The National Health service in France is based on a pay-as-you-are-treated regime with reimbursement of some or all fees according to various circumstances: For instance a Doctor’s visit will be reimbursed to 70% of the cost (if the cost is what the Government tariff sets) and you can get the other 30% reimbursed if you […]
If you are a foreigner in France and have private health care or home state cover for your emergency health care such as the UK scheme European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) these are the things you need to know about hospitals in France. Hospitals in France are clearly signposted in towns but can be few […]
Doctor’s surgeries/offices in France are privately established and doctors work as individuals or as part of a group. Depending on what healthcare insurance you have in France will affect how much treatment will cost since you pay first and are reimbursed according to your insurance. To ensure that you get the fullest reimbursement for […]
In France everything has its season: in February it’s skiing; in May it’s lily-of-the valley; in August it’s idleness; and in October it’s tax. This last is why, as the leaves begin to fall each year, my husband and I get together for a financial summit. Our budgetary discussions have a peculiarly French flavour, however: […]
Years ago, expats in France who wanted an income usually took the gite route. Gites really took off in the 1950s when the French Government introduced a gite classification system to breathe new life into rural economy and British expats in particular saw the attraction. These days expats are becoming more and more entrepreneurial and […]
Philippe, our French estate agent, was already at ‘our’ house to open up the shutters, when his bi-lingual colleague Leontine was still busy translating the houses’ deeds for us in the notaries’ office. We knew we still had to improve our French, but it became more evident half an hour later, when Philippe ran towards […]
‘How this coast smells of riches!’ So wrote the American Jane de Glehn, wife of the English artist Wilfred de Glehn, when she first set foot on the Riviera after the end of World War I. A member of the Red Cross Committee, who had worked in the devastated areas of the Haute Marne and […]
My love of France sneaked up on me. Unlike my husband who I think came out of the womb loving France. His dream, which predates our meeting ten years ago, was to live in France. It wasn’t a dream I shared. But here we are in the process of buying our very own house in […]
Buying a house in France is the dream of many but what if you live on the other side of the globe and have never even set foot in France? This describes Annette Charlton who made her dream come true and now lives between her homes in Newcastle, Australia and Brittany, France. So, is the […]
A French shop assistant in Antibes’ old town asked me for the translation of a French word the other afternoon. We’d become bosom buddies in her quiet swimsuit store, but I was glad for the conversational distraction. I hated swimsuit shopping. It brought out all my insecurities. As my new friend rang up my purchase, she complimented […]
The first time I took my long-haired mini-dachshund, Ellie, to France, we spent two months traveling from Paris to Brittany and Normandy. Our last stop was the seaside resort of Agon-Coutainville, on the Cotentin peninsula which juts into the English Channel. There Ellie feasted on raw milk Camembert and prė-salė lamb. When we returned to […]