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I’ve added something to make winters evenings in Paris just a little bit cozier.
January and February are lovely times to visit Paris. Average temps are in the 40s so it’s perfectly pleasant to walk around and the streets are not as full of tourists as in the warmer months. And January 8th – February 4th, 2020 are the SOLDES!! That means massive sales at pretty much every store in France. But now you can also return home after a day of shopping to cuddle up in front of the fire. Come visit!
A couple of weeks ago, I moved out of the house I’d been renting the last seven years in Brittany. Moving out of a rental in France, it turns out, is a bit more work than moving out of a rental in the U.S.
I spoke of some of the bureaucratic challenges in my earlier post on property tax (paid by long-term renters, not just property owners).
My checklist for moving out included:
Notifying the Centre de Finances Publics of my move so I could stop paying property tax on the house after this calendar year.
Ending my internet/phone/cable service with SFR and returning the cable box and modem to the SFR boutique.
Ending my contract with SAUR, the water supplier. Most rental agencies require that the water still be on when you move out. You send the counter/meter number to SAUR and the owner or next tenants have 5 working days to restart the contract or you are BOTH charged 60 EUR.
Ending my contract with GDF, my supplier of electricity. Again, the electricity cannot be shut off until after your move-out date. You must call GDF with the final meter reading.
Ending my renter’s insurance. They require a copy of your final walk through evaluation (état des lieux de sortie) to finalize the cancellation of the contract.
Bringing all the junk to the dump and what was salvageable to charity. Luckily for me, my landlords volunteered to take just about everything I didn’t want to ship back.
Coordinating with the movers (and packing, of course). I reserved the movers several months in advance and they came by a month or so before my move-out to drop off packing supplies and to assess the volume of my things I was shipping back to the U.S. Assuming the U.S.-side of the move goes as well as the France side, I will highly recommend this moving company and write more about them in September when my shipment is to arrive.
Going through the checklist provided by the rental agent during the pré-état des lieux. More on that below.
To my surprise, your responsibilities as a tenant are much more involved in France than in the U.S. when it comes to maintenance of the property. In the U.S., you are entitled to some “normal wear and tear”. At least in New York, the owners must repaint at least every 5 years. In France, you really aren’t entitled to any wear and tear and owners must repaint only every 7 years.
The rental agent provided me with a very extensive list of all the things I needed to repair and clean. In the end, I spent countless hours and half the cost of the security deposit I was aiming to get back just on prepping the house for my move-out. I should note that the house overall was in FAR better condition than when I moved in–I left countless light fixtures where there had been bare bulbs. I left an equipped kitchen where before there was just a sink….
Somehow it all got done on time. With the help of cleaners from Nestor. A big thanks to the manager of the Vannes branch of Nestor, Clarisse Rouxel, who truly went above and beyond.
I figured the final walk-through would take 20-30 minutes; it took 2 hours. The agent looked at EVERYTHING. But I did get the full security deposit back only because my landlords showed up and insisted they were very happy with the state of the house.
Still, I am vowing never to rent long-term again. Ever. Only short-term rentals or buying from now on.
In France, there are two types of property tax, taxe foncière, which is paid by the property owner, and taxe d’habitation, paid by the resident as of January 1 of that year.
View from my front door
After seven years, I am moving out of my rental in Brittany. I still plan to visit the region every year, but maintaining a year-round house is too much.
View from my bedroom skylight
I consider myself an expert at moving, but there are a few things that are different from moving in the U.S. and moving in France. One has to do with the condition in which you must leave the home (more on that in an upcoming post).
Gulf of Morbihan oyster beds
Another difference is that you have to think to “cancel” your taxe d’habitation, or so I thought. I couldn’t remember when I moved out of my rental apartment in Paris in 2012 if I had notified anyone in the tax office of my departure. But I don’t think I had to then, because I was moving within Paris.
Gulf of Morbihan
After getting nowhere with this question by emailing with the Centre de finance public in Vannes (Morbihan), my local office, I decided to just show up in person.
Morbihan coastline (Saint–Gildas-de-Rhuys)
The woman who helped me was very nice and there was no wait. But that is where the positives about my visit end. I explained my situation, that I was moving out of a secondary residence July 5th and needed to stop my monthly automatic tax payments. Then our conversation went something like this:
Her: You don’t have to do anything.
Me: But how will the tax office know I moved?
Her: They will see you live somewhere else now.
Me: But I am not moving to a new second home. This is/was never my primary residence. Will the real estate agent notify the tax office? [Note: I knew the answer to this question was no, but I thought the question might help her understand my overarching question.]
Her: No, it’s automatic.
Me: But how will they know I will?
Her: They will. C’est comme ça.
Me: It’s like what?
Her: How do I explain this…. [look of frustration with me]… There are people in each town. They know where people live.
Me: But how? They will come to my house and see if I’m home?
Her: They just know.
Me: But I have only been using the house occasionally. So how will they know this time when I leave, I’ve actually moved out? Will the owner of the house notify them? [Note: again, I know the owner will do no such thing, but…]
Her: No, it’s automatic.
Me: But I have automatic monthly payments set up.
Her: Then you can just end them.
Me: Right now? But don’t I owe for all of 2019? I am allowed to just end the payments without proof of moving out?
Her: Here, call this number [she hands me a very small piece of paper with a 1-800 number]. They can tell you.
Me: [Realizing we are getting nowhere] OK, thank you.
Morbihan coastline (Quiberon)
So to recap: I got absolutely nowhere. I will try calling the number she gave me on Monday.
Having finished all the mainland segments of Brittany’s coastal trail (the GR34) and many of the islands, I’m now at 1,461 miles logged since November 2014. Here are all my GR34 photos to date.
Bay of Quiberon
I plan to finish the last few remaining pieces of this sentier cotier, also known as the sentier des douaniers (coast guard or customs officers’ path), in Summer 2020. I’m only missing the islands of Bréhat (Côtes d’Armor); Ouessant, Sein and Molène (Finistère); and Belle-Île-en-Mer (Morbihan). Belle-Île is a 100km circuit but the other islands will be day hikes.
Quiberon
Then I’ll have to find a new project!
Quiberon
Included in this post are some photos from my most recent hikes (the full Quiberon Peninsula, and finishing the GR349 liaison between the Presqu’île de Rhuys and La Roche-Bernard, the Petite Cité de Caractère on the border of the Morbihan and Loire-Atlantique.
At the end of May, I was in Brittany for the biennial week-long festival, the Semaine du Golfe. This “Week of the Gulf” is a celebration of the boating history of the Gulf of Morbihan. There is no racing, but numerous other boat-related festivities, including a kick-off and final boat parade… and lots of music, food and drink!
Kick-off boat parade, near Port Navalo
I’ve uploaded a few videos from some of my favorite moments of the festival. This first video is of the kick-off parade, just before sunset. My friends and I were lucky enough to be in the parade, to witness it from the water!
This next video is from Larmor-Baden, at the passageway (in low tide only) to Île Berder. This is where the flotilla of smaller boats showed their stuff on the Thursday afternoon:
Lastly, I watched the final boat parade from the rocks on Île-aux-Moines, as I did two years before. You can see my post about the Semaine du Golfe 2017 here.
Rumor has it they are only going to hold the festival every four years from now on, due to environmental concerns with so many people descending upon the region all at once. If not 2021, mark your calendars now for May 2023!
