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!