This French Life

Tales of Serge Bastarde and his baguette eating

IF you have spent a few hours strolling around a vide-grenier or brocante and thought 'I bet these sellers have some tales to tell', then author John Dummer can provide the inside track.

Having lived in France for more than 20 years he has come to understand and love the country, whilst his time as a brocanteur introduced him to the tricks, tips and characters of the trade.

One of those characters was Serge, who filled the title and tale written by John in his book Serge Bastarde Ate my Baguette.

Here John talks about his French life, writing and the best way to get a good deal at the next vide-grenier you attend.

Craig McGinty: What were the reasons behind your move to France?

John Dummer: My wife Helen and I moved to France with our three Staffordshire Bull Terriers and two cats in the eighties. I had been managing a rock band, the Screaming Blue Messiahs for three years and have to admit I was burnt out from all the craziness of touring in the US.

Government hopes to make it easier to pay income tax

THE French government is looking to make it easier to pay income tax via the internet, which comes as no surprise considering how keen they are at the moment to draw in cash.

In a statement the government has said it will be possible to pay income tax in a couple of clicks if no changes of your account are necessary.

Also supporting documents no longer need to be attached for situations where people claim tax credits, although it is important to keep any paperwork should a check from the tax authorities take place in the future.

Changes are also in place for the dates of declaration, with online submissions possible from April 19, 2013.

The deadline for paper declarations is midnight of May 27, with forms being issued from April 15.

Online submissions depend on your department, for those living in departments 1 to 19 the deadline date is June 3. For those in departments 20 to 49, including both departments in Corsica, the date is June 7. And for those in departments 50 to 974 it is June 11, 2013.

If you are non-residents and have to make a declaration in France then the submission limit is June 17 at midnight (either by paper or online) for people living in Europe, the Mediterranean, North America and Africa, and July 1 for other countries.

More: Impots.gouv.fr press release (.pdf)

Hollande plans 75% company tax on salaries over €1m

IN a long evening interview on France 2, François Hollande said he would look to tax the highest earners in businesses, through the businesses themselves.

Changing the method of hitting those earning over €1m after saying he would try to do it through the income tax system, he shifted the responsibility to companies.

In a televised interview on Thursday night, he said he wants companies that pay their employees more than €1m (£840,000) to pay 75% tax on those salaries.

via www.guardian.co.uk

Business leader, Laurence Parisot, severely criticised the idea saying the measure 'once again stigmatised businesses'.

And she went on to wonder how some of the richest people in France, who do not work for companies or larger enterprises, would pay the tax?

During the interview the French president said that measures were in place to reduce unemployment and that they would be used, although he admitted the number out of work would continue to rise over the coming months with improvement expected towards the end of the year.

How that improvement will come about is open to question, as the spending power of households has declined and overall individual and business sentiment is on the slide.

Ferry crossings set to be hit by strike action in French ports

UPDATE Wednesday, March 28:

IMPORTANT TRAVEL UPDATE - French Industrial Action at ports CANCELLED.

— DFDS Seaways UK (@DFDSSeaways) March 28, 2013

FERRY crossings to France looks set to be hit by a strike by French port control officers that will start on Thursday morning, March 28.

In a message on the P&O Ferries website, the company warns that the strike will affect the majority of ports in France.

It is as yet unclear as to the kind of action that will be held which may vary from a 'go slow' to a temporary or total suspension of services for a 24 hour period.

DFDS Seaways has warned customers who arrive at the ports of Dover, Calais or Dunkirk to expect long delays and offered the opportunity to change crossing times.

Kent Police has also warned that Operation Stack might be put in place on the M20 to queue lorries that are waiting to access Dover port.

The strike action is expected to come to an end on Good Friday, March 29.

French students launch anti-dog poo mobile app

Three Paris students horrified at the mounds of dog poo on their streets and in their parks have launched a smartphone application that lets users "flag" unwelcome messes.

via www.france24.com

Household purchasing power suffers historic fall

IF you thought the shops were a little quiet, it might have something to do with the fact that household purchasing power in France suffered an historic fall.

Figures from the statistics office, INSEE, show that purchasing power fell by 0.4% in 2012, the first fall since 1984.

And INSEE say the main reason for the squeeze on households was a strong rise in income taxes over the year (+10.0% after +6.6% in 2011), with inflation in February measuring 1%.

And INSEE also confirmed that in the fourth quarter of 2012, French gross domestic product fell by -0.3%, after +0.2% the previous quarter, meaning over the year GDP growth was zero for 2012.

Hollande says protecting bank deposits is sacrosanct

FRENCH president, François Hollande, has said that the principle of protecting bank deposits, called into question by the Cyprus bailout, should be sacrosanct in the European Union.

Speaking during a visit to Paris by Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, the president said 'the guarantee of deposits should be an absolute, irrevocable principle'.

Since the Cyprus situation started questions have been asked about so-called 'bail-ins' where deposits in banks are taxed to help individual countries.

The EU currently has in place an insurance of €100,000 per account, meaning smaller savers should not be hit by any tax, although the first proposals on the table in Cyprus included those with smaller deposits.

And in France four out of ten respondents in a survey said they would not be surprised to see a similar bail-in tax imposed if the economic situation worsened.

Tourism minister says visitors to France will be safe

THE French government has said it will ensure the security of tourists visiting the country after a number of Chinese holidaymakers were robbed just after they arrived in Paris.

Tourism minister, Sylvia Pinel, said that 'everything will be done to find the perpetrators' after 23 Chinese tourists were robbed of their cash and passports soon after they arrived at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport.

More than one million Chinese tourists visit France every year.

French unemployment almost at record level

AS feared, the number of people out of work in France in February rose by 18,400 from January to 3,188,000 the highest since June 1997.

This number is getting close to the all time record number out of work of 3,196,000 which was reached in January 1997, and shows the challenge faced by the Socialist government.

Increases in the number of people out of work have continued uninterrupted since May 2008, a total of 57 months.

The full press release is available on the employment ministry website.

Related: Pôle Emploi to take on 2,000 more staff

Faking it in France, but only for so long

KAREN Bates spent 11 years in Normandy, slowly working on her own house while handling the paperwork of her partner's joinery business.

The couple had crossed the Channel with Karen's young son, leaving his older sister in boarding school in the UK, and had high hopes of making a success of French life.

But rarely do plans run smoothly and despite working hard on the business, Karen slowly began to see a change in her family and herself, taking to writing in her journal to help tackle some of the problems.

Soon the journal became a source of relief, ensuring Karen stayed clear of the gin and anti-depressants, and formed the framework of a book that she went on to publish just before moving back to the UK called Faking It In France.

Here Karen talks about her time in France.

Craig McGinty: What was the reason behind your move to France?

Karen Bates The reason we moved to France in the first place was. It was really on a whim. I mean, it might sound absolutely crazy, but we sold our business and we had some money in the bank, and my brother already lived in Brittany.