“I had no choice. Or at least it seemed that way to me. I even stole money from my family to give to (fellow French director Jacques) Rivette for his first film. I pinched money to be able to see films and to make films,” he told Die Zeit weekly.

Godard’s first film “Breathless”, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, is considered to be a groundbreaking work of the French New Wave.

He cemented his reputation with “Contempt”, “Pierrot le Fou” and “Two or Three Things I Know About Her”.

Godard, 76, is due to receive a lifetime achievement award from the European Film Academy in Berlin on Saturday.

He told Die Zeit he had little time for most contemporary filmmakers.

“Most directors, and three-quarters of the people who will receive prizes in Berlin, only pick up the camera to feel alive. They do not use it to see things that you cannot see without a camera.”

Rivette’s first feature-length film “Paris Belongs to Us” hit screens in 1960, the same year as “Breathless”.

AFP

In a prime-time television interview, Sarkozy promised his government would take a tough line towards those behind a flare-up of violence that left more than 120 police wounded, some by gunfire.

“These people are yobs, ready to do anything. We will find them one by one,” said Sarkozy, who seized hold of the suburb crisis upon his return from a state visit to China.

Two nights of arson attacks and clashes around Villiers le Bel, north of the capital, were triggered by the death of two teenage boys in a motorbike collision with a police car on Sunday.

“We came within inches of a catastrophe,” warned Sarkozy, who earlier visited several officers wounded by hunting rifle buckshot and bullets, including one who lost an eye.

Hundreds of riot police were on duty for a fourth night in Villiers and nearby towns, where a mass security presence has kept an uneasy calm for the past two nights.

Sarkozy charged earlier that the violence — France’s worst unrest since nationwide riots in November 2005 — was caused by a hard core of delinquents rather than social deprivation.

“What happened in Villiers le Bel has nothing to do with a social crisis and everything to do with yobocracy,” he told a meeting of police officers.

“Other unemployed people do not open fire on the police,” he reaffirmed. “This has nothing to do with an accident. This has nothing to do with social problems. I will not respond to this with more money.”

“When you try to explain the inexplicable, you end up finding excuses for the inexcusable.”

His words were echoed by Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara, herself a social activist from the “banlieues”, who told Le Parisien newspaper that “what happened is not a social crisis. This is anarchic urban violence carried out by a minority, who tarnish the majority.”

Sarkozy said an action plan for the poor suburbs to be announced in January would focus on encouraging social mobility “for those who want to get out”, while promising tough treatment for delinquents.

Government policy would be “more generous to those who want training and a job, a family and a home, and more severe to those whose only idea is to poison the lives of others,” he said.

The initial findings of an investigation into Sunday’s accident confirmed the police version according to which the police vehicle was driving at normal speed when it was crashed into by the two teenagers, neither of whom was wearing a helmet, Le Figaro newspaper reported.

Some local people appear to believe that the crash was deliberately caused by the police, who they say left the scene without treating the victims.

The suburb violence came hard on the heels of a paralysing nine-day transport strike against Sarkozy’s pension reform plans, the most serious challenge to his presidency since his election in May.

A poll taken at the height of the strike showed Sarkozy’s confidence ratings tumbling below 50 percent for the first time, with respondents complaining of stagnating wages and rising prices and stubbornly high unemployment, at 8.1 percent.

Sarkozy pledged to “put some fuel” back into the economy, but with sluggish growth and French public finances stretched to capacity, he warned the solution could not come from state “hand-outs”.

“The French people are not waiting for me to hand out gifts like Father Christmas when they know there is no money in the coffers,” he said.

Sarkozy insisted the only way to boost spending power was to allow people to “work more to earn more” — his key campaign slogan — promising to let firms circumvent the 35-work week under agreement with workers and unions.

Forty-nine percent of respondents told the TNS-Sofres poll they doubted Sarkozy’s ability to wrench France out of the economic doldrums.

AFP

Sure, the idea has appeal: an e-reader lets you carry hundreds of books, search or jump to any spot in the text and bump up the type size when your eyes get tired.

But the counterarguments are equally persuasive. Printed books are dirt cheap, never run out of power and survive drops, spills and being run over. And their file format will still be readable 200 years from now.

So e-book readers keep on coming and keep on flopping: the Rocket eBook Reader. Gemstar. Everybook. SoftBook. Librius Millennium Reader. The Sony Reader is in stores even now, priced at $350 and making literally dozens of sales.

Then on Monday, Amazon introduced its own e-book reader, called the Kindle. It arrives at $400 — reading material sold separately.

Are they completely nuts?

The Kindle is a thin, 10-ounce slab of white plastic, tucked into a leatherette cover. It’s not, ahem, gorgeous; it’s all white plastic, sharp angles and visible seams, with all the design panache of a Commodore 64.

Its slight left-side thickening is supposed to suggest the feel of a paperback book folded back on your hand.

The screen uses the same astonishing E Ink technology that Sony’s Reader uses. It looks like black ink on light gray paper: no backlight, no glare, no eyestrain — and no need to turn it off, ever.

That’s because E Ink draws power only when you turn a page. At that point, millions of particles are drawn into a pattern of letters (or four-shade gray-scale images) by a brief electronic charge — and there they can stay forever, even if you take the battery out. You don’t turn this thing off; you just set it down, like a book.

The “ink” is so close to the surface of the screen, it looks like it’s been printed there, so reading is satisfying, immersive and natural. At page turns, only a distracting black-white flash reminds you that you’re not viewing paper anymore.

To the right is a screen-height recessed groove. What looks like a shiny bit of silver chrome moves in this groove as you roll the clickable thumbwheel beneath it. This is your cursor; the electronically controlled silver patch grows and shrinks to highlight buttons or page chunks on the screen to its left.

But the part that will really rock your world is the Kindle’s free wireless cellular broadband service.

Now, if you just splurted your coffee, you’re forgiven; “free” and “wireless broadband” have rarely been used in the same sentence before. The Kindle goes online using Sprint’s 3G cellular data network — the same service that costs $60 a month for corporate laptop luggers. The Kindle’s price tag stings less when you realize that Amazon is going to pay your entire wireless tab.

So the Kindle can get online almost anywhere — not just in little coffee-shop hot spots, but in cabs, in lines, in doctor’s offices.

There’s even a crude Web browser. It’s fine for text and graphics, lousy for Web layouts and useless for streaming audio or video. But with some effort, you can use it to get news, rebook a flight, monitor blogs and even check Web e-mail (like Gmail).

But that’s not why Amazon is paying your wireless bills, and that’s not why it burdened the design with a tiny, clicky keyboard. No, the real point is instant book downloading.

The Kindle store offers best-seller lists, Most Popular lists and a Search box. The catalog includes 90,000 books so far, including 101 of the 112 currently listed as New York Times best sellers.

That dwarfs the Sony catalog (20,000 books), but Amazon says that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Its goal is to have every printed book on earth available for instant download.

It’s a giddy thought. Someone mentions a great book — any book. You whip out the Kindle, download the book in 60 seconds and start reading it.

That fantasy isn’t quite fulfilled at the moment. There’s an endless amount of great stuff on the Kindle store, but not everything. There’s no “Harry Potter” series, no “Book Thief,” no “Inconvenient Truth.”

Still, the instant wireless gratification is intoxicating, especially compared with the clunky method of loading up previous e-readers, with a Windows PC and a cable.

The pricing is another breakthrough: Kindle books generally cost less than half of what printed books cost (and much less than Sony’s e-books). It’s common sense; why should a digital file cost as much as a physical object, manufactured and shipped? Most Kindle hardcover books cost $10, including “I Am America (and So Can You”), “Deceptively Delicious” and “Freakonomics.” Their hardcover prices are $25 or $26. Older books cost $3 to $6.

You can also subscribe to major newspapers for various prices, including this one for $14 a month. Your paper arrives at 3 a.m., Eastern time, silently and automatically, complete with all articles and photos (although without the comics, crosswords, ads and so on). Magazines are available (for example, $1.50 a month for Time) and so are blogs ($2 a month).

Of course, even at those discounted prices, it will take you a very long time to recoup the Kindle’s $400 price; this machine is mostly about convenience, not economics.

But if you’re short of cash, you can also fill the Kindle with your own documents and photos — by e-mail. You, or your authorized minions, can e-mail Word, PDF, JPEG and text files directly to your Kindle’s special address — including any of the 20,000 free, out-of-copyright e-books at Gutenberg.org.

Amazon charges 10 cents for each e-mailed document; if even that’s too rich for your blood, you can also transfer them free from a Mac or PC, over a U.S.B. cable.

This feature means that you can look over documents, contracts and user guides while you’re on the road — without a laptop.

The Kindle holds about 200 books. (As an author myself, I was a little mortified to learn that my months of effort boil down to a pathetic 800-kilobyte text file.) You can insert an SD memory card to hold thousands more.

All of your reading material, and even your notes, bookmarks and clippings, is automatically backed up on Amazon.com. You can delete stuff when the Kindle gets full, confident that you can download it again later.

Amazon says that you’ll get about two days’ worth of reading on a charge of the replaceable battery — or, if you turn off the wireless feature, a week.

The Kindle also plays audio books you’ve bought from Audible.com, although they have to be bought and loaded from a computer. You can even play MP3 files as background-reading music (random-shuffle mode only).

There are drawbacks, though. The right and left margins of the Kindle are gigantic Previous Page and Next Page clickers; it’s almost impossible to avoid clicking them by accident.

There’s a Back button, but no Forward button — a real drag when you’re on the Web or the Kindle store. You can’t read in landscape orientation. And you can’t change the type size for the Web — not even for the Kindle store, whose text is tiny indeed.

So if the Kindle isn’t a home run, it’s at least an exciting triple. It gets the important things right: the reading experience, the ruggedness, the super-simple software setup. And that wireless instant download — wow.

Even though most people will prefer the feel, the cost and the simplicity of a paper book, the Kindle is by far the most successful stab yet at taking reading material into the digital age.

No, it’s not the last word in book reading. But once its price comes down and its design gets sleeker, the Kindle may be the beginning of a great new chapter.

According to LH2 (footnote: LH2 survey, Liberation 21-22 September,) 66 per cent of French people form a «positive» opinion of Sarkozy. According to Ipsos (footnote: Ipsos-Le Point survey, 5-6 October,) 63 per cent of the people interviewed issue a «favourable» verdict on «Nicolas Sarkozy’s action as president.» Ifop (footnote: Ifop-Le Journal du Dimanche survey, 13-21 September) tells us that 61 per cent of interviewees are «satisfied» with Sarkozy. In two of these three cases, the president’s rating was virtually unchanged from the previous month.

It is lower, by no less than 6-7 points, according to the two other pollsters, who ask more direct questions about the head of state’s capabilities. According to TNS (footnote: TNS-Sofres-Le Figaro Magazine survey, 26-27 September,) 57 per cent of French people have «confidence» that the president can «resolve the problems currently facing France.» Last, consistently, CSA (footnote: CSA-I Tele-Le Parisien survey, 26-27 September) finds that 55 per cent of interviewees have «confidence» that he will «deal effectively with the major problems confronting the country.» The discrepancy between the president’s positive personal image and the more reserved assessment of his action is also perceptible in the gap between his own rating and that enjoyed by his prime minister, which is 5-9 points lower.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s potential weakness lies in his very particular relationship with public action. The unrest experienced by the majority in recent weeks has stemmed from doubts about the correctness of certain orientations, suspected of being ill adapted to present difficulties (»bankruptcy») or of falling short of the expectations created during the election campaign (the «new departure.») The tensions between the head of state and the prime minister have had to do partly with his mode of action, whether the leeway enjoyed by the prime minister or the pace of reforms.

Sarkozy’s very personal style of action exposes him to three kinds of dangers. The first is that of excessive doggedness. The president keeps saying that he was not elected to lounge around at the Elysee [president’s office]. His ability to convince the French people that the political authorities can still resolve their problems played a major part in his presidential victory. But his constant reaffirmation of his desire to act does not guarantee the attainment of tangible results. The syndrome of the omnipotence of the president’s statements is apparent when the Elysee proposes to «pursue growth, no matter what it takes»…

The risk of yielding to a kind of denial of reality is all the more present inasmuch as Sarkozy displays an astonishing form of rigidity. This leader, who flatters his itself on not being confined to any ideological system, clings feverishly to the promises he made to voters. Again, the new president’s attitude contrasts with that of his predecessor. Jacques Chirac drew an extreme distinction between campaign remarks and government action. An enemy of extemporization, and obsessed with the contract concluded with the French people, Sarkozy probably goes too far in the opposite direction. He almost sanctifies what he said as a candidate, which is something he finds it hard to stop being.

This attitude generates a certain dogmatism in public action. «I will pursue this policy against everything,» he told majority members of Parliament 3 October. It has also resulted in arguments that have sometimes become tedious through repetition - the recurrent attacks on «single thinking,» a monomaniacal insistence on the theme of «labour,» formerly «discouraged» and in the future «liberated,» elevated to the status of a universal solution to the country’s ills. A third fault lies in the excessive confidence that Sarkozy places in the virtues of media coverage. The head of state has for some time already theorized communication as a precondition for action. It cannot replace it, however. Sarkozy is here the victim of his own talent for self-justification, which was again demonstrated in his televised address 20 September. The impact on certain opinion polls was immediate. But the French people are ever less deceived by this omnipresence. «He is everywhere and nowhere a! t the same time,» according to one interviewee cited by Ifop. Even in these days of mediatized democracy, reality always has the last word.

Be that as it may, differences of approach still remain on numerous topics following this two-day visit, President Sarkozy’s first to Russia. With regard to Iran, Vladimir Putin reaffirmed that he would prefer to rely on the United Nations to force Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment programme, rather than to prepare further sanctions, as Paris would like. Basically, the Russian president said that Iran is not trying to acquire nuclear weapons, which is something of which the Western nations declare themselves convinced. «We have no objective information, which is why we proceed from the principle that Iran has no such plans,» he said, while nevertheless saying that he is willing «to continue to cooperate» with the international community in this matter.

«Difference of analysis»

»This is the important thing,» Nicolas Sarkozy commented. But the French president had to backtrack on the «convergences» that he hailed the previous day. «There is a difference of analysis on whether the Iranians are manufacturing the bomb and whether they want to use it,» the president admitted.

Nicolas Sarkozy voiced his pleasure at having spoken «freely, friendly, and frankly» with the Kremlin chief on «every topic.» During the two days he repeatedly asserted the need «not to humiliate a great country that has suffered a great deal,» as [former French President] Jacques Chirac recommended before him.

He stated his wish to understand «Russia’s major return to the international scene» and added, urging Moscow to display openness and a responsible attitude, that this earns it not only rights but also obligations. He argued for transparency and reciprocity in economic exchanges. Last, he said that he did not want to lecture anyone: «We must not lecture the Russian people.» He nevertheless stressed that friends that hold convictions can tell each other everything…

Note taken. The French president, from whom much was expected on the «ethical» front, addressed students at Bauman University, telling them that, «if young people so wish, human rights will be observed, and men and women will circulate freely…» In a hall full to bursting, he championed the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the press, in answer to a question from a student who deplored the fate of Mikhail Prokhorov, the oligarch imprisoned in Courchevel in connection with a prostitution case in January. «A country where the judiciary are not independent is not a free country. You will enjoy this some day,» he said. «In my country every authority is accountable and nobody is above the law,» he added. He went on: «We must prefer excessive media coverage to insufficient press freedom.»

«Friend does not mean slave»

«Are you in favour of a multipolar world?» another student asked him. «I am a friend of the United States,» Nicolas Sarkozy replied. «But ‘friend’ does not mean ‘slave,’» he added. «The world today cannot be ruled by a single power. I could say the same of Russia with regard to its neighbours…»

Telling all… Certainly with greater «frankness» than prevailed with regard to Russia under Jacques Chirac. But, as then, with consideration and without direct aggressiveness. Before leaving Moscow yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy met with members of the Memorial organization, which is very much involved in the defence of human rights in the Caucasus. Was it this initiative that irritated Putin? Despite his stony face, the Russian president did say that he saw no harm in it…

If you are sick but it is not emergency, we suggest that you try and see a general practitioner (généraliste). You don’t need an appointment to see one, and most will speak some English. A Généraliste will see patients on a first come first serve basis during business hours. The cost to see a generalist is 22 euros, regardless of nationality.

To see a doctor during non-business hours or on weekends, you need to find the doctor on call (médecin de garde) in the area you are in. You can either call, or have someone call for you, the SAMU (French emergency health services). Dial 15 and wait for an operator, or a local paper should have a list with the médecin de garde and the on call pharmacy (pharmacie de garde) in your area. After seeing the doctor, you will need to go to the on-call pharmacy to get your prescription filled. In the countryside, both might not be in the same town.

If you need non-prescription medication, French pharmacies (pharmacie) are easily located by looking for a blinking green neon cross. French pharmacies tend to be abundant and can be found in even the smallest villages. French pharmacies differ from their American counterparts in that most medicine is not stocked on shelves accessible to the public. To buy even the most basic medicine in France, you need to ask at the counter. I will usually explain my symptoms to the pharmacists and let him or her recommend a medication. I do this mostly because not all medication in the States is sold under the same brand name in France.

In Paris, most pharmacists should speak basic English, or have a co-worker that does. In the countryside, this might not be true. If worst comes to worst, you could look up in a French-English dictionary what is ailing you. Write it down and show the pharmacist.

The list can be found here.

If you have international health insurance a good place to start is by asking your provider to help you out in this area. Most international health insurance companies provide this service to their members.

Another good source is to belong to IAMAT- International Association for Medical Assistance to Travelers. Founded by an Italian doctor in 1960 who realized how important it is for international travelers to have doctors who understand the particular needs of an overseas patient. By joining, which is free, you will have access to their database of English speaking doctors around the globe.

Go to: www.iamat.org

Another avenue preferred by many Americans is to go back to the US for medical care during their holidays and leave. As medical practices and especially patient care are different in each country many people feel better served by their countrymen. But given the steep prices and billing practices of US hospitals and medical providers it is a good idea to have an insurance plan in place that is comfortable with handling US claims.

Lauren Twist from Washington DC (USA), Lucy Falkner and Stephanie Zemlak both from England, Cornwall and Birmingham respectively, came to Périgueux, Dordogne in September 2006 to work as English-language teaching assistants - since when they have developed a certain awareness of the particularities or peculiarities of the French. After studying languages and international studies at university they wanted to perfect their French, and were also motivated by more salubrious reasons:

“I studied in Paris two years ago,” says Lauren, “and I loved it so much I wanted to come back for longer and see other parts of France.”

“The pretty little towns, the coffee culture and of course the wine and the food are all brilliant,” says Lucy. The only drawback is that while Périgueux is très sympa, it remains: “A quiet and small city where it’s hard to find much to occupy your free time if you are young and in the mood for a party”. “We also have not found it as easy as we expected to meet and talk with the locals,” they agree.

Despite this, Stephanie has found the French she has met “very friendly and welcoming”, Lucy thinks they are “less uptight than the English” and according to Lauren “they are actually quite similar to the Americans”, perhaps noticing the bling-bling dress code and gangster-style roll of 21st-century Périgueux youth.

And what of the reputation preceding every French man, the smooth and slinky lover? “They are certainly much more proactive than British or American men, they approach you in a bar and flirt a lot more than they do back at home, but actually this is sometimes just annoying and uncomfortable,” says Lauren. Other stereotypes ring true, Stephanie confirms: “People really do wear a beret and carry a baguette under their arm everywhere.”

Where they do find young out and about, growing up seems to be less of a vomit-surrounded hazy experience here in France. “Binge drinking is a much larger problem in the UK and America,” concur all three girls. And with it, teenage pregnancy: “It’s very common and especially where I live,” says Stephanie, “but the much larger problem here is drink driving.” In England it is now such a faux pas that people really hardly do it anymore, but here they seem happier to hop in their cars after a night out on the stella.”

All in all we’ve found the experience so far very beneficial,” they chorus, agreeing that they intend to use their French skills for work in the future, even if definite career plans are hard to pin down as yet. “We enjoy learning about other cultures and different ways of life, and are firm believers in that old adage ‘travelling broadens the mind’” - and the waist, or so they have been warned about all those baguettes.

Interview by Cécile Lefèvre, Florie Fortin, Olga Michaud and Gilliane Paulus.

On the photo: Stephanie Zemlak (Birmingham), Lucy Falkner (Cornwall) and Lauren Twist (Washington DC)

I have my broke-back paperbacks and my ‘Playboy’ still.

And when James Taylor ends his live recording of ‘Steamroller Blues’ (that’s “Bluh-loo-hooooos”) with the throw-away reference to “Bokonon, Bokonon”, we know who he means. We even know some of the Calypsos, like:

“So I said good-bye to government,
And I gave my reason:
That a really good religion
Is a form of treason.”

So he died at 84 - and just the irony he would most relish - of cranial complications after a fall. Of head injuries.

But he lived with heart injuries. Ours.

‘Slaughterhouse 5′ concerned the lunacy of war and his own experiences as a prisoner of war confined in a basement cold-room during the horrendous and pointless Allied fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. Estimates vary, but more than 100,000 people and a great medieval heritage died in that inferno. He told us about it.

Fire and ice.

When that ‘ice-nine’ hits the sea and the world freezes and the mouths of the tornados come down out of the sick sky, is Uncle Kurt telling us about nuclear warfare or climate change? Both. When the businessmen on that vacation island celebrate the absolute dominance of the machine, is Uncle Kurt telling us about urban murder or computer squeeze-plays? Both.

But he was no raving storm-crow. Uncle Kurt was a humanitarian. His religion, if he ever had it, was probably burned away as he hunkered in that Dresden slaughterhouse. But his abiding faith in our ability to see and climb up to goodness never wavered. He was able to be crushingly dismissive of our grandest ideals while being tenderly protective of our best hopes.

So if we sure do know the danger of ‘ice-nine’, we also know the virtue of the volunteer firefighters, so ‘God Bless You, Mr Rosewater’.

I met him once, in the maelstrom of the Sixties at the University of Chicago. No, I bring you no memorable quote, I regret. Just my memory of a curly-haired man with tired rings under his eyes. Given the times, I guess he had a lot to be tired about. Contemporary of - but not so reclusive as - J D Salinger, Long Island lit-fest buddy of Joseph Heller, inheritor of Mark Twain and, by a different genetic, John Steinbeck, but no thundering ayatollah he, Uncle Kurt chid. The title of ‘The Fourteenth Book of Bokonon’ was, “What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?” And the complete text was: “Nothing.”

That last note of Taylor’s is high up in his always spot-on falsetto. Uncle Kurt wrote, always, high up and spot-on, but never in falsetto. Always in his true voice.

I miss him already.

Finding a property corresponding to your search in France is your first obstacle! Less than 50% of sales in France are handled by real estate agencies, so in order not to exclude a good portion of the available property offer, you would be advised to engage a reputable property search agency - like Paris Property Finders (www.parispropertyfinders.com) - who will scour all the property sources available in accordance with your brief. (This is already a great plus, since estate agencies in France tend not to be proactive or geared to searching for you - they rather focus on pushing the properties they have. If you don’t find what you are looking for on the first visit, don’t count on the agency to call back!) You don’t need to pay any upfront fee for these search services either. Paris Property Finders only charge you a fee (a percentage of the final purchase price of the property) should you proceed with the purchase of a property that they find for you. Usually the search fee is more than compensated for in the negotiation leverage that such an agency can bring to the transaction with the seller.

Once you have located a property you like, do check it carefully before signing any type of avant-contrat, especially a compromis de vente, unless you include special conditions (clauses suspensives), covering you if planning permission falls through, for example, or if lead or asbestos is found. Although the compromis gives you seven days to think things over, it is considered a serious offer, binding both you and the vendor. This usually requires a 10% deposit of the house price which will only be reimbursed if the stipiulated conditions are not met, so if money is tight and you are not 100% certain you really want the property, do not sign.

Less binding is the promesse de vente, which should prevent gazumping and obliges the vendor to hold the property for you for up to three months from the signature. If you decide to withdraw your offer, you must do so by registered post, lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception, within seven days counting from the day after the receipt of the contract, and you forfeit the deposit. If you are dealing with a private vendor, not an agency, you may be asked to sign a sous-seing privé instead of a promesse or a compromis de vente, but the seven-day cooling off period still holds.

Any document you sign should include:

• The price of the property.
• Its detailed description and size (superficie).

It is at this point also that you need to consider how you will be acquiring the property: either as an individual (personne physique), in co-ownership or as a company - don’t forget that, under French inheritance laws, individuals cannot leave the property to anyone they wish, even if a will has already been established.

Check it out

You will need to check for the usual signs of disrepair, particularly in the older buildings:

• Damp
• The presence of asbestos
• Lead and termites if in an infested zone
• Possible building faults
• Whether the property is on hazardous land (flood risk, subsidence etc)

The vendor is responsible for providing documents giving the all-clear on the above and showing what repairs and alterations have been made to the property. Otherwise the vendor is held liable for any hidden defects- vices cachés. If the clauses suspensives cover these areas and the property is found to be full of asbestos, for instance, you can withdraw your offer and your deposit will be returned. You would also be well advised to make sure the property is what it seems to be, by checking its perimeters and right of way (servitude). The plan cadastral (land register) from the Direction de l’équipement (each département has one) should provide you with an up-to-date detailed map. If you can, check with the mairie too for details of possible local building plans in the neighbourhood that might affect the property’s value, and whether you need planning permission for any renovation you might want to undertake. A chartered surveyor, or expert-géomètre, can be useful in all of these situations - they are even allowed to buy and sell property in some circumstances - and it might be worth investing in their services before buying that charming ruin next to a future motorway, for example. In France, a survey is not compulsory before purchase.

Creating your Dream Home

Most older properties require complete rewiring and replumbing - an experienced and anglo-saxon minded building company, such as Batiloft (www.batiloft.fr), will be willing to visit your prospective property with you to give you perspective on what renovation commitments and costs you could be taking on. They can also give you some insight into the potential of a property and to what extent ambitious plans you might have can be realised.

If you are going to be living elsewhere during the renovation of your property, you would be highly advised to work with a local company that can coordinate and manage the project on your behalf. Language barriers can be a painful obstacle to understanding and achieving the work that you want undertaken. A bilingual speaker can ensure that you understand what you are getting into and that the right message is relayed to local workers and suppliers who more often than not do not speak english! Spacio Creative Living (www.spacio.fr) is a multi-service bilingual company that works in partnership with a range of key experts in the realm of property search, fiscal advice, bank loans, renovation, interior design and rental management. Spacio can offer to take care of the whole - or part - of the property development process and will devise a bespoke programme to meet your own particular needs or circumstances.

Paperwork

You will be asked for a number of official documents when you buy a property, so prepare at the very least:

• Photocopy of your current, valid passport
• Certified copy of your birth certificate (made within the last three months)
• Resident’s card if you have one
• Marriage certificate, livret de famille or PACS contract if applicable

Any documents in English will need to be translated into French by an official translator -traducteur agrée. If everything seems in order, you are satisfied with the state of the property and your financing has been granted, then the final papers to sign will be the deeds of sale, or acte de vente. You will need to have the balance of the property price, notaire’s fees and commission ready. Don’t forget that after this final signature you are immediately responsible for taking out third-party insurance on the property.

Useful links (in French):
• www.paris.notaires.fr
• www.geometre-expert.fr

You can also check with your Agence départementale d’information pour le logement (ADIL or ANIL) that your housing project is valid and legal:

• www.anil.org

Contact Julie McIvor: julie@spacio.fr
Tel: 06 07 90 80 09 (+33 6 07 90 80 09 from abroad)

Julie McIvor is a British citizen living in Paris.