Right. Enough of this messing about with the business, and back to blogging. I have neglected you, folks, and for that I apologise. I shall do a recapitulative of what's been going on shortly, but for the moment, here is a piccie of a summer us:

We are now entering our first season, so cross your fingers, and I shall do a catch up soon!

Goodness, it's been a while since I posted, and I wish I had a good excuse....but mostly it's just laziness in the sun! The sun came out and we had 2 gorgeous weeks and one cooler week, and I must admit I had a couple of afternoons just soaking up the sun - well it's been a long winter!! We're back to pouring rain, now, has been for 3 days, so I have found a moment to post. However, I've done a thorough inspection of the house for wet patches and drips, and it seems pretty watertight, crossed fingers. I can't remember if I mentioned that we had a quote for renovations to the roof by the same guy who did the storm damage repairs. The quote came in at 12,000 euros - gulp, so as long as it's not leaking, we'll sleep on it. I thought maybe 3000 or 4000 euros would do it...but I've always been the optimistic type.

 Business has been reasonably good with the good weather, partcularly at lunch. There are definitely walkers and sightseers popping out of the woodwork with the sunshine. The Therms have opened and we had a few curists. Lunches are noticably quieter with the pouring rain - noone wants to venture out. Today, you can hardly see any of the mountains, the cloud is so low. We have got our accounts finalised and have 'bonded' with our new accountant who is here in the village and the wife of the pharmacist, so I'm pleased that we are using someone local. Our accounting year ends on the 31st of October each year (and we can't for the life of us remember why we chose that date...) which means we had about 4 days trading in our financial year, so needless to say we showed a healthy loss! As a limited company, there are all sorts of stuff we have to do now with our accounts. The accountant wants 300 euros on top of the 1500 euros we have paid her to do the accounts to complete the formalities, so I have downloaded a 'kit' telling us what we have to do. I, as MD, have to call all partners (Dave) to an AGM where we have to discuss if we are going to continue trading since we made a loss. Once the decision has been made, I have to send our accounts to the tribunal of the Chamber of Commerce with the decision where they are held as public record. I then have to publish an announcement in the legal journals saying that although we made a loss, we are going to continue trading. Phew! No wonder the accountant wants 300 euros. However, we shall save the money and I shall do it myself. 

We had a second day skiing, this time at Formiguieres, close to Font Romeu. Another glorious day, it was, and had a lovely day. We would have gone this week, as there was fresh snow at the weekend with the change in weather, but it was raining it's socks off down here, so probably snowing up there with the added complications of chains etc so maybe next week. They've extended the season to April 19th - which is quite late. I do love spring skiing, but you do run the risk of getting into slushy snow, which I think is quite dangerous to ski in. After Natasha Richardson's shocking incident, I'm going to get a helmet next season. 

We have been pondering what to do about staff for summer - it's difficult to know how to staff up when we haven't done a season here. Also, we have had quite a few people send us their CVs, but noone from Vernet, oddly. I really want someone from the village, and have been holding our for someone because  a) we want to give the job to someone from the village b) they can go home between services (and not hang around!) and c) if we get busy unexpectedly, we can phone them and they can come quite quickly. We got a visit from a young lady called Vanessa at the beginning of this week, who lives almost literally next door. We trialed her yesterday, and she seems like a little gem. So bingo!!! She'll do a shift on Sun lunch and whenever we need her, so we have to decide on a start date and she'll work all summer. Well, that's a relief!

Dinner time now, we're eating as good as customers tonight...beef rib on a hot stone. Yum!!

Bon appetit!

A new world record for us....we served for the first time on the terrace today!! It was so sunny and gorgeous. Hooray! 

I'm afraid I am going to gloat. I am sitting here glowing with legs that groan every time they have to move, as we finally got to go skiing today. Hooray!!! Here's a pic

The weather was fantastic and snow great, so all is well with the world.

Here's a silly video - keep your eyes on the black spec...

Whilst we were on the chair lift, the phone rang - the car was ready for collection, so perfect timing as it was in a garage not far from the ski resort, so after we finished skiing we went and collected Zaffy, who seems to be back to normal. I should coco - after that bill!! Dave had managed to talk the guy into having the car for another week free - how, I don't know, so that was a result as well.

The terrace furniture has arrived as well - here's another photo:

We've just put half of it out for now.

And the second part of the dining room is finally finished - AND being used - it's proving popular at lunch, as it's lighter. Concentrating now on pictures, decoration etc. I have bought 4 cow bells on ebay to go in the niches in the stone walls where there used to be salt licks for the cattle. I have also bought a little milk churn for one of the bigger niches.

Outside terrace before: just a junkyard

After. I know I shouldn't say it, but the curtains are nothing short of magnificent The accountant has nearly finished our accounts and we are going to do the finishing touches with her tomorrow, so that is good, too. She's quite dynamic, I must say. But the best news has just been in the headlines: the EU have agreed to let countries lower the rate of VAT for staff-heavy industries, especially the restaurant trade. France will be able to set a lower rate from next year. This is fantastic and has been a saga ever since we got to France. Currently on every bill someone pays for dinner, we have to give 19.6% of it to the government as sales tax. So anything less than 20% is a bonus. Fantastic!! Just need trade to pick up, but apparently the Thermal springs open this weekend and Vernet fills up with 'curists' coming for their cure. At least the town will seem busier.

 So a more up-beat post this time!! Now I have to get up and go downstairs...the legs say no....

Crikey, this week has been hectic - not so much with customers ( ! unfortunately) but with other stuff: we suddenly remembered that we have to have some accounts done. Oops! So we phoned the local accountant, went to see her, she agreed to sort out our accounts, then spent the next day (all this between services, of-course) getting together the paperwork and getting it to her. This is all peppered with visits to the vet - Freddie's biopsy results showed a problem with his immune system. It could be caused by a virus i.e. HIV, pre-cancer i.e Leukaemia or allergy to something he ingests or in his environment. The vet can test for HIV immediately and have the result in an hour - they can't test for the allergies for 6 weeks as he recently had a cortisone injection which would skew the results. The test for leukaemia would be in the form of another biopsy in 6 months to compare against the one he just had. So poor little fella was off to the vet again for the FIV test. Sadly it has turned out positive, so a sad day for us. Back in the '80s I had a cat who also had feline aids, so I am very familiar with the management of it, but things really seem to have moved on since then and with the right treatment, cats can live happy healthy lives. It has almost worked in Freddies favour as we took him straight off the hypoallergenic food he has - which he hates, and started him back on whiskas and tuna (omegas to boost the immune system). The change in his behaviour is profound - almost immediately he is more energetic, he is playing with his tail and racing around after Wilma, his sister. He has got so skinny that his little tummy sticks out when he has eaten as he can't get enough. It is quite obvious to us now, that he was starving to death - on the orders of the vet. I don't blaim the vet, as his symptoms are classic allergy, but poor little soul....so I'm on a mission to build him up and if he gets symptoms of allergy again, then we get the symptoms treated asap and aggressively. I really hope we can build him up as he is such a sweetie, I would be gutted if anything happened to him.

Apart from that horrid news, we have had a quote - a WEEK after the car has been in the garage -  of €1600 for the car repairs!!!!!!!!! Flippin' Nora, that was a shock as well!! Indeed it was the turbo that had gone with assorted exchangers, tubes and filters in the bargain. So not a great week, really. However, although we weren't that busy over the weekend, it was a feel-good weekend in that the customers who did come were all really lovely and complimentary. It was a really good atmosphere all over the weekend. At least it's SOMETHING good .... *sigh*

Sorry if this post was a bit depressing, but that's life for you... 

Well, so much for skiing! Beautiful gloriously sunny day - and the car broke down on our way up the mountain. There we were climbing up the mountain, when the car lost a lot of power - Dave says the turbo went, and then there started an ominous rattling under the bonnet and the final straw - billowing grey smelly smoke coming from the exhaust.

Paff! 

Dammit! Still, we have breakdown cover with our insurance, and, being able to recognise a bargain when I see one, had cunningly taken the ' hire car for only 1€ more' option.

 Poor old Zaffy

The insurance sent a chap out from Col de la Perche, who happened to hire out cars as well, so now we have a sporty (hah!)panda 4x4. I must remember to tick the 'deluxe' box next year. However, although he picked us up in his lunch hour, he rather selfishly wanted to finish his lunch, so we went off and had some ourselves in a standard run-down roadside hostel near the garage. Interestingly, there seemed to be one person doing the meet and greet, serving and cooking and everything! Anyway the upshot was that it was all a bit too late to go skiing and pay €50 for an hour and a half's skiing after everything was sorted out. Damn! So we went and explored the various pistes under Panda Power and found a rather lovely spot in the sun....

It all sounds horribly expensive - lucky we got that reimbursement....

Today I shall discuss money a bit. At the end of October we had a close shave as we ran out of readily available funds but opened around the same time. For the first time in many years we are having to organise our cashflow, which is an interesting and kinda hair raising experience! So far, so good, even though it's mid winter, we have managed to self-finance and also keep investing in stuff that remains to be done in the restaurant. It helps, of-course that we now have no mortgage and the loan on the restaurant building is now paid by rent by the business. Things have been helped by a mysterious refund from the tax authorities of just over 1000€ - no explanation, but hey, who cares - and an even bigger refund of overpaid contributions (in 2007, thank you very much). So, thanks, guys! Better late than never. Of-course, the old cashflow will take a bit of a hit when the terrace furniture comes....but we're working on it. It sure helps when you only have one day to get out and spend. One bill I was REALLY dreading was our elec bill for Dec and Jan, the two coldest months - and they have been REALLY cold this year! For those who have maybe lost track we had elec central heating - reversible air conditioning - fitted when we moved in last year and I like it hot hot hot. We keep the house at 19°C when we're out and at 24° when in, and although it's a big house, we keep the doors shut on the rooms we don't use. However, the lounge is really high-ceilinged, and has a mezzanine, so a big space to heat. In addition we have about 3 or 4 machine loads of washing and drying every week, so quite a hefty consumption. I wasn't sure what to expect, as our elec bill was very hefty at our old place, and we also had oil bills there as well. However, it came, as they always do and it topped up at 470,35€ so 235€ per month. My word, if that is the  worst it can be, then I'm happy with that!!!!! That is our total energy cost, as we don't use anything else. So, really, I think the conclusion must be that these heat pump thingys work. Get one! We also get 50% of the cost of fitting it back through a tax credit, so it's a win win situation, I think. Mind you, to get that back, you mustn't be in a hurry for the money - we had the heating fitted last March, and we just had to pay 200€ to have the installation inspected by the tax authorities, and we may get the money back this summer. Still, I suppose it's like saving......

And continuing the earlier theme of continuing investment in the business, we have had a quote for 3 road signs, one in the center of the village pointing out the pedestrian route up through the village, and two road signs pointing out the direction. The Town Hall in their infinite generosity fit them for us free (whoop whoop) but a specialist company have to print and make them. this pans out at 700€ once we've claimed the VAT back. Now I had budgeted about 3000€ in my head for this, working on the usually successful formula of "think of a reasonable price to pay, then triple it" so am delighted to find my formula doesn't work in this instance. However, we have to wait a few weeks, as they are about to change the direction of circulation through the village, apparently, so we'll need a different arrow. 

 I must also mention, that although it is a rather nerve wracking time to start a business, Sarko has just abolished Taxe Professionelle - and rightly so, it was a ridiculous tax based mostly on the investments you made in your Company which is ludicrous, and for this year has abolished the employers contributions on salaries, which substantially reduces the cost of employing people, which are notoriously high in France. So in another way, it's a great time to have a business here!!!

So, how does our energy bill compare to everyone elses? It would be interesting to know if it is indeed reasonable, or if, in fact, we are being had!! 

From today's Times Online

Wow, what a busy weekend - St Vals was full and for some reason sunday lunch was booked out, too - a resurgance of popularity, hoorah. I am rebelling against the standard formula here in France of setting a menu at a fixed price that the clients are stuck with. That tends to happen in most restaurants at any kind of special occasion - but the clients are then imposed with an expensive menu with no choice. So we decided to offer what we normally do, but add a couple of things a little special, so I stuffed courgette flowers with mild goats cheese, lemon and thyme finished with a drizzle of honey, then deep fried in batter, which were very popular and offered my secret weapon of an individual cheese fondue which we had put on for the month of Feb to try and a) offer a winter warmer and b) drum a bit of interest, as it has gone really quiet. We were full, so hopefully we were doing it right. As an illustration, the local pizza place were advertising a set menu at the supermarket which included a duo of salmon in a dill sauce coupled with quail....now that just doesn't sound nice to me -I know I'm not in the best position to judge, as I don't eat seafood, but fish and quail combined?? Your opinion, please! Perhaps it's what everyone dreams of....

Anyway, Dave paid a visit to the florist in Prades (we don't have one in Vernet) and they turned out to be very helpful, even though they were up to their necks in bouquets, and he came home armed with red roses (€2.50 each - expensive, I thought, but perhaps they are more in the UK) little bud vases for each table to put them in, a kind of gel stuff to put in the vases and rose petals to sprinkle on the table - how romantic are we!! So I told the ladies they were welcome to take their roses with them. i was dead impressed that the florist could come up with a deal like that at the last minute. And, no - although Dave was in a florist surrounded by bouquets of red roses, I didn't get any....however, when he said at €40 for some roses (that was how much a bouquet was) or 2 ski passes for the afternoon for the same price, which did I fancy.....a no-brainer, really.

We have been meeting quite a few of the locals and there are some real sweeties around: you know that they're locals, when their surnames are the same as local town names! A M. Taurinya came to lunch with his wife, and there is a town next but one called Taurinya. They showed us their house from our terrace and we ended up promising to wave to each other from time to time! Also the chap that holds the key for the church that is the focal point of the village and just behind our house popped in to give us a book of old pics he had of Vernet for my quest of old pics to decorate the restaurant with. We werent' too busy at the time, so he lingered to regal us with tales of his days in La Resistance. He is 90, smoked up until about 30 years ago, doesn't eat veggies, and whizzes around the village organising stuff. So really, I wonder about this campaign of your '5 a day'! He got stopped 3 times by the germans, so he had a guardian Angel looking after him. So I am loving meeting the locals.

Day free tomorrow, and I fancy a Chinese - Mmm!

Thanks to a Brit second-homer in Vernet, over here for the first time since we opened for this gem:

 You should have opened for summer, you know - it's really busy then.

 Well, gee, if only we'd realised. 

Yeah, well I found the cable, I just have to figure out how not to have a humungous picture taking up the whole screen. I have figured out how to reduce the size of the files, now how to reduce the actual picture. I'll get there!

It must have been about night 3, I thought I'd have a go at roast chicken in the built-in oven that the old owners thoughtfully left for us. A few years ago we voted roast chicken, roast potatoes, stuffing, yorkies and veg and gravy the BEST MEAL EVER.  It is the official Smith family favorite meal (French branch). Using a new oven, when you are a cook for a living and by instinct is probably a bit like a surgeon using someone else's knife. Anyway, the chicken was in and browning nicely, quite quickly, but normally. I popped in a tin of oil to get hot to put in the parboiled potatoes to roast. The next thing I know, the pan is actually on fire in the oven. I grab the tea towel and whisk it out and put it on the hob which is not on, of-course. I soak the tea towel in water and throw it over the tin, all the time calling for Dave. The flames appear to go out and Dave appears on the run. He takes the tea towel off, thinking the flames have gone out. They flare up again wildly and he jerks and the whole thing gets knocked onto the floor. Flaming oil everywhere. Luckily the floor is tiled and Dave missed spilling it on himself - thank god, thank god - I run off and grab a bath mat and soak it and run back and throw it on, by which time Dave has got it out.Jeeeez, it is one of my worst nightmares, having a fire, and I think it should be against the law leaving an electrical device as dangerous as that in a house you have just sold without mentioning it. It turns out the thermostat doesn't work, and it just stays on top heat. My other nightmare, by the way is drowning and becoming fish food. YUK. I just know that that is going to happen.

Anyway, we got lucky and our time is obviously not up.Today.  I do, however, have to get quicker with the photo taking. Dave is like a dynamo. The restaurant is nearly stripped already. I have sorted the cutlery (bin), crockery (bin), tupperware storage containers (bin) etc . You get the gist. Here's an interesting thing: I contacted the electricity people, EDF, and told them we would be moving on the 23rd Nov, back in Oct. I phoned them today and said that actually we had been 2 months late and only vacated the 21st Jan. and here are my meter readings. They said that, no thanks, they had terminated our contract on the 21st Nov and sent our last bill 2 months ago. All they needed was for the new owner to contact them with their details. So who pays, says I, for the 2 months elec? It is lost, say they. Tant pis. That's life. So here's a good ruse. Phone up the elec people and say you're moving and then get free elec!!!! Yessir, a good deal! We had 2 months free elec at the coldest time of year. Hurrah.

So here's a little summary of here we are: we have bought a fridge, new oven (!), washing machine (posh steam version), dryer, Freddy is under veterinary care and looking a little better. We have had one quote for central heating. Tomorrow we sort out the bank, a professionnel kitchen co is coming to have a look, we have made contact with the hygiene people and they will look at and approve or not our plans. Things are moving at full tilt. Tomorrow the yellow pages are phoning for our requirements. Luckiliy we haven't missed this years print. It is probably one of the most important marketing tool we can do. A carpenter has been round to measure up for a door to completely close in the bottom terrace, complete with push bar, so that it serves as an emergency exit. It's amazing how much we can get done in a day. And that's with me spending most of the pm shopping to fill our new lovely fridge. Well, we're going to eat well, anyway!

So, dear folks, maybe tomorrow I will have figured out the photos. If not, it will be more drivel. Hurrah! Lunch in the sun, by the way. 18° today. Mmmm. It was a good move.

We had a local chap round to give us a quote for central heating, M. Pascal, who's wife is running for Mayor - current Mayor is rubbish, running the town into the ground, you see. Yes, we're straght into the town politics even though we can't vote here. Anyway, we commented on the length and frequency and variety, but mostly the frequency, of the town bells. We notice particularly well, since we are right behind the clock tower. They chime every 15 mins, getting longer each time, and then chime not just once, in case you weren't concentrating, but twice. There is a particular flourish for the 7 O'Clock bells, am and pm. They are called the...um...verger bells or something. I'm sure the Catholics among us will know them. Well, on commenting on them to M. Pascal, he immediately took up the point by saying how proud the Vernet people are of their bells, so that was the end of that conversation. In addition, we became slightly alarmed when a siren went off shortly after the twice played midday chimes. Having raced out to the car to check that the alarm wasn't the cause and draining the battery, M. Pascal, our new-found source into the local knowledge, assured us that this happens everytime the 'pompiers' - firemen- are called out. He said it can happen 2-3 times a day. The alarm goes off at the Mairie, and they hear it at the 'caserne' - firestation- and off they go. Why the phone call can't just go through to the firestation and 'voila!' I do not know. But may be a French person amongst us can shed some light on that.

Anyway, I don't really want to make out that actually we are in the middle of a bell and siren hell-hole, we barely notice them, even after a couple of days (I think they turn the volume down at night), but I find it a little strange to be in the middle of a rather picturescque landscape and find it to be rather less than absolutely silent.

 We Vernet people are very proud of our bells. Tomorrow: the house-fire, and not even owners, yet!! Arghhhh

Well hi everyone, here we are and it's official, we're mountain people! And the fluffies are adjusting to being mountain fluffies. We arrived safely Monday evening as planned and our stuff arrived Weds night and Thurs morn and we signed this morning at 9am. So we are the owners!!!

Monday as exceedingly stressful as you can imagine: trying to keep the fluffies in one place and calm, the new owners, their parents arriving stomping all over the place, the removals people doing their thing etc. Arghh. In the end I drugged the cats early and hid them in the reserve. Well, that is to say 2 of them, one of them got loose, but we later trapped her in the reserve and had to put on the tough gloves and shove her in the panier. 2 hours at the notaire - not bad! - whizzed back to the Tref and said our goodbyes and shot off. It as all a bit wierd, we left the notaire without a penny and without any proof we had sold anything. Today we left the notaire with 5 copies of attestations of all we'd bought plus a reimboursement of notaire fees.

About a half hour into the drive (Dave was driving) he looked in the rear view mirror and said 'hello', and there was Mittens treading carefully over the duvet! We saw later that she had undone the zip -who says cats are stupid?! She was very sweet and just sat on my knee admiring the view. However, we put her back on our first motorway stop, as we had to keep winding the window down to pay the tolls and didn't want to risk it!

Well I will go into more detail tomorrow, but I was so excited about everything I woke up at 5am, and I'm bushed! Thanks to Kylie and Soniak and Kommerse for their comments, it's nice to know there is someone reading this! Thanks also for the link to the other foodie site. More tomorrow, snoreeeeeeeeeeeeeee xx

Well here we are, it all kicks off in just over 12 hours. It kind of hit home today when the Young Ones put up a very nice sign on the door announcing a 'changement de proprietaire' (change of ownership). I have actually done my last hotel room, it's official!!!! Never again...

The kitchen has been cleared out and emptied, the inventory done, most stuff is packed, the cats are nervous. Freddy will have to go straight to the vet when we get there, on close examination his excema is much worse than I thought, poor little thing.  People who see him will think we don't look after him. I hope there's a Yellow Pages in the new house. The owner of the New House has phoned to tell us where he has left the keys, so what could go wrong? I shall tell you in a few days! It really is a bit complicated selling a business. There's so much to do. For example, the new owners are obliged to buy what stock we have up to a value of €3000, but we hardly have anything left, but there are some wines. We have to produce the original facture to justify the price they are paying, some of which have gone to the accountant as it is the end of the financial year, some of which have been packed and are in a box somewhere. Aghhh. Still, what we can't find, I shall just have to drink. It's a tough call, but I guess I shall just have to grit my teeth.

So wish us luck and I shall be posting shortly from Vernet - forecast looks lovely! Ciaou!

Well the new owners have arrived all excited to be taking over and now I'm getting excited to be briefly unemployed! How's this for a conundrum. The owner of the house we are buying agreed very kindly to send us the keys as we shall be arriving late at night. In the meantime, I arrange with the post-office to redirect our mail from the 21st. Well, I suppose you can guess....they started right away and the keys have gone right back down to the house! Durr. Poor old owner has now to go to the house to leave us the keys - he moved about an hour away. I expect it'll all be alright on the night.

I have been packing the cats things today. They almost have more than me. I've got their travel boxes ready, Freddie's medicines packed (he's a true French cat with a whole raft of medicines) and they have more beds than is decent. The vet gave me some tranquilisers for them the other day. I am particularly worried about Wilma as she is not very good at being handled. The vet said I should try them out beforehand as the dose can be a little tricky to determine. Last night was Wilma's lucky night on drugs and within about 45mins she'd gone cross eyed and all floppy. Marvellous! She actually seemed a little pathetic, ahhh. Isn't it strange how a human would just think, Mmm, time for a nap, whereas animals try to ignore it and carry on. So we have established that one is enough!

I have had contact with 3 hot stone companies. There is a French one which owns the trademark 'Pierrade', a UK one called Blackrock Grill and another UK one called Steakstones. Blackrock Grill is a nice system, but incredibly expensive; Pierrade is nice, but not as nice as Blackrock Grill, but a third of the price, so pushes into favourite, but looks like it may be pipped to the post by Steakstones which strike a good note with nice presentation combined with reasonable price. Hurrah! I think our guests will have a memorable dining experience. It's great to decide now, as we can plan the kitchen around it. For example, I probably won't have a grill, as any steaks or grills will be taken care of by the hot stone side of the menu. I am making myself hungry writing this!

So anyway, how did we accumulate so much stuff?

So termite-man has been and gone with good news and a promise to get the report to the notaire on time. Phew. And let's face it, I'd feel a little miffed if the woodworm turned their noses up at our choice woody morsels. After spending some time in France it still amuses me when new Brits arrive and talk about surveys-surveys? And talk like damp is the end of the world. It is perfectly normal! Saltpetre? Everyone should have some. I mean these houses are hundreds of years old, still standing and built before damp courses, what do they expect? Anyway, I digress. Webjam upgraded their site yesterday and in the process lost my blog page, lost a friend (sob) and the map won't work. However, all credit to them, they found my blog page in record time. Just my friend to find and the map to fix.

So less than a week to M-day (move). We are pretty much ready to go, the cats have got their tranquilisers at the ready. Just got to stuff everything back in the boxes that we packed in October. It's all pretty much come out again!

The new restaurant is currently called Le Cortal and we're renaming it slightly to Bistrot Le Cortal. This is to indicate a change of ownership and more modern image retaining any recognition of it in the area. We shall have two sides to the menu - hot stone cooking (Pierrade in French) and the bistrot menu. The idea of the hot stones was inspired by a visit when we were looking at properties to a restaurant in Aigues-Morts in the Petit Camargue who did this. Stunning place, by the way, if you get the chance to visit that area. I wanted to go to the restaurant specifically to try it, and thought it was great fun. Not haute cuisine, it is sure, but novel, convivial and delicious. From an operational point of view it is also very practical as all the work on my side is in the preparation, leaving me time to do real cooking during the service. So hopefully this would allow us to have a wide choice of things on the menu without having to have a whole brigade in the kitchen. The one thing you have to avoid in France is having employees. I shall discuss this in a future post.

Hells teeth, had a capital lettered email from the notaire waiting for me this am. Don't you just hate that! I don't know if it's the same in the UK, but when you sell a property here there are now a raft of tests that have to be done on it: termites, lead, asbestos, and energy rating and gaz installations of more than 15 years. The energy rating one is completely useless, by the way, and lasts 10 years, regardless of what you do to it in the meantime. The termite report is only valid for 3 months and our notaire had requested the guy who did the report on our property to print out a report dated recently - standard practise, apparently, so one doesn't have to keep paying for new reports. So here's the the thing: our 'expert' has lost his certification and cannot now do inspections! One week to go and we have to get another termite report done and got to the notaire. Jeez...Amazingly, although it is a Saturday (35hr working week here, you know) we have found someone who can come tuesday. Phew! Panic over.

Dave has been trying to set up a 'bail commercial' which is a rental agreement for our new business. We used a website called statutsonline to set up our new company and saved ourselves about 1000 euros by not doing it through our accountant. So, feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves, we thought we'd do the same thing for the rental agreement, which has to be in force for the day we buy the company. Well, on this website it costs 49 euros but you cant add clauses which we want to do as the rent will be free while we are renovating. Dave did a search on the 'net and found a changeable model one for free!!! I'll have to go shopping, we are saving money here! But then I remembered the termite report....well, you can't have everything. We need a rental agreement because we are buying the restaurant building as private people and renting it to our company. Complicated huh.

We are currently working as registered individual entrepreneurs which effectively means if our business fails all we own can be taken to pay the debt. For the new place, because there are several seperate elements, a house, a (small) piece of real estate, as well as the business, we don't want to be homeless if the business fails. So we have formed an SARL which is a limited company. This means we are only liable for the capital we have put up which can be any amount from €1 upwards. Usually an accountant or notaire does this, but like I've already mentioned, we saved a load of money by taking our accountants advice (already paid for in his fees) and doing the rest over the 'net. This website even put in the required ad in the paper local to our new business. You print out all the forms and send them to the Chamber of Commerce, they register you and send you your all important registration number, et voila!

TTFN

How exciting, I log on today to find we have our first friend, welcome Philip, how lovely to see your name pop up there!!

Well, the move is set for the 21st Jan. The notaire has everything he needs, so, short of sudden death (god forbid!), nothing should go wrong. We are 2 months late moving due to the future owners changing their loan requirements, and French banks are not the most efficient in the world (hollow laugh), but it looks like we are getting there. We shall be very busy: the removal company can only come on the 21st (monday), so they shall arrive at 0830, we sign at 1430 and then it's off to Vernet - a 5 hour drive- with 3 cats in the car. We'll probably get there quite late and tired! I hope we can catch the cats. Well, it makes up for the 2 months we've been kicking our heels.

So the new (old) restaurant is in a Pyrenean spa town at 650m. It is said that no north winds blow there and it has an average of 300 days sunshine a year. If only it were also at a constant temp of 30 °C, then it would be perfect. Still. You can't have everything. As is quite common in France, there has been no reinvestment in the business and no longer conforms to hygiene regulations, if it ever did, and is quite tired and in need of some TLC. I shall be posting pics when we get back on to a broadband connection. We are currently on dial-up Yuk! However, it has the bare bones - natural stone, beams, terraces overlooking the mountains etc. It could be a cosy intimate place.

 We have discovered that, while difficult to make a buck in France, amazingly it is possible to make some with a what's called the 'Fond de Commerce'. this is the price paid for the equipment that supplies the business, ie tables and chairs, kitchen equipment etc and the 'goodwill', existing customers, reputation in the area etc. Quite often the French will buy just that and pay rent for the buildings, the reverse of what the Brits are used to doing. However, we bought our business in the Dordogne when it was in receivership, so we paid a nominal amount for the fonds, and as long as you keep it for 5 years, it is currently exempt from capital gains tax. Quite amazing to find anything here exempt from a tax, but there you are. Sarkozy even plans to tax the internet here. So we have picked up the fond de commerce quite cheaply on the new place -and rightly so - and we hope to make a nice tax free profit on that as well. Of-course, they'll probably close that loophole by the time we sell.

Well, that's probably enough to have sent you off to sleep for today. I hope to see somemore friends tomorrow!