#french administration

[miraculousbox]

I feel bad about asking follow-up questions so early (especially since you responded like ridiculously fast and so exhaustively holy shit???) but I realized I meant more like a chambre d'hôte (is this the proper singular?), and I was also curious about typical capacity/layout (how many rooms and what kinds of rooms), and if breakfast is more typically French or continental?

Yes it’s the proper singular! And thank you for the translation, it does make things clearer for me haha

Culturally speaking, a chambre d’hôte equates to a gîte. Now legally speaking, we’re going to refer to service-public.fr which is the official website of the French administration.

It needs to follow a few rules that I will sum up as much as possible :

You have to declare that you have a chambre d’hôte at your city hall.

Your room has to be fully furnished for the night and you have to provide breakfast in the morning.

The landlord who’s renting the house has to welcome the guest personally in their main residence.

Rooms’ surfaces legally have to be above 9 square metres (without counting the sanitaries) and have a ceiling higher than 2,20 m. However, it is commonly accepted that rooms be at least 12 square metres surface.

Rooms have to be able to have access to sanitaries and respect hygiene regulations.

Cleaning has to be done everyday and without any additional fees.

Prices can be chosen by the owner themselves, but you can refer to my previous post for averages.

A chambre d’hôte can only offer 5 rooms and take in a maximum of 15 people, else it is legally considered a hotel.

Now to be able to offer more than a breakfast, you add a table d’hôte to your offer and can only feed the 15 max people that a chambre d’hôte can host.

You have to serve the same meal at the same time for everyone like a family dinner (this is exactly what is written). 

Inform the clients of all the prices (are drinks included in the menu or do they have to pay a supplement?).

Respect the health and hygiene regulations.

If the owner wants to sell alcohol, they need to have a special restaurant authorisation.

Other than that, there are no other rules. But feel free to pick what you need from here and the other post! Good luck :D

[ophelia-ambrose]

French administration is the worst, just spit on my face at this point

[local-demon-in-your-area]

Nobody is as hateful and generally mean as French people working in administration, there I said it.

You think Parisians are bad ? Try any town hall workers.

[theshortnote]

Civil War Warnings Creates Anger in French Administration - The Short Note

The situation in France has become quite serious over the open letter from serving French soldiers. The letter is about expressing the disagreement of the French soldiers over the concessions that the Macron government has provided to Islamism. The people in the French administration believe that the letter has been written by the younger troops …

A large number of French leaders and other officials in the administration were angry by this letter but the same letter was welcomed by Marine Le Pen (the far-right leader) who is being seen as the main rival of Macron in the next presidential election. 

[antonomase]

I've just spent the last 40 minutes ranting in a draft about why the French administrative paperwork never fails to put me in a foul mood. Now I feel a bit better and I can spare you this.

(Though my administrative journey is not over and I'm tired just thinking of it.)

[latmosims]

I hate it when you have an urgent question that needs to be answered by the different administrations, you try to contact them, but no one gets your call. Like... BITCH I’m trying to not be in a f*cking mess later, so can you please answer the damn phone already?!

[spaceeurydice]

Bon apparement le visa étudiant pour la Russie nécessite que mon passeport soit valide encore 1an et demi après mon voyage.

Je vais donc devoir refaire un passeport, envoyer la photocopie en Russie pour avoir un Voucher, faire une demande de visa et obtenir le visa, tout ça en deux mois.

Youpi.

[heathersadler]

What is it like actually LIVING IN FRANCE??

At the beginning, I found it absolutely fine - I didn’t really feel homesick, or lost at all. Luckily in my summer job, I was able to keep speaking foreign languages, so that element wasn’t too bad. But after abut three or four weeks, I was finding it harder and harder - that’s when it stops being a holiday and the sudden realisation that “France is HOME” sinks in. 

I think that food has been the biggest adjustment to make - my normal comfort foods either don’t exist here, or cost about three times as much as they should. It took me a while to find good replacements. Also, where I live in Halls, I have very unwelcoming neighbours, so spending time in our communal “kitchen” was quite an uncomfortable experience. I’m looking forward to going back to having cooked meals rather than just salads and baguettes all the time.

The lectures are not too bad, but at the very beginning, don’t forget that you will be feeling tired all the time. Not only are lectures longer here, but they’re in French. It might sound like a stupid thing to forget, but trying to understand not only the subject matter but the language will be knackering. I wish I had made a bit more of an effort to try to talk to my neighbours in lectures and classes - I wonder if I had I been a bit more open, would they have talked to me more?

As friendships go, some of the erasmus people you will meet will be some of your best friends within days - do you remember Freshers, and how everyone was nice to everyone? Well, it’s the same thing with the Erasmus community. I’m going to miss these guys a lot. I also took advantage of the tandem schemes here, and in my first week here, contacted about four different French girls, who were all looking for English speaking tandem partners. Don’t think that just one will be enough - remember you’re in a new city with no Friends, and these tandem partners are not only offering you a chance to practice your language, but also to make new friends and learn more about the country and area you’re living in. 

Everyone jokes about the French administration system being difficult, but I had always dismissed this as UK people being disorganised. I’m afraid to say that even with my best efforts, it IS as bad as everyone says. What’s worse is the attitude of French people - “Well we’re French...!” Compared to some people it seems like I’ve actually been quite lucky, but it certainly is backwards. For example - to get a sim card I went online and it cost me 1€. If I had gone to the Virgin shop in town, it would have cost me 30€ (that’s for the actual card, no minutes/texs/internet in that fee!). To cancel the contract, I need to send a letter by recorded post (emails/phonecalls won’t be enough!)

Overall I have had a brilliant time, and whilst I’m looking forward to starting the next part of my adventure in Spain, it’s going to be so hard to leave France for good.