bottles on offer and, as long as you manage to duck the guy running the tasting – smidgeons  of liquid in plastic tubs that I would associate more with medical specimens than sommelier work,  all tasting of vinegar because the wine has oxydised shortly after removing the cork – you retain all the three advantages listed above. You won’t have too much trouble ducking the organiser…he will be surrounded by his mates for whom fresh bottles will be opened and will not be interested in you at all.

I suggest taking a corkscrew and plastic cup with you on these trips. If you take a fancy to something, buy a bottle and sample  – in moderation, remembering the gendarmerie lurking in the bushes with the breathalyser – in the car park, then, if the wine meets with your approval, shoot back in and collar the lot because what you see is what they’ve got. I made the mistake of ordering cases of a wine I liked. Four weeks later, no sign of life, no telephone call, nothing, so I went back to the supermarket and asked what had happened to my order. A superior young man assured me that I could not have made the order as, for the whole of Super U in France, there were only four cases of the wine I had ordered available. I assured him, copy in hand, that I had indeed been able to order it…the problem was their inability to obtain supply. This strategy also avoids the problem of buying a bottle, letting it settle for a week or so and then being totally unable to remember at which supermarket wine fair you bought it. I have had several interesting encounters with security while promenading the aisles with an empty bottle looking for its’ fellow.

So, what is the problem with going to the vigneron? I believe that there is some sense of inferiority, brought about by articles about wine tasting…all the swirling, sniffing and spitting that seems to be necessary in choosing a wine is not attractive to the average guy who wants a few bottles for his cellar from a local grower. He will feel enough of a fool with the language barrier…he doesn’t want to be made to feel a complete fool by his ignorance of a time honoured ritual as well.

The average guy can be reassured. The visit to the vigneron will be painless, even on the wallet.

It is best to ring, or if you must go unannounced, try the early evening, because his wife will probably be out at work all day and he will be in the vines. You will probably first encounter his father, busy filling a jug from the vats for his evening lucubrations, who will give you a drink while you’re waiting, thus spoiling the ritual of starting with the dries and working to the sweets because what you will get is whatever father fancies with his dinner.

The vigneron will arrive and take you through his repertoire…the glasses are distinctly better filled than in a wine bar and there is no spittoon, so designate one of your party to get you back through the lurking gendarmerie , or ask the vigneron how to get back on the side roads. You make your choice of wine, and you can buy it in several ways.

The traditional bottle…most expensive per litre as he has had to buy bottle, cork and the capsule with its’ tax stamp. If you get to know him he might suggest leaving the capsule off….with advice as to the side roads to get you home unobserved.

The bib…the bag in box. This is the method of choice for those whose wives survey their liquid intake. The beadiest of French wives cannot see through the box to check the levels.

The vrac…where the wine come straight from the vat into plastic jerrycans and you bottle it up at home. The popular method. This is why every French house comes complete with a pile of bottles tucked into one of the outhouses.

If you still feel nervous, just make your first visit when you see an open day announced. There will usually be food on offer as well, and not only can you see what everyone else does and copy them, but you will also meet most of your neighbours as well.

In these days of worry about carbon footprints, just direct your feet to the door the of the local vigneron and kid yourself you are doing something for the planet as you buy wine with less transport miles to its credit than those of a snail from your garden wall to the cooking pot. Hope you enjoyed our tips about buying wine in France.

Private Individuals (ie not professional builders) are now not subject to VAT and will not be subject to TVA at 19.6% (French equivalent of VAT in the UK taxed at 17.5%) when they come to sell a property that they have largely restored (where more than 70 % is new), or a barn convesrion to a residential home, or built their own home from scratch.
Previously, this tax has been applicable for five years from the date when  the declaration of completion of the works was submitted. This test was too difficult to handle for government tax authorities, Notaires(solicitors) and agents.
So if you come to France and renovate or build a new house then when you come to sell and NOTE this is your primary residence, not only will benefit from zero tax on capital gains – you can now also be exempt from VAT in France.
This is great news for developers and amateur enthusiasts with DIY experience. However, be careful that you need to ensure that the works are carried out is covered by policy called ‘dommage ouvrage’ Be aware, if you own a construction company, this can be considered a professional.