Vive La France Rurale

It has flown by at an incredible rate and it is hard to believe that we are now five months into our French adventure. So much has happened in that period, what with moving into our permanent home and getting three (yes three!) different property related businesses off the ground.

Mist rising during an autumn evening in Busserolles

As we move gently into the golden glow of a Dordogne autumn, I thought it would be worth reflecting on some of the idiosyncrasies of life in rural France. I don’t approach this from the perspective of having a moan about the French, I’ll happily leave that to some of the incensed ex-pats we have encountered who just can’t understand why everything is not the same as it is in their beloved England. These are inevitably the same people who make no effort to speak any French and sit in the bars with like-minded characters reading their Daily Mail and wondering where the fish and chip van is going to be parked up next Friday.

We moved to France because we were attracted to the French way of life, to the civility of the people and the opportunity to find our own tranquil corner in which we could watch the sun set cradling a glass of Bordeaux Superieur.

To make the most of it all, learning the language is essential and I am now making decent progress with the help of my French teacher, Isabelle. I walk down to the village for an hour once a week and we mix sessions covering some of the grammatical building blocks with gentle conversation about family and French life. It is an old adage, but it is true, that the French people are really helpful and sympathetic if you are prepared to have a go with their language; they really do appreciate the effort and respond in kind. They don’t get upset if you confuse masculine and feminine, avoir and etre or put an adjective in the wrong place.

It doesn’t matter who I meet in the village, I always offer up a ‘Bonjour’ and engage in a brief chat if they seem willing. I learn so much from them about what is going on around the village and they are always so patient with me as I try to explain something or struggle to understand what they have said. This week I learnt from a spritely 90 year old called Margarite that I should not miss the annual draining of the lake on the 1^st November because all the large fish are caught and offered to the locals for their dinner table – now that has to beat the fish and chip van!

The Mairie in Busserolles

Village life and administration is centred around the Mairie and I was keen to follow up on everyone’s advice to get to know the mayor. Our mayor in Busserolles is a local Christmas Tree farmer called Guy and I duly requested a meeting with him to introduce myself. I was also keen to make sure that he would be happy with our plans to put a fence around our field to make sure that Rolo and Tess would not stray too far. What came as a shock was that when we arrived for the meeting, it was not just Guy that we were asked to present our plans to but the whole council assembly – none of whom spoke any English!

With the aid of a few drawings however, I managed to get my plans across to them although they were not happy with my plan to put a gate across our driveway. It turns out that our driveway is actually classed as “Chemin Rurale” (a bit like a bridleway) and is the responsibility of the Mairie. I could have argued that it only went to our house and no one ever came up it apart from us but I clearly won brownie points by thanking them for pointing it out and instantly changing the fencing plan. The meeting ended with handshakes all round, particularly when I expressed my support for the “Chasse”.

The “Chasse” is a big thing in rural France and encapsulates the Frenchman’s right to roam the countryside and hunt creatures such as deer, wild boar and pheasants. It is highly organized and Sunday mornings during the hunting season resonate to the sound of barking dogs, shotguns and hunting horns. I support it because it is a traditional part of country life and is enjoyed by people from all walks of life. It is not at all like the organized shoots in England where super rich merchant bankers pay thousands of pounds to shoot tame, reared birds that are driven to their death by beaters who earn a pittance.

A sanglier (wild boar)

The hunters of Busserolles all seem to drive battered little old vans that chug their way around the hills and valleys on a Sunday morning. They love to tell tales of their hunt and are generous to a fault in sharing the results of their day. We have received packages of roughly butchered meat that could be anything from wild boar to venison, we often don’t know exactly what it is (or was) but cook it up slowly in a rich wed wine and it all tastes quite delicious! 

Le Clos des Chênes

On the evening of the 2^nd October we arrived in a state of nervous excitement at the offices of the Notaire in Montbron who had been selected by both parties to handle all the legalities associated with buying a house in France. Unlike the UK where each party chooses its own solicitor to carry out the conveyancing process, it is quite common in France for the same notaire to act for both the buyer and the seller. Their role is to ensure that all the relevant checks and searches have been conducted and that all the relevant legal paperwork has been completed to ensure that the purchase is properly registered.

It is worth remembering that unless you ask for it, the notaire is not obliged to initiate a private consultation to provide you with tailored advice about your own particular circumstances. It is not their job to hold your hand throughout the process in the manner that might be the case with a conveyancing solicitor in the UK. We were fortunate in that there were no contentious issues between our vendors and ourselves – primarily this was because we all got very drunk together one evening and sorted everything out!

The Notaire in Montbron had been selected because he spoke good English and would therefore be in a position to ensure that we fully understood what we were signing. However, we were greeted with the news that he had been unavoidably delayed on another appointment and would not be able to meet us that evening. The look of utter disappointment on our faces must have been obvious – we weren’t going to become property owners quite as soon as we had hoped.

The day was saved though by one of the Notaire’s colleagues who offered to stand in and conduct the meeting – in French! She spoke very little English and my French is hardly good enough for a conversation involving legal jargon but we decided to give it a go on the basis that if we were really unhappy, we need not sign anything.

As it turned out, between us we worked everything out and by the end of the meeting we had signed umpteen pieces of paper and the words we were anxiously awaiting were duly spoken: “Vous êtes propriétaires”. Not since we were declared Man and Wife had anything sounded as satisfying as being declared the owners of our own piece of French paradise.

We had even come up with a name for our new home – ‘Le Clos des Chênes’. It means something along the lines of ‘the oak enclosure’ and reflects the fact that the house sits in the middle of a wooded field, the majority of the trees being oaks.

We had the lease on the rented property until the end of October so we now had a good four weeks to get moved in – quite a luxury compared to every other house move I have ever done. We set ourselves a target date of 24^th October to be living in the new house so that we then had time to clean the rental property thoroughly before handing back the keys.

Good plan I thought. The problem was that the day after the signing was our wedding anniversary – not a problem in itself except that we spent that evening sat on the covered deck, eating a huge steak cooked on the barbecue and drinking far too much wine as we watched the sun go down. Sod the plan - we knew we wanted to be living there just as soon as we could.

The next morning we started loading up the car and ferrying our belongings across in small batches. Our lovely neighbour Nadine took pity on us and offered her the use of her husband’s old Citroen van. This was a Godsend as it meant we could not only move larger batches but we could also move the larger pieces of furniture (Nikki had not been happy at my earlier suggestion that she take one end of the sofa, I take the other and we just carry it the 300 meters to the new house!).

We unpacked as we went, feeling like kids at Christmas as we opened up boxes containing all those little things you take for granted and miss so much when you’re without them for so long. Sharp knives – oh, how I had missed my sharp kitchen knives!

We were all done by the 13^th October – eleven days ahead of schedule! That night was a cold one but we lit the wood burning stove and basked in its warm glow.

We were totally, utterly, at home.

I-Spy Property Finders is born

I was pleasantly surprised about how supportive other expats were about my business ideas. One of those was Peter Elias who runs a property business called Allez-Francais. I originally met Peter to talk about my photographic business and he demonstrated his enthusiasm for my proposals by providing me with my first assignment in France.

However, Peter picked up on something else I said during our meeting; I mentioned my idea about also establishing a property finding business to help people through the process of finding and purchasing a property in France. Having negotiated the tricky process of buying a property in France and having learned much along the way, I felt there was an opportunity to share that experience by helping others to turn their dreams into reality.

Nice idea, but once again the French system was providing a significant obstacle. Although I had managed to get registered as an auto-entrepreneur for my photographic business (see the previous post), the system in France is such that anyone operating a property based business must either be a fully qualified Immobilier (which involves three years of study and requires an in depth understanding of French property law, thus making it virtually impossible for a non native French speaker to get qualified) or they have to be working for a qualified Immobilier in the capacity of a registered ‘Agent Commercial’.

Clearly I am neither of these things. Becoming a qualified immobilier was a non-starter and, because I wanted to be able to operate completely independently from any immobilier, working for one was not an option either. But Peter had an idea; a cunning plan. Using his extensive network he was able to introduce me to an immobilier based in Paris who was prepared to allow me to operate as an ‘agent commercial’ under his umbrella registration. However, he agreed that I could operate completely independently, without any requirement to include any of his properties in my search portfolio. I would simply pay him a small commission for any business I generated. Perfect!!

I-Spy Property Finders was born as an independent property finder able to operate purely on behalf of my clients.

Not so fast! Before I could launch I-Spy Property Finders I would need to complete my registration as an ‘agent commercial’. This would require a visit to the ‘Greffe du Tribunal de Commerce’ in the local prefecture capital of Perigueux, a lovely town to visit but a 90 minute drive from Busserolles. Armed with my contractual agreement to operate as an agent commercial and with every piece of ID I could muster I presented myself at the Greffe and asked to be registered. With a knowing look the lady at the counter proceeded to present me with a pile of paperwork to complete. My heart sank but with a determined intake of breath I resolved to fill out the forms there and then. “Where could I go to complete the forms?” I asked, expecting there would be some tables and chairs for such a thing. “There is only this counter” she replied so, not to be deterred, I leant on the counter and started writing.

After half an hour (which involved frequent accessing of the French/English dictionary I had on my iPhone) I had completed all I was able to do but felt that I had done pretty well. I returned to the queue and presented my form for checking.

Then came the hammer blow – “you need to put your French social security number here”, she said, pointing at an obscure box that I had missed. “I have not yet been issued one” I replied. “You cannot register without one”, she said, with that stereotypical French shrug of the shoulders.

There was only one thing for it – take a deep breath and go and have lunch at one of Perigueux’s many lovely restaurants!

It was another three weeks (during which time I was asked to provide documents which I had already provided – as ever, keep calm and just send them again!) before I was finally issued with a French Social Security Number and was able to return to Perigueux. This time the forms were deemed to have been completed to the satisfactory standard and so……..we went for lunch, this time feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

I had not been idle whilst waiting for this exercise to be completed and had spent the time building a website for my new business. This was my first experience of creating a website but, if I say so myself, the final result looks pretty good. So, having now become registered as an ‘agent commercial’, I was able to launch the website: www.i-spypropertyfinders.com

Now it’s time to find my first clients!

Into the Dragon's Den

Richard Branson has done pretty well in life and this is a quote from him that appeals to me:

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts”.

My idea to establish a property photography business in France seems to fit pretty well with Sir Richard’s thinking so here we go….!

Just hold on a minute though, this is France and naturally French bureaucracy has something to say about this! Whilst in the UK it is possible to wake up in the morning and decide to set yourself up as a sole trader, in France any commercial activity requires a legal structure, with the business either registered as an individual operator or as a company.

The good news for me though was that in 2009 a new business status had been introduced by the French Government, known as the Auto-entrepreneur, which offers a simpler process of registering and running the smallest sole-trader businesses. To qualify for this status there is a very low turnover limit and, as with a sole trader in the UK, there is unlimited personal liability. However, it was established with the objective of encouraging small business start-ups and it carries with it a simplified tax regime (which is not the same a 'low' by the way!)

For me, the Auto-entrepreneur status is the perfect way to get into the French system will allow me to focus on business development rather than complex legal and financial matters. They can come later and will be a nice problem to have because it will mean my business is doing well.

I found the Angloinfo website had some excellent information about this subject and it is well worth reading if you are thinking of following a similar route. I also used another source of really good information available for people living in the Perigord Vert, The Dronne Valley Network, and asked if anyone could offer me advice on the registration process. A very helpful lady called Vivienne (she runs a website business as an auto-entrepreneur) offered to help and so, with the registration website open in front of me, I gave her a call and she talked me through the various stages.

Whilst it was relatively straightforward, my poor French made it difficult to always grasp what information was being requested and Vivienne’s help was invaluable. We got through to the end of the process and I printed off the completed forms and sent them off along with various forms of ID.

Which prompts me to offer a key piece of advice for anyone moving to France. It seems that everyone wants to see multiple forms of ID and it is therefore worth getting plenty of copies done of the following documents:

• Passport
• Birth Certificate
• Marriage Certificate

I was even required at one stage to produce a copy of the Decree Absolute from my Divorce in 1994!

Back to the business registration, and clearly everything had been completed properly for in due course I was issued with a registration certificate and the all important ‘SIRET’ number. This is the reference number attached to the business and has to be shown on every piece of business documentation including any advertising material. You cannot do anything business related without a SIRET number otherwise the gendarmes will be knocking on the door.

With my SIRET number in hand it was time to hit the streets! I followed up on some of the immobilier contacts that I had originally made at the French Property Exhibitions and set appointments to go along and make my pitch.

This is something that I don’t enjoy doing (does anybody?) and, as I arrived for my rendez-vous, I felt the way those poor souls who pitch to the Dragons in the BBC’s Dragon’s Den programme must feel. The reality of course was nothing like I had feared. I simply talked about something I loved doing and listened to what they had to say about their business and the ways we might be able to work together.

It is still early days but as I write this I have completed my first photographic assignment. Nothing too simple of course, just a 14^th Century Chateau with spiral medieval stone staircases! Click here to see the results of my visit there. I also have a booking to photograph and produce a virtual tour for a lovely gite property near Brantome.

I’ll let you know how the business develops in future posts.