Well David I don’t have anything against public employees per se - although I have run in to the odd tosser in my time lol!! I think you’re unnecessarily picking on what you consider to be unnecessary detail - I didn’t give a second thought about whether it was necessary or unnecessary. Are you bored ?
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Not bored, just intrigued. I presumed that you must have used those words for a reason. Apparently not.
YI think it is not unreasonable to feel strongly that french public employees have a distinct advantage over those who are employed in the private sector.
For example, when we were having the major renovations done to our house, our architect was moving from near Marseille back to Cluny.
He needed to rent for a while and found a house that suited him and his family.
Everything was going well until the landlady found out that he was an architect and refused to rent to him.
He was not a fonctionnaire!
Enough said.
Jane the only reason landlords prefer to rent property to / banks like to lend money to fonctionnaires is that in cases where things go wrong, it is much easier to be paid what is owed directly, by seizing earnings. I’d rather rent property to a fonctionnaire than to somebody self-employed, it is a lower risk.
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It always makes me wonder if the people who are always so negative about public sector workers understand how their lives would fall apart without them.
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Sorry Stella, I have just picked this up. Try googling Jerome Laronze.
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That means that people would not rent to us, but we are entirely honest and have sufficient income to pay anything we would want to rent. The landlord would be the loser.
It is a generalisation Jane, of course there are exceptions, but they don’t stop it being true.
There are downsides to letting to Foncs. If they have to move for their job they are able to cut their rental contracts without penalty. Their tenure might be much shorter than you hoped. Looking at the big picture private landlords need to take every precaution they can and letting to a Fonc is seen as yet another tick on the positive side of the balance.
That’s hilarious…! Too funny…! Exactly how I felt trying to get my Carte Grise…lol…x 
Yesterday I was stopped by the Gendarmes who were doing a mass roadside check of carte grises and contrôle technique.
The Gendarme said very little “Votre carte grise Madame”. He read it and said “Immpecible” and waved me on my way. He wasn’t unfriendly I just got the impression he wasn’t enjoying his day very much.
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I remember being stopped at 6am one Sunday morning on the way to a brocante, same thing, mass roadside check but a control of alcohol.
I didn’t have enough puff to register on the alcohol thingy, so the Gendarme told me to breathe deeply and blow until he said stop. I thought my eyes were going to pop out 
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Mandy… if your driving was judged impeccable as well… you could be in the running for a prize… see my link from 3 days ago here on this thread…
Ha! Yes I saw that but I’m not in the Dordogne.