Living In France
French people
Although it would be wrong to generalise it is worth mentioning some common traits that will often surface. One of the first things to bear in mind is that many French people are prone to say things that are not true. It is a habit that appears to be inherent and it means you have to accept whatever you are told with a large amount of scepticism. Especially where money matters are concerned and transactions involving property and goods they will say whatever they think you want to hear and agree to anything verbally until money changes hands. After that you are faced with a stone wall of silence and indifference that requires lawyers and courts to resolve. The French will not back down. They have to be forced down. This is easily achieved and the French usually always lose when faced with such situations but they would rather be fined and imprisoned over virtually nothing than accept the humiliation of being wrong or exposed for lying and cheating.
The French people are quite polite and inoffensive and not prone to acts of violence or angry outbursts. They may wave their arms about and look serious and storm out of the room but if faced by someone who is genuinely annoyed and battle ready they back off rapidly shrugging their shoulders wanting to know what all the fuss is about. If you say boo to them they will run off to the Police and report you so beware.
Language
If you cannot speak the French language fluently then forget it. You will be hammered in every possible way. The French list every language imaginable of things like consumer products and instruction books with the single exception of English. So the most widely spoken language on the planet is treated as though it does not exist. Hundreds of millions of Euros worth of goods are purchased online outside France for this reason alone. The loss to French business is massive but they would rather that than print a word of English on anything. Apart from that absolutely no help is available in English anywhere you go and so you will be landed in a minefield from day one. In a country that is famous for bureaucracy this is dangerous territory and it will hit you in the pockets big time. From insurance to income tax to medical expenses you will be constantly screwed.
Language Problems
Not being able to speak other languages and in particular English is a national pastime in France. The whole country is petrified of losing its language and identity and in order to protect it they have this huge pretence that they cannot speak or understand English. Even those that speak fluently will only admit with great reluctance to speaking a few words. Do not be troubled by this. In France they almost all speak English and many speak with a degree of fluency. Certainly anyone with professional qualifications such as Doctors, Dentists, Vets, Teachers, Lawyers and hundreds of other professions will be fluent despite what they might want you to believe. It is an uncanny truth but when in France you will discover that when you are making a purchase of anything or doing anything that is for the benefit of the French they manage to speak excellent English. These same people appear to be struck dumb when you approach them for anything that might benefit you in some way no matter how small. Their patience, politeness and considerable language skills vanish into thin air.
Bureaucracy
As already said France is a country steeped in bureaucracy and it loves paperwork and fines. If you do not like paperwork and endless form filling, letter writing, emailing and appointments with government officials to constantly keep back the torrent of A4 that will descend on you then live somewhere else. In France a lot of government jobs rest on moving paper around for no reason at all other than to keep people employed. These people are pointlessly employed and achieve nothing but there are millions of them and they justify their existence by irritating the general public with endless letters and demands. A simple request for a rebate for a bill paid in error to which you are perfectly entitled can take years to achieve and will involve hundreds of letters, appointments and forms. You will be asked for proof of who you are, where you came from, when you were married and where you were born. A passport, drivers licence, birth certificates and marriage documents plus anything else they can think of will be asked for but not all together. They will drip it along with new requests every few months until they can think of nothing else or you give up. Often your papers and important document are ‘lost’ and will never be seen again. This makes life even more difficult because everyone wants to see the original documents and obtaining replacements is near to impossible in some cases.
Shopping
Shopping in France is hopeless. The shops are closed more often than open and seem to be there to suit the owners rather than the customers. Most stores close on a Monday for some insane reason. They also close for 2 hours between 12 and 2pm which is another odd notion that borders on stupidity from a consumers perspective. Many shops also close on Saturday afternoons and just about everything is closed on Sundays. In August half of all businesses close completely for the entire month for ‘holidays’ which is apart for the fact that the same places will close at some other times for two weeks or more for holidays anyway. The same businesses including big names, banks, and professional services will close at the drop of a hat for any number of reasons. The French are definitely not business people and have no clue about customers or how to make money. Their idea of covering the gaps for being closed so much is to put their prices up to ridiculous levels. The French would rather see something sit on the shelf for ten years than reduce the price to sell it. This is why so many French goods come in tatty torn and dusty packaging - they have had the stuff for years. The sort of things that can be purchased readily online and delivered for next to nothing will be found all over France in shops at ten times the price. Goods sold in France are often without guarantee and are of very poor quality. Returning faulty goods is a dreadful experience and involves shouting matches and rowdy argument. A lot of goods made in France are low grade and high in price. This stems from France’s attempts at closing itself off from outside imports and selling to itself. The French often have no idea how expensive and bad their goods are or how poor their services can be until they visit other countries. If you enjoy shopping then give France a very wide berth because it is a shoppers nightmare and definitely not consumer friendly.
Insurance in France
One thing to be aware of is that in France the term ‘insurance’ has a different meaning than it does anywhere else. House insurance and car insurance as well as medical and other types of insurance often state things that are not true and you have no hope of claiming should you need to. What is said and what you get differ a lot. You discover what French insurance is all about if an attempt is made to claim on it.
Car Insurance
French car insurance also has a number of strange anomalies. A read through the policy will help but take nothing as read. Many policies rely on being able to claim off other policies or insurances. This means that when you are sitting in a parked car and a French driver reverses into you then things are not as cut and dried as you may think. He or she will likely as not blame you and attempt to claim against you for any number of reasons. As for damage repair and a quick fix or replacement vehicles - good luck. You will need patience, an insurance expert and possibly a lawyer. The status of many insurance policies only becomes apparent when something goes wrong. It is then and only then that you will discover that much of what was promised and everything that is written is subject to a great deal of interpretation - and most of the interpreting will be done by a less than sympathetic insurance company who will most certainly not want to meet its obligations and will definitely not want to pay out for anything.
Car Breakdown Cover
All insurance companies and agencies have different wordings and so there are no specifics but for example a car insurance will state quite clearly that you have breakdown cover. So in the event of a breakdown you have roadside assistance. The assumption being that if the axle breaks on your car at three in the morning and you are five hundred miles away from home you will be rescued. At least that is what any normal person would assume when they have paid for breakdown service and recovery.. It is not the case in France. In France you can call the emergency number and ( if you are lucky) you will get an answer. It is best that you break down during normal working hours that is to say between 9 in the morning and six in the evening between Tuesday and Saturday. Saturday afternoons you will be less likely to get an answer and this will diminish close to zero on a Sunday and even Monday can be tricky. During the whole of August (the French national holiday) almost anything that you want will be unavailable and bear in mind that the French do not work on public holidays and more often than not in the days leading up to them and the day after as well.
Your call to the breakdown service will rely heavily on these factors. 24 hour 7 day service is an alien concept to the French. Assuming you get connected and manage to speak perfect French to the operator ( English or any other language is not accepted so beware) you will then begin a potentially very long wait indeed which in many cases will be half a day or more and there are plenty of reports of no one arriving at all.
If you are fortunate enough to get someone to turn up they will be in most cases unable to offer road side assistance and will be eager to tow you to the nearest garage for repairs. The tow to the garage is free and is usually just a mile or two up the road and you could have walked there hours ago. The repairs here will be hugely expensive and time consuming and they will want the car to remain there. You will demand a tow to your home instead only to discover that this service does not exist - unless you want to pay for the tow yourself. You will ask for a hire car - the one you were promised only to discover that this can take hours or even days and requires more telephone calls to places that are all closed and so you will give up. You will either pay a fortune for repairs and book yourself in to a hotel (at your cost of course) or pay a similar fortune for a tow home. In a nutshell that is what passes for French breakdown cover.
House insurance
This is a minefield. It is one of the easiest thing to obtain and one of the hardest to claim. It works like this. If you are resident in the UK (registered for tax in that country) then you can take out UK insurance which is by far the best option. This will be as a holiday home type policy. On the other hand if you are a registered (for tax) French resident then the house you live in is classed as your permanent home and cannot be insured by a UK company. It needs to be insured by the French which is the first of your problems. Do not attempt to try and pretend you live here or there in order to get UK insurance or vice versa or you will certainly come unstuck. Both sides of the channel are very adept at making computerised checks and you will be caught out in the event of a claim.
French Insurance companies usually send out someone to meet you and measure up on site. Over the telephone and online business is an alien concept to most. The representative will try to sell you the most expensive cover and will try to include many extras. There will be additional sums for taxes etc and the final bill will be made up of so many elements it will be difficult to follow. In broad terms you can insure the building or the building plus fittings or the building plus fittings and contents and also those that live there such as a man and wife and children. You can also cover pets which is a good idea as you are responsible for any damage they may cause. If your dog runs in front of a car you will be liable for any damage and any accidents including the injured parties medical bills for life in some cases so be aware. Same applies to you and your home. Everyone in France is on the look out for something for nothing and so expect any claim against you to be massively inflated and very costly.
So it is best to have the very best cover possible although having paid for it you will have a very hard job making any claim on it. Basically French insurers will pay out claims against you made by third parties (sometimes) but are reluctant in the extreme to pay any money out to you directly for losses. For example a man tries to make a claim against you for an injury because your chimney pot has fallen off and broken his arm. The insurance company will deal with most of this on a firm to firm basis and agree a settlement.
On the other hand if rain water has poured into your house or a pipe has burst and ruined you furniture, carpets and decoration you will face the mother of all battles to be compensated despite all of your legal cover, old for new cover, accidental damage cover or what ever cover you have. You will be asked for estimates which they will argue with, and then more estimates and then they will send their own people to give their opinion and sometimes another person as well and the agent will visit and the paper mountain will grow and grow. You will be asked to produce the same documents over and over again. These will be lost, forgotten, destroyed or otherwise ignored. Months or even years will pass before anything gets done. The insurers will fight you every inch of the way and unless you speak French very well indeed they will make mince meat out of you. In may cases they will refuse to pay anything or just a token sum and leave it for you to take them to court which they know is a costly and very complex and lengthy process. All part of the French insurers game of getting out of paying you for any losses.
You will find that it is a legal requirement to be insured but in the event of a claim you will also discover that the French insurance system is the most difficult in the world and is staffed by unsympathetic bureaucratic and officious people with little or no regard for you once the cheque is cashed and the premium is paid. French insurance companies will try every trick in the book and no matter that you have your policy in black and white and the loss is beyond challenge - they will argue and fight and argue until they wear you down.
Avoid French Insurance if you can and do what you can to be with a British, Canadian or American company instead.
Medical cover
In France you are supposed to be covered for 70% of your medical costs through the state health care. In reality this is equal to 48%.
It means if you see a doctor and then a hospital and after that get a prescription the various bills ( paid to each place as you visit) might come to 300 Euros. In theory the state says you must by law be reimbursed to the tune of 70% which would be a rebate of 210 Euros meaning that your medical cost was around 90 Euros after rebates. It is not true. By the time they have also deducted money for the doctor and the pharmacist and the ambulance and the emergency services and tax for this and that ( Everyone must pay their bit) you will end up getting just under half back which is nearer to 130 to 150 Euros. This is providing you are a French tax payer and hold a French medical card and are resident in France.
Medical cover is meant to close this gap and means you should get the entire money laid out returned. The system is possibly the most stupid you will ever come across and it works like this;
You are feeling very ill. You call the doctor and you will discover in most cases they are closed for one reason or another but eventually you get an appointment. You briefly explain the problem and he may either prescribe medicine or send you to a ‘specialist’. You leave and pay about 23 Euros to the doctor. If you have your French medical card he will swipe it through a machine. About three weeks later part of what you have paid will be given back to you via your bank and it will be about half. If you are insured then your insurer will also send some more money to make up for the difference a bit later. If you visit a pharmacists for medicine then another charge will be made and some are very high. This will also involve payment there and then and another swipe of that health card.
Later on the money paid to them will be returned as well in the same way through the bank. If you visit a hospital or ‘specialist’, which is likely as there are millions of ‘specialists’ all over France, then there will be more and more charges which you will pay and again all the money you pay to them will arrive back into your bank over the coming weeks and months providing you have visited the claims office and put in all of your receipts and providing they do not lost them in the system as is often the case. You will also receive sheets and sheets of papers containing extremely complicated calculations showing you how they have worked out each and every charge and how each and every element of the money you paid out has all been given straight back to you. It really is the most laughable waste of human resources imaginable and appears to have been invented entirely to create work out of nothing. Millions of people are pointlessly employed all over France engaged in this ridiculous game of taking money and then giving it all back.
Beware of French medical cover for all the same reasons as any other French insurance cover. You usually have a battle if it looks like a big sum needs to be paid out. Despite all what is claimed in the policies there are many opt outs such as dental treatment, eye treatment, previous illness treatment and many charges made by so called ‘specialists’. So take note. Medical cover is OK and many swear by having it but do not expect to have all of your bills paid and also expect to be caught out by clauses and small print and above all remember that if you lose a receipt you will not get paid anything. Best tip is to avoid French insurance if at all possible.
