Clé France

This week we took transfer of our holiday cottage in Brittany, which we purchased on our first house hunting trip, in October 2014.

I would like to say many, many thanks to Sharon for all her assistance, advice and support. She was there for us from start to finish, every single step of the way.

Patiently explaining and guiding us through the process of buying French property, translating and acting as a go between with the French agent. We don’t speak French (yet!), so found the process quite daunting and it was very re-assuring to have Sharon involved in the entire process, holding my hand so to speak.  

I would definitely have felt totally lost without the English backup, especially as the French Agent spoke about as much English, as I speak French.  

Nothing seemed too much trouble for her and she always replied to my emails promptly.

We were also very happy with her recommendation to use Allianz for our insurance requirements; they too have been really wonderful.

Sharon’s service was excellent, professional but friendly at the same time. We would highly recommend Cle France to others seeking assistance in purchasing property in France.

Thank you and I am sure we will be very happy with our new holiday home.

All the best

Cathy.

Well what can we say? most days the job we do helping people find, negotiate and purchase their house in France is enjoyable so when we get feedback from our clients like this it makes it all worthwhile again!

We wish Cathy and her family many many happy times at their house in Brittany for many years to come.

I remember having to 'go for a coffee' about 3 or 4 times before I found the right coffee to order when on my own viewing trip in France looking for the right French house in the late 1990s.

Much later I remember David coming home for lunch after meeting some artisans, electricians, plumbers, roofers etc. in a cafe one morning and one of the artisans was runnig late so they all waited and ordered more cafe, after the 4th cup David said he was 'coffee drunk' and as light headed as the time he was waiting on another person and the 'Calvados' bottle came out! but that is another story...

Photo by Karol Franks on Flickr

As a fellow coffee lover the first things a friend of mine wanted to do after arriving in France was to, bien sûr (of course), prendre une tasse de café (grab a cup of coffee). She got off the plane, jetlagged and groggy from the long-haul flight, but still had the idea of that tasse in her head.

After making her way across Paris to her hotel room for the night she went out into the clmly lit streets of Paris in search for the perfect cup of coffee, how she thought she woud get to sleep that night I will never know! Naturally she found un petit café juste à côté de la Tour Eiffel (right next to the Eiffel Tower) and sat down. When viewing property in France with Cle France on a house hunting trip looking for that perfect French house to buy, do make sure you take time to stop at a Cafe and watch the world go buy, it will help you soak up the atmosphere of where you are and may wish to buy a house and perhaps even move to full time? as my friend glanced at the menu panic set in:

Café au lait

Latte macchiato

Café crème

Noisette

Cappuccino

Americano

Café viennois

There were some menu items je ne conaissais pas (I didn’t know) let alone my friend with minimum understanding of French, but, I guess, for the most part the names were easy to understand. She just wanted a simple coffee! why should it be so complicated!

When it came time to order, she said in her best French, 'Un café, s’il vous plaît' (a coffee, please), and waited for the much desired drink to come back in a few moments after lots of squirting and frothing from behind the counter.

The barista came back with her drink and put it down on my table with, the very reasonable, l’addition (the bill), then off like a shot to serve the next customer.

'He got my order wrong' was her first thought as she looked at la petite tasse de café (the small cup of coffee) sitting next to a small rectangular cookie and a few lumps of sugar almost as big as the cup. Son français (her French) wasn’t good enough to argue about it so she just drank the café and went on with her strole thourhg the streets of Paris.

However when the same problem happened again, and again, and again, she began to realise that 'un café' is not the same thing as 'a coffee', a quick phone call and all was explained.

Ordering a café is ordering what we would call an espresso! The big coffee drink that we know as 'a cup of coffee' is not that easy to come across in France but I guess the equivilent, and my oprder of choice is a 'Café crème' which often comes with a glass of water to freshen the mouth! so if you’re going to un café français (a French cafe) you may be a little more prepared now? or just do as my friend does and happily (and knowingly) say, 'un café, s’il vous plaît'.

Now you know what to order - book a viewing trip with Cle France today!

Blog submitted by: Sharon at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Studying in France: A Perfect Score.

If you are planning to move to France with school age children then read on and by all means get your children to read this blog, we hope it helps and if you want more insight then leave a comment and we will follow it up, also if you have first hand experience of the education system then please also leave some comments.

We get lots of people asking us about the buying process and viewing property for sale in france with us but we also get hundreds of questions about the various aspects of living in France once people see a property they like and mark as a favourite, one of the most common questions is about the French education system and their concerns about putting thier children through the French system.

We have done that with our children and helped and advised many others on every aspect over the years so here we are adding some insights in the form of blogs to the Cle France website to help you understand the differences.

Photo by Tal Bright on Flickr

Les examens… If you are currently in the middle of your exams or you are about to passer les examens (take exams) and hope you can réussir les examens (pass exams) we wish you all the luck in the world, perhaps you are thinking of moving to France?

Let us just take a moment to see how different the grading system is in France, so you know what to expect.

The very first thing that will jump out to a non-French person is that grades are not based on an A, B, C, D, F system; they are not a percetage or even a 0-100 scale. Instead everything is based on a 0/20 marking system, with 10/20 being the basic "Pass" grade.

The other oddity (to us at least!) of the French grading system is that there is a strong emphasis on the idea that “personne n’est parfaite” (nobody’s perfect), quite refreshing in its own way. So teachers and 'profs' almost never ever give out a grade of 20/20! or at least I never got one!

Before people start yelling at me that it is just me that never got 20/20, “mais c’est faux ! Il  y a des profs qui donnent des 20s !” (That’s not true! There are teachers that will give you 20s!), yes I guess, it is true that it is possible to achieve the much desired vingt sur vingt (twenty out of twenty), but it is rare and in general, on le donne pas (it’s not given out), because “personne n’est parfaite”.

Thinking about this, it is a little bizarre and certainly odd if you a’re not used to it. As a result of nobody being parfaite, l’idée d’une bonne note (the idea of a good grade) is un peu different compared with UK and American equivalents where stiving for the top marks is encouraged and shouted from the rooftops!

So what score is considered good?

In France a 12/20 is pretty good, a 14/20 is considered good and a 16/20 is amazing give yourself a pat on the back! (18/20 is reserved only for excellent work so if you get this then your a destined for great things).

Thinking about ces notes (these grades) in the familiar terms of just A, B, C, D, F may make you feel like you couldn’t do well in France and that scores out of 20 devalue your efforts somewhat BUT, enfin (finally), you will get used to the French grading system and be hiting the high numbers before you know it.

Le système d’éducation française (The French education system) is vastly different from the UK and American system. You may have to stumble along and learn it as you go, but in general it will only take 3 months to get to grips with the education system, about 6 months to fiully intergrate and by the end of the first year you will never want to be anywere else than studying en France.

If anyone has a specific question about 'the system' or how things work in French schools, Colleges and Uuniversities, feel free to leave a comment un commentaire below!

Blog submitted by: David at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Hi David & Sharon, Many thanks for all your help. We have had a great experience and some very good advice.

We would definitely recommend Cle France to any persons looking to buy in France.   

All the best.

Kind regards

Lee & Becky Hooke.

Lee & Becky bought a very nice habitable house to develop further in Lower Normandy and signed just before Christmas so a nice Christmas present to themselves! 

The tax you have read about is at this stage merely a proposal and for most people buyiung in rural France it does not concern you anyway, but if you are looking to buy in an urban area there are some things to note.

According to a report in a French daily newspaper Les Echos, second homes that are located in areas where there is a housing shortage could face an increase of 20% on their Taxe d'Habitation.

This measure is being considered by the government and could apply in 28 urban agglomerations in France, known as zones tendues, where a tax on vacant homes is already in place.

These areas are: Ajaccio, Annecy, Arles, Bastia, Bayonne, Beauvais, Bordeaux, Draguignan, Fréjus, Genève – Annemasse, Grenoble, La Rochelle, La Teste-de-Buch – Arcachon, Lille, Lyon, Marseille – Aix-en-Provence, Meaux, Menton – Monaco, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Saint-Nazaire, Sète, Strasbourg, Thonon-les-Bains, Toulon, and Toulouse.

Most international home owners with country / rural properties in France will not therefore be affected, although holiday homes in some popular coastal resorts will face a tax hike. But unless you are buying in one of these areas you will be unaffected.

That said it is difficult to give you a 'typical' scenario because taxes vary from commune to commune, and of course utilities vary so much according to usage.

Other charges by comparison: Electric and water etc. are about the same as the UK, and people generally find annual Taxe Fonçière and Taxe d'Habitation compare very favourably indeed, these are in general 5,6,7+ times less than in the UK.

Blog submitted by: Sharon at The French Property Network - Cle France.