Thanks to Stella’s detective work I now know who the sweep is and it does appear to be a legit outfit. Also the fee might reflect the fact that they are about 80km from me by road which is quite a round trip to sweep a chimney!
Well worth it for peace of mind Paul 
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Our sweep was €90.
Apparently that’s the rate in dept. 24.
Our French neighbours only have their chimneys swept every 2 years but they don’t use their fire that much.
Well, the guy turned up as promised and the chimney is now all sorted and legal.
With the general caveat about my spoken French he asked whether it had been swept last year and I explained that we’d only lit a fire at most a dozen times (probably 9 or 10) since we bought the house. At that, while he reminded me it needs to be done every year he did admit that he could see that I might only want to do it every 2-3 years.
Not sure where that leaves me next year. Now that I know it needs doing annually I will feel uncomfortable not doing so, even with our only occasional use of the fireplace and, since he did come out when I struggled to get anyone else to do so I would like to show him some loyalty as a customer - the catch is that he is 35€ more expensive than the sweeps more local to me. Ho humm, life is never easy
I may have missed it Paul, but how much did you actually pay ?
Maybe he factored in his travelling costs. I paid 54 euros to have my chimney swept and checked last month, which was 5 euros more than last year by the same guy who also supplied and installed the poêle. His business is in the town centre 500 metres from our home.
That’s probably why he would like to clean it for you every year.
Mick… 
…
the firm Paul used has an excellent reputation and they do not have to drum-up/tout for trade. Most firms charge for travelling (outside their area) but that is fair enough, surely.
If their price/product was not correct, they would have no customers… 
and, judging from Paul’s words… the chap was hardly fighting for Paul’s custom…
Whoops, sorry boss 
Ha ha… Mick…no need to be sorry… your smiling face is enough to cheer me up… without you “saying” a word…
Seriously though… I’m glad Paul got it sorted…and how he moves on is up to him.
The law dates back to 1996 Article L2213-26 and currently it is up to the Maire to tweak the wording to suit his/her Commune’s situation.
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Thanks Stella, it is just my sense of humour which was out of order this time, now realising how important it is to some people.
Mick… you were not out of order… !
which is why I put lots of laugh emojis…
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Actually he said he could understand if I only did it every 2-3 years.
89€ which is well within acceptable for the service, more locally though the going rate seems to be 55€
I’m sure that he did - he had a round trip of some 160km to get to me, almost certainly 20€ just for fuel for his van.
My caution - such as it was - was that I was given his number by another ramoneur and and although they gave me the price up front there seemed to be a reluctance to send a devis out (their stated reason being that I couldn’t tell them if the chimney had a liner so the price might change).
I couldn’t match the number to anyone on-line which, together with the devis thing did make me slightly nervous - Stella did sterling work in tracing the enterprise which made it clear that he was legit. I’d actually found him in my earlier searches but assumed I’d be out of his area.
I’ve been happy with his service, mildly astounded that he would travel so far, and don’t think his fee is outwith the normal - just at the top end.
However - we had a fire the night we arrived because it tends to take 24 hours for the heating to really warm the place through, we had one the 2nd night and didn’t bother last night because the place is now just too warm. I think I’ll light another tonight just because it is New Year’s Eve and it will be nice. Our next visit will probably be early March and the fireplace might get used one or two nights.
89€ for using the chimney 5 times a year is slightly on the steep side 
Wow, very reasonable indeed Paul especially coming from so far away !
I can understand his initial reluctance to give you a devis. The sweep here charges more if it’s a large chimney, for instance.
Do you have a liner ?
Now that I’ve had chance to look at the insert I think so, yes.
Plus he charged me the “with liner” price.
Paul… you could check at your Mairie… and see what their “tweak” is on the chimney sweeping law. ie how often it should be swept…
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Worth considering.
Edit: Although I note that the link says “Ce document doit au minimum prévoir un ramonage une fois par an” and that it can be increased locally to more times per year. If that were the case I think, sadly, I would have to stop using the fireplace.
OK, now at the piece of chimney that goes from the back of the fire and up to the liner there hopefully will be a T piece and not an elbow. If so this may have a removable cover on the T bit, the sweep suggested that this is inspected before you start your fire lighting season. Sometimes a bird or whatever may have fallen down and it’s easily removed by this.
Hope it makes sense, I can visualise it but not sure if my explication is clear !
Edit to say that of course your chimney may go direct from the top of the fire so you may not have that ! 
It’s an insert in a traditional fireplace/chimney so the flue is at the top, above a deflector plate which mostly prevents flames getting that high.
I could certainly remove the plate and make sure that no “organic” matter is sitting above it - there is a cowl to prevent birds nesting but I did find a somewhat mummified bat in the insert one trip over though so a small bird might be able to get in.
Having been “in at the kill” of the most horrendous house fire some years ago…
I know that this is not something to be half-hearted about.
Check with the Mairie… once a year, done as you arrive… seems ideal. … and if you arrive again, later in the year… stuff a brush up the chimney just to be sure, before lighting blue touch paper… 
If they say every 2 years… worthwhile to get yourself a set of brushes and satisfy yourself that you have no unwanted guests.
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