I h ave looked at houses for sale in rural France and most of the houses have a wood fire burner. Is there no gas mains then in rural france? How do people heat their houses there? Also, lots of houses have septic tanks whatever that means? Does it mean that you are not connected to the sewer system?

Not sure if there are regional variations but I have seen homes in France with LPG tanks. In many countries the only utilities for a lot of rural properties are electricity and water. Each place has its own mini sewage system in the form of a septic tank. These need emptying periodically and also have implications on what chemicals you can put down the toilet or sink. They rely on bacteria to break down waste, so if you use strong bleach etc you can damage that ecosystem.

No, mains gas central heating is rarity in Rural France . Most central heating in these situations is oil fired. Some people have LPG tanks but these are expensive to install-I believe all new LPG tanks have to be buried underground and of course the price of oil and LPG is astronomical now. Alternatives are woodfired systems or pellet stoves or electric heating. When I lived in France we we fortunate to have a proper heating engineer near us who rigged up a combined oil/wood system. Two points to bear in mind-France is investing heavily in nuclear to hopefully make electric cheaper and wood can be obtained easily and fairly cheaply from local farmers.In addition you need to look at investing in insulation and if the house is your full time residence grants are available.
In relation to septic tanks most rural houses have them in some form. When buying a house the vendors need to have the tank inspected and if it fails then that is a bargaining tool..In addition the vendors should also supply "diagnostics" which covers electricity etc.

Gas distribution is often confined to urban areas..... and sewage systems also. This is not particular to France, even in the UK many areas have no mains gas and some are not connected to central sewage disposal. Gas central heating fuelled by bottled gas used to be installed in places, but this has become uneconomical, rather like fuel-oil based systems. So electricity and/or solid fuel systems plus septic tanks are a normal part of rural life across Europe. The push has been to connect people to electricity and piped water. These days there is a push towards heat-pumps rather than boilers for heating and domestic hot water and for solar-heating for hot water also. I have solid fuel (wood) plus bottled gas geysers for hot water. No problem - but I plan to fit solar hot water heating .... because it just makes sense!

A septic tank is a buried container to take liquid and solid waste...... and the method of dealing with it depends on the age of the system. The liquid waste is vented and the solid remainder will normally break down, but if not, it can be extracted by a contractor and taken away. I have one in Portugal which is fairly new and after 12 yers it has needed no maintenance at all.... nor are there any smells or other issues. The only consideration is that some chemical products are not recommended (as they can kill the bacteria necessary for waste digestion) and the type and amount of paper, etc. needs to be controlled (as not all such products will break down). However, overall, no problem. I also have a borehole with treated water, its great for watering, washing, etc., but I tend to use bottled water for drinking as the groundwater in my area has a high iron content. Again, not really an issue.

As the OP has been banned I will close this thread to save members time and efforts.

Rosemary