lesking54

Hi
My name is Les, my partner Nicki and I have lived in Crete Greece for the past 4 years. It is a fab place to live but lacks certain things that are important to us. Forgot to say we have two young boys who will not leave home Trigger and Boycie ( dogs )
We would like to move to the the north Rhone area on the river Saone to the east of Dijon, preferable right on the river as I have a boat to moor up somewhere. We are looking to rent a country property near a good size town for one year to start with and then go from there,
This is a very brief opening to start.
Let me know if anyone can advise on the best place to look for long term rental and any other tip bits that might come in helpful.
Les

Listen Very Carefully

What is your nationality? Unless one of you is of EU nationality you will need visas. How will you make a living,show you have an income equivalent to the French minimum wage pay for healthcare etc? France is not a cheap place to live Also do not forget a passport for your pets You may have already considered these things of course but Brexit has changed things for Brits

lesking54

Hi

Yes we have carried out a reasonable amount of research.
We can comply with all the requirements set out by the French Visa conditions. I made contact with the French embassy and a company that arranges Visa's.
We also have European Bio Metric Permits which apparently helps.

No doubt it will not be straight forward though.... but trust me building a house in Greece is quite interesting !!!!

Les

Tweedpipe

The only tip bits I can give are that we did have a few regular posters here who were interested in boats, namely Audio and Bazzer70. Link HERE.
It appears that the first hasn't posted since Sept last year, Bazzer however still appears regularly on this French forum and if he's reading this may have other river boating related tips to share with you.

bazzer70

I sold my boat just before Co-vid hit us. I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up living so decided it was easiest not to have the boat to worry about too! The guy that bought it got an absolute bargain! Was 6 years old when I sold her and I got just short of half what I paid new - that’s life.

lesking54

Hi Tweedpipe Bazzer
Thanks to both of you for your replies.
It has been a bit hectic over here the last week or so, so my apologise for the slow response.
Bazzer the reason we are not moving to France until next year is I need to finish my boat first !!! Yes I am mad....I am building an 8m power boat, will attempt t post a pic... Our idea is to move somewhere between Avignon and Dijon on the river. We will come over late summer for a couple of weeks and have a good look around. I have a million questions so will start to feed them in and hopefully get some pointers.
Apart from boats and water I am a fishing nut !!! so look forward to making the best of the rivers.
I think our biggest problem will be finding a place to rent for a year, we have two dogs which hopefully will not hamper us too much. In the perfect world we will find a property unfurnished.
Will post again shortly when time allows.
All the best
Les

Apparently I can not post pic's until I have made 5 posts..... will post pic soon.

bazzer70

My boat was a small gin palace on the coast (Poole harbour) - liked the thrill of going fast in the sea - only for short spurts as it was hellishy thirsty doing that! Reason we had it was because it was a wonderful relaxing break fro hectic London at the weekend. We found the boating fraternity so friendly so thoroughly enjoyed the times we had. My home in France doesn’t lend itself to boating of any kind - pity - but you can’t have everything hey?

lesking54

Afternoon All

Not sure how this forum works.... So far I have had a few replies from Tweedpipe and Bazzer70.
Please let me know if I am not asking the right questions OR am I on the wrong forum ? If I need to work this in a different way please inform.

All the best

Les

dmu

Hi, you're in the right place and asking the right questions, except that the question of your boat seems to have taken over!
There don't seem to be any members in the area you're interested in, so no local knowledge to be imparted.
Take a look in the "Agences Immobilières" and "LeBonCoin" or "PAP" (private sales) sites, to get an idea of what's available, and prices, bearing in mind that, if you rent at first, you should make sure that properties are dog-friendly. (Make sure they've got their valid Pet Passports before crossing Europe...)
You'll need to get a Permis de Pèche before you can fish legally.
HTH

EuroTrash

Hi Les, you are on the right forum and your questions are fine, I think that unfortunately it just so happens that not many members have boats - I thought Bazzer was our resident boater but not any more - and not many members live in that particular area! I have visited around Dijon and it is nice round there, but I live in Normandy.
In terms of renting, well rental law at least is the same across all of France although local interpretation may be different, so I would suggest you start preparing your dossier in good time. French rental law gives tenants a lot of protection and therefore landlords can be very picky, especially for unfurnished rentals. Unfurnished residential rental contracts are for 3 years minimum, furnished are for 1 year minimum, the "minimum" being on the landlord's side - the tenant can of course give notice and leave earlier as long as they follow the terms and conditions in the contract. If youn want to rent through a rental agency, it would be a good idea to contact agencies well in advance and see if they will accept you onto their books, because normally there is a whole rigmarole to go through before an agency will let you view a property. If you don't have a permanent employment contract in France, which presumably having lived in Greece you don't, they will want to see details of your income and they may ask for a guarantor; there are companies that you can arrange guarantees with. Also as you have probably discovered from your research, your monthly rent cannot be more than one-third of your monthly income and this rule tends to be strictly observed..
I am not sure that landlords can legally refuse pets as such, although they can of course choose their tenants and usually for desirable properties there are plenty of applicants.
So one way and another, finding a residential rental in France can be a certain amount of faff and I suppose that applies equally in the region you have chosen..
Beyond that I am afraid I can't really offer any advice in response to your questions so far, but welcome to the forum and if you have any other questions about life in France in general, I'm sure members will pitch in and share their experiences..

cyrian

Hi Les
I have done a river cruise from Avignon to Dijon and have a few observations.
There are lots of locks between Avignon and Dijon.
Some are for hydro electricity and some locks are tens of metres high.
A lot of the navigable area is in fact canal. Smaller boats can perhaps stick to the river - I don't know.
There are plenty of attractive smaller towns along the Rhone and Saone.
I liked Vienne just South of Lyon.
Our cruise stopped at Chalon sur Saone near Dijon which was an industrial quay and not very attractive.
Your idea to rent initially is a good move and you could also consider renting a gite and exploring your chosen part of the river.
HTH

Tweedpipe

THIS link may help with pet-friendly gites etc.

A little off-topic, but dogs had been mentioned:-
Being a huge fan of OFAH, re-reading that your dogs were named Trigger and Boycie really made my day! I sometimes wonder why we didn't name ours Wally or Dipstick......
I could write forever on our experiences with dogs, but suffice to say Mme TPipe insisted some while ago that if we were to get another dog it must be short-haired and not shed hair like our boxers used to in the past. Much research later and a recommendation from the friendly owner of our local kennels, we decided on an Airedale. BIG mistake!! If not brushed every day the hair on these dogs comes everywhere in masses, far worse than our past experiences. Plus they are the most stubborn animal one can imagine (I'd read this several times and having a kind but assertive nature I thought I'd have little or no problem). BIG mistake again! Not only are they as tough as nails, but as I frequently tell my wife, "if this dog had been born a boy, he'd have been put into borstal a year ago."
I had no problem training previous dogs, they immediately came when they were called . This one does if he feels like it! What does work 95% of the time is using a clicker and shouting "Cheese!" loudly - when he usually comes running back at full speed and gets a morceau of chedder or cantal. It's the other 5% of the time that disturbs me. I once failed to move aside quickly when he arrived back, and 35kg hitting you at 35mph is a frightening and very painful experience - when one eventually manages to get back onto your feet.
Fortunately however there is some icing left on the cake. As guardians they're marvellous watchdogs, and this one shows us that although infuriatingly stubborn, there's a softies heart of gold beating within.

FrancoPhil02

Hello Les, I've PM'ed you. My situation will be similar in 2-3 years time? I.e. I will be looking for somewhere in a similar area for similar reasons. Good look in your search!