A funny story (well, may be funny) about contents insurance, as told by our Realtor: Say you want to insure the contents of your house for 30k euros. This is the estimate of the contents if you had to go out and buy them again. The French insurance companies are going to only pay you 50% of that, because they estimate the value of the now USED goods to be half what you insured them for. This has now made the general population insure for DOUBLE what they think the contents are worth, knowing that the Insurance company will pay them 50% of that. Weird? Absolutely! You would think that they would sort this out, right? Et Bein....C'est France!
Now to address the French Will that I mentioned in the previous post.
As foreigners purchasing property in France, we have to make the decision whether we want to invoke NZ law and our NZ Wills if either of us were to die. In this way, we leave the house to the other surviving spouse. Many European countries make it impossible to disinherit ones children. In French law, if one spouse dies, the surviving spouse lives in the home at the convenience and with the good will of the children for the remainder of their life. The children are responsible for the considerable death duties (read, taxes).
This is, of course complicated when there is a blended family like ours. If I were to predecease Waz, then my children would inherit nothing, as he is now the survivor and his children inherit from him. Vice versa for him predeceasing me.
We are choosing to invoke NZ law where our Wills give the right of the surviving spouse to own the property, and our children get nothing until both of us are deceased...or whatever our choice is in this matter.
There is a way out of paying death duties in this country, and we are seriously considering this option. Because it would be a major issue for our surviving children/siblings to have to wind up a property/estate in France, we have the option of bequeathing our property (home) to a charity, or charities of our choice in this country. The Charities inherit, and THEN the property would be sold by them, vs our executors having to sell the property and giving the proceeds to the charity. This way, Death taxes are avoided, our families have no hassles in a foreign language/country, and it all gets taken care of by our Notaire. Does that make sense? OTHERWISE, our children would be liable for the considerable (50%) death duties. It is our choice to live here, and we want to keep things as simple as possible for everyone in our absence...permanent one, that is:)
There is also a thing called a TONTINE. This is a lot more complicated, and we were advised NOT to go that route, as it is way more complex in the event of the death of one of us. We aim to keep things simple. SO, if you are advised to do a Tontine, please ask what this entails, and fully understand this option. It sounds very complex to us, so I'm not going to attempt to explain it here.
Here is the process that is happening with our house of choice: We have told the Realtor that we wish to make an offer on the property. He has informed the owner of this, and has now put other issues into action.
1. The owner wishes to sell the furnishings with the property. She has indicated that she will remove paintings/wall art and some furniture, as well as personal items from the property.
2. The owner is now responsible for the servicing of the boiler, as required by law, along with the Electrical, Lead, Asbestos, Termites tests etc, also required by French Law.
3. We wait until we have a list of the property to be removed, and the results of the testing before signing anything. This first signing is THE most important part of the process, and it takes time. All the ducks need to be in a row BEFORE you sign that Compris de Vente. If you aren't in the country, you can nominate your Notaire as your power of attorney, for the Compris and the final Key handover. We had previously understood that the key handover was the most important issue and a very formal occasion for the French. We were told not to wear our jeans for that:)
Once you have signed the Compris de Vente, or agreement of purchase, you have a 10 day 'cooling off' period during which you need to turn up with some money. It is advised that during this 10 days, you can withdraw from the agreement For ANY reason.
It is very difficult to obtain a French Bank Account, as one has to have proof of longevity in this country, and especially in your place of residence, producing not just 3-6 months of electricity bills/payments, but an agreement of sale for the property (if you own) and proof that you have money to put into the account.
We asked the Notaire about this...HOW do we get an account here, if we dont own the house yet. With the process taking up to 3 months (Ours should only take 2 months, we are told) it would be an extreme challenge for us not to have banking capabilities in France.
This is remedied by a letter from the Notaire to say that we have paid the deposit on a home, and signed the Compris de Vente, and to please allow us to open an account.
The same letter will also hopefully give us the ability to get insurance, buy a car and do everything else required...however, this is France, and we will anticipate that the process wont be hassle-free.:)
Because I have a different name to my husband (I kept the previous spouses last name) this complicates things of course. Sign!
I have to produce a birth certificate, a divorce certificate and marriage (2nd time) certificate to show all my different names. Waz doesn't have to because his name didn't change. He just has to show the marriage certificate.
I have to say that the process is actually a lot more straight forward than we anticipated. This is because we are prepared. PREPARATION IS EVERYTHING! Do your homework! I cant stress that enough...and have everything documented, have your documents in triplicate and more, and have translations of everything.
Trying to work all this out from afar is worse than being here and getting expert advice. It is worth your while to pay to hire an advocate for you who is bi-lingual if you have ANY doubts about your ability to do this on your own. Make sure to have everything you are asked for. Dont make any assumptions...the French are used to being paper pushers, and will want everything on the list.
What did we THINK we might buy? Well, like so many foreigners who come to France, we fell in love with the long low Longere (long zhaire) or farm house built of stone, that has been renovated to some degree. We thought we might own a Gite (Zheet) or two (3?) which is usually self catering accommodation on your property that you rent for short or long term, and which single, married and families rent for their vacations. Nice idea, but you will need 2-3 at least to pay the bills, let alone make any money. This information comes from many who have done it, and moved on. It was not recommended as a way for us to pay our bills and enjoy a small income, put it that way.
That fantasy put to bed, we thought of what else we might like. A Maison Maitre is a large home usually owned by a well to do Farmer, is in the country-side, but often in a town too with some land at the back for a garden...usually walled (stone walls always). These may be 3-4 stories high...this might include the sous-sol (basement) and the Grenier (Gren yay or Attic). You may have 4-9 bedrooms, so why not run a Chambre d'hote, and cook them a breakfast, and if you are nice, you can sell the punters an evening meal too. The difference in doing these two is the tax scale and what your intentions are. A chambre d'hote (shombre dote) you dont have to become an Auto-Entrepreneur, apparently...only if you want to run Gites and/or Airbnb accommodations.
If you are retired and declare that you dont want to make any money or be in any kind of business in France, you will have to provide your own Health Insurance.
If you want to be an Auto-Entrepreneur and earn some money (depending...) you will nominate the amount (ahead of time) you will earn in your business, and you will pay about 27% tax on that (depending on the income, of course) but this will entitle you to a Carte Vitale, or State Health Card, whereby you are entitled to claim up to 70% back on the cost of all your medical costs. Most people have a Mutuelle (moo too elle) or Insurance top-up, to give you 100% reimbursement of medical costs. This depends on whether you can afford the 30% not paid by the Govt. of course.
Health care in France is excellent, and inexpensive compared to both USA and NZ. Even though NZ has socialized medicine, we find it expensive to pay top-up. We all know about ACA or Obamacare in the USA. We have been most fortunate through Obamacare to have our medical costs taken care of with minimal co-pay by us.
Back to what we thought we might buy, in terms of real estate.
Being kiwis, we are used to larger rooms, larger homes, larger land...we grew up with the 1/4 acre paradise, and we like that this gives us space from our neighbors. So too, we looked for something detached, in a place where many are attached. Being detached often means you are on the outskirts of a village, in a Hamlet, or in the middle of nowhere.
We didn't want to be in the middle of nowhere, or isolee (Isolated) but prefer to be part of village life, therefore no more than 2 kms from a small town, and preferably within 20 kms of a larger town where we might do all our shopping for anything and everything...here they call that Commerces.
Choice is important to us!
We also wanted four seasons. We also like sunshine, but not heat. Silly, that!
The Charente is one Department that has around 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, and we like that. Yes, it can get hot...up to 40C, maybe, but for the most part, the summer temps are in the late 20C through mid 30C.
Winters aren't super cold...not too many days of minus temps, but there is the possibility of snow, which doesn't hang around for long. It doesn't have the long grey and wet days that Bretagne (Brittany) does, and we wanted a view...either land or sea/river/canal etc.
The Cognac area is Temperate. The soil is limestone/clay due to having been underwater during the Mesozoic era, and you can see marine fossils in the limestone cut in quarries, and on the ground.
The area is in the (Charente) north Aquitaine, bisected by the Charente River, primarily, with several other smaller rivers. It reaches from the Gironde Estuary to the west and east to Angouleme and the foothills of the Massif Central.
With this temperate climate, the grapes reach full maturity well without getting 'cooked' or burned, and the soil retains enough moisture so that it doesn't dry out completely during the hottest part of the summer. It is called an Oceanic Climate.
Our new home is in the Grande Champagne area. This is a soil designation and the finest of the soils in the area. Here's a little history and an explanation of the area. It may be more information that you want, so just skip it if that is the case.
The Cognac region consists of six vineyard growth areas called Crus. The grapes used for Cognac brandy must always come from this French region. The area covers the Charente-Marintime, a large part of the Charente and some smaller parts of the Deux-Sevres and the famous Dordogne.
The 'Origine Controlee Cognac' (AOC) Cognac is an Appellation that totals about 79,000 hectoares of vineyards (that's 79 million sq. meters). The wine region of Cognac is the second biggest of Frande, right after the wine region of Bordeaux.
The Petitie and Grande Champagne regions in Cognac should not be sofused with the famous region of Champagne, which is situated in the north of France. The Champagne wine regions is producing sparkling wine, Basically the word Champagne is a derivation of the French term for Chalky Soil.
Here is the break down of Cognac Production: Grande Champagne (being the soil type) accounts for about 17% of Cognac production, followed by Petite Champagne (22%), Borderies (5%), Fins Bois (42% of Cognac production), Bons Bois (12%) and Bois Ordinaires (1%). (Thanks to the Cognac Expert's Blog for this information)
In this gently undulating countryside with stunning far views of vines in long rows, alternating with the plain bright green of the winter wheat fields, we will look out at this view and delight in it.
This afternoon we stood and watched the miracle that is the flight north of the Cranes, overhead. Their calling alerted us, and while we looked around to see what was making this racket, the movement of the V-flight migration pattern was astonishing to watch. These large birds are on the move right now, and how wonderful to witness some of it in the middle of our little Hamlet, where we currently live.
For your information....This is the difference between the 'Cru'. One must really say that the soils differ a lot, and they can be extremely sandy and only 700 meters further away, will suddenly be really chalky. There is a whole history to the 'Terroirs', going back to the stone and ice ages, of course.
| Growth Area / Cru | Size | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Grande Champagne | 34 700 hectares / 13 250 ha covered with vineyards | Quite some hills, a chalk soil |
| Petite Champagne | 65 600 ha / 15 250 ha covered with vineyards | Chalky but more compact than the Grande Champagne |
| Borderies | 12 500 ha / 4 000 ha covered with vineyards | It’s a plateau with clay and flint stones |
| Fins Bois | 350 000 ha / 31 200 ha covered with vineyards | Mixed soil: red, clay and limestone |
| Bons Bois | 370 000 ha / 9 300 ha covered with vineyards | Very mixed soils, clay, limestone, sands |
| Bois Ordinaires | 260 000 ha / 1066 ha covered with vineyards | Mainly sand soils, including islands Ile de Ré and Ile d’Oléron |
When a Cognac is produced, it is often blended with Eaux-de-Vie from different crus. e.g. Grande Champagnes, Borderies, and Fins Bois. Of course a merchant would never pay the price for 'eaux-de-vie that originate from the Bons Bois if he would pay for the Grande Champagne spirit instead.
A Cognac blend which consists of Grande and Petite Champagnes Cognacs (with at least 50% from Grande Champagne) is considered as Fine Champagne.
Every Cru stands for a different fragrance such as flowers, green fruits (apples, pears), grapes and others. Of course the distillation process has a certain impact on the Cognac. Thanks to the Cognac Expert Blog for all this information.
Have a wonderful evening,
Night, Night.
Part of the text above is not readily readable, as it is black, against a dark background. It is the section that begins, "When a Cognac..."
ReplyDeleteJust noticed, thanks LL. Will correct if I can.
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