Ours is a new system installed within last 10 years when we revamped the house. Fosse toutes eaux - supposedly no grease trap needed. At moment any spare money needed for other things, so we put up with it. We actually prefer the old system which just directed the old sink’s water into a grease trap and then away down the edge of our neighbouring farmer’s field and only the black water went into the fosse - sorry this is off tropic.
Edit: This was meant to be addressed to Stella - not to myself!!
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If my memory serves me correctly, and it often doesn’t! I seem to remember that a grease trap is only obligatory if the fosse is more than 10 metres from the kitchen sink.
Mmm… perhaps our SPANC has a fixation on grease-traps. 
I know of one home which has its fosse only a few feet from the property and SPANC insisted it had a grease trap fitted when they inspected it a few years back. Thankfully, it was not too expensive to get that done… 
Mind you, thinking about it… that particular fosse was old, yet functioning, but needed emptying regularly as it smelt. So perhaps it was the grease etc from the kitchen which was causing it not to work as efficiently as it should.
Elsewhere, it has been on totally new installations that I know SPANC have been insisting on grease-traps, where the minor cost and work is easily absorbed within the whole project.
Yes they could Matt. After having constant problems with a French " roundabout" inspection and junction unit I replaced this with a UK plastic version. The pipe sizes are slightly different but a straight French 100mm connector fits nicely into the gaskets on the UK 110mm (OD) inspection cover. No more blockages since the change over which I did myself with a bit of local muscle to do the digging. It took about a day to do this and refit two branches of incoming drain at the same time. Make sure you get the fall right on the drain. Not too much! Details easily available on line.
Our Mairie told me that only the connection to the main drain in the road needs to be approved. Whatever is inside your boundary is a matter for you. €400 seems pretty step to fit an inspection manhole especially if done at the same time as the drain is laid. It’s probably less than 1/2 hour extra work to do it plus the cost of the manhole.
Yes they could Matt. After having constant problems with a French " roundabout" inspection and junction unit I replaced this with a UK plastic version. The pipe sizes are slightly different but a straight French 100mm connector fits nicely into the gaskets on the UK 110mm (OD) inspection cover. No more blockages since the change over which I did myself with a bit of local muscle to do the digging. It took about a day to do this and refit two branches of incoming drain at the same time. Make sure you get the fall right on the drain. Not too much! Details easily available on line.
Our Mairie told me that only the connection to the main drain in the road needs to be approved. Whatever is inside your boundary is a matter for you. €400 seems pretty step to fit an inspection manhole especially if done at the same time as the drain is laid. It’s probably less than 1/2 hour extra work to do it plus the cost of the manhole.
We connected to our communes new mains drain earlier this year. The regional (?) drains department provided details of what was acceptable although it was really just an example of a terraced house type scenario and we had to book them to inspect and then for them to connect us to their system, there was no cost for this.
Our cottage was around 60m to the connection point and I put in a branches ready for our barn and pool. Did it all ourselves, but I have done a few drains in the uk. Did have difficulty getting decent chambers for the 2 main branches but got some from Frans Bonhomme in Perigueux in the end. Agree the rodding eyes we found were 129 Euro?? and in the UK £13-15. Even they couldn’t understand the price in the brico. So we put the concrete regards in by the house instead.
Think we were one of the first to connect so their senior engineer came out, no doubt to see what the English were up to, especially as my wife had explained we had done it ourselves and after a few bons and a parfait just told me to connect to the mains myself. Probably saved him some money.
Couldn’t say how much a company or artisan would charge for this but if you are comfortable excavating or know anyone with a mini excavator I’m sure it would save you money.
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The Enterprise which undertook the Public Works introduced us to the local place to buy pipes/roding points etc etc and we got all we needed at Trade Prices… yippee… a great deal cheaper than Brico etc… and the quality is superb.
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Elaine Marie Miles did mean to ask in my last post whereabouts are you?
My OH was the roofer in the family firm (construction) established here over 30 yrs ago in the Dordogne, so we did it ourselves too. Definitely the cheapest option for us. 
Hello Mark thanks for all the information, we’re 15 mins from Saintes in the Charente- Maritime.
it’s interesting to read the differences in the level of information given to residents, we’ve had nothing other than a general meeting, before all this started 3/4 yrs ago and a mention in the local Marie magazine telling us which phase was next , so we haven’t got a clue who to contact for checking or connecting up !!
why not ask at your Mairie… ??? 
We are in Beaumont area of the Dordogne and when we bought our ‘little’ project last December we were told the new mains drain would be ready ‘soon’ which really suited us as we knew our fosse was very much in need of replacement. Took a while but when the mains drain was ready to connect to we received a letter and some notes and I think it indicated everyone should be connected to it by December 2020 (good luck with that lol). I’m sure the Marie will have contact details. The commune will have invested in the new drain so will want everyone connected to it and using it .