Going to the cinema in France

Perhaps, one of the few things I have missed about the UK since moving here to Brittany is the fact that we used to visit the cinema on a fairly regular basis. This is something we haven't done at all since moving here, the thought of watching a film all in French is just one step too far!

That has all changed now though, the key is to look for the French abbreviation VOST as in the photo below.

The actual French for the abbreviation, VOST, is "version originale sous titree" or Original version with subtitles.

On Monday night we went to our local cinema which is actually walking distance from our house ( although we didn't walk due to the weather ) we are very lucky indeed to have a cinema in a village of under 1600 people and so close. It is not your average "Odeon" or "Vue" as you can see from the photo. And certainly no Popcorn and Cola at inflated prices!

We watched "The wolf of Wall Street the latest Martin Scorsese film with Leonardo DiCaprio which premiered on Christmas day.

The cost of a seat at the cinema was 5 euros or a little over £4 so a real bargain, in addition we were given a loyalty card which means that every tenth ticket is free, making it even more of a bargain. The cinema, although small ( around 80 or so seats ) was a lot more modern than I had expected with comfortable seating and a good view of the screen from everywhere.

Happy Christmas

A very Happy Christmas and all our best wishes for 2014 to everyone

Christmas Update

I can't believe how much time has gone by since I made my last post on here but we have been away on an extended holiday to the UK to visit all of our sons and families and New Zealand to visit our daughter and her family. In addition we have spent a total of 7 days in Penang in Malaysia.
We had a fantastic time with just a couple of little hiccups. We had to get an internal domestic flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpa ready to catch an international flight to Auckland in New Zealand, the transfer time was quite tight at just over an hour, as we had to transfer between the domestic and International terminals but when the plane was 35 minutes late arriving it was nearly impossible, we had to clear passport control and pretty much ran all the way arriving after the takeoff time with everyone else boarded. The staff had to phone the plane for permission for us to board but we got there.
However when we arrived in Auckland there was an announcement asking me to go to the desk.......Our luggage hadn't made it!
The baggage handling company a toilet bag and tee shirt each and $153 ( around £75 ) New Zealand dollars as compensation and delivered our luggage to our Daughter's house in Wellington the next day.
Whilst on holiday there I was using my debit card in ATMs to withdraw cash about halfway through the holiday one of the machine's kept our card! I went to the nearest branch of the bank that owned it only to be told it would have been destroyed by the machine as a security measure. It wasn't a problem to us as I had several other cards with me to use but it is a warning to others that If you rely on only one card you could be in a bit of trouble If this happened ( there was plenty of money in the account so there was obviously a problem with that machine )

I would have liked to post while we were away but didn't want to advertise the fact that we were away from home. Here in France where we live it is even more pertinent as under French law if we did get a squatter in the house while we were away we could not legally evict them during the winter period. It is against the law to evict anyone from November the 1st until the middle of March.

We had a terrific holiday but as always were pleased to be home when we got back, the traffic in the UK particually seems to get worse and worse, I think when you live in it you get to accept it more but the difference to the roads around where we live is difficult to describe. Driving here is a pleasure.

Even though I was expecting it the amount of leaves that had fallen from our lovely line of lime trees and the big acer's on the front lawn still came as a bit of a shock.

It took me five days to clear them all with well over 100 barrow loads of compressed leaves, they are all being composted and eventually will be incorporated into the soil in the vegetable plot. We have established that our soil is acidic and needs the PH levels raised. It won't happen overnight but hopefully year on year it should improve. We are adding as much compost as we can plus a liberal spreading of lime pellets which should all help.

Since getting back home our social life has taken off again, we are very lucky to have a wide and varied set of good friends and there is rarely more than a day or two before we are meeting up with someone or another for a drink/chat/coffee/meal etc. I don't know how I ever had the time to work.

With the winter starting to set in we are starting to make good use of the fir trees I cut down and logged. The wood we are putting into the wood burner now is over 2 years old and fully dried, an essential thing if you don't want to tar up the flue. It also burns a lot hotter with little ash, the ash by the way also goes onto the vegetable plot and helps raise the PH levels.

I am hoping that I have around 3 winters worth of logs in stock now.

It is nice to be looking forward to a New Year arriving once again and already have a few projects in mind including painting the exterior of the house in the spring.

A very happy Christmas and a great New Year to everyone.

Commana Horse Fair in Brittany

Last Saturday ( 21st Sept ) we went to the annual Commana horse fair, the whole of the centre of the village is closed off for this annual event which has been held here since 1798.
The fair has developed during the last 20 years to encompass not only trading and showing of horses but the selling of small animals, a large amount of retail trade stands plus a Vide Grenier ( equivalent to the UKs car boot sale.)
It is very well supported with a large attendance and a good place to catch up and chat with friends.

Here is an old photo from the Commana web site   showing the horses:

For anyone visiting or living near here i can thoroughly recommend  this as a good day out.

Property taxes

It's that time of year again when the property tax bills start dropping through the post, the first of them the "Tax Fonciere"  which is a property ownership tax and is imposed on the owner of the property whether it is used by them or rented out, this is due now or within a few days and is payable in October. 

The second bill the "Tax D'habitation" which is payable by the occupier of the property which they were resident in on the 1st of January and should arrive in October and is payable in November.

However for anyone over the age of 60 and on a lower income which for a couple in 2013 is €15684 or €10224 for a single person, both are net amounts after allowances, the Tax D'habitation is free. Please note the only for of proof accepted is for you to have submitted a French tax return
I have put some help files up on my web site, www.living-in-brittany.co.uk which should help anyone submitting these for the first time.

For anyone over 65 and meeting the financial allowances as above there is a minimum €100 reduction from the Tax Foncieres and for anyone over 75 this is free.

Please note it only needs one person in the house to meet the age requirements

It is quite important to check the bills though as although these deductions should be automatically applied they are sometimes missed off ( Ours was last year ) and you will need to go to the tax office to sort it out

Autumn

We have had some lovely weather here over the last few Summer Months but bang on time Autumn has arrived. Mornings and Evenings are definitely cooler and it won't be long before the wood burner is put on again.

The biggest indication for me is the leaves starting to fall. We have a couple of huge Acer trees in our front garden and a lovely line of Lime trees down the side of the drive, however the downside is the amount of leaves that come off of them all of which I shall need to rake and clear over the next couple of Months.

As you can see from the photo above they have only just started falling but even the few seen here on the driveway and under the Lime trees resulted in two full barrow loads of leaves, I estimate by the time they are all down I will have collected between 100-200 barrow loads.

At least it will all help for compost for the ground which we need!

I have just received my annual tax statement from the French tax authorities, this is always issued in August of each year and relates to tax due on income up to the 31st December of the previous year.
This is the second return that I've made since we moved here and I am pretty pleased that once again I have managed to complete the 8 or so pages in French and had them accepted by the authorities.

I think with even very limited French anyone moving here should with a bit of common sense be able to fill these out plus I have put together some notes on my Living in Brittany website which although fairly basic ie: relating to others in similar positions to ourselves being on old age pensions plus some private pensions and some income from investments should give anyone a good reference to start with.

The tax return is important to us as by proving our income to be below a certain level, and this is the only proof that is accepted, means that we get out Tax D'habitation reduced to zero and a hundred euro reduction on our Tax Fonciere. Tax D'habitation and Tax Fonciere together are the equivalent of  house council tax or rates in the UK.

By doing some reading up on the rules I was also able to reclaim nearly 300 euros of tax that I had paid on a wood burner that we had installed last year, It is worth noting though that this has to be installed by a professional  with a copy of the original paid invoice to enable this. This would also be reclaimable on other eco friendly installations such as cavity or roof insulation, double glazing etc.