Mine was done under dictée with the notaire dictating. I thought this is how it must feel in school or in the national dictée competitions I heard France had. 3 lines and done.
I needed to override French succession and notaire advised how then dictated.
150 euros to file (2013). Notaire had certain days when she went to the national registry and advised me when this was done. So I think it’s important to get the will “registered” officially. I suspect a holograph found under your bed might not be valid in France - whereas in UK if it was reasonably thought to be done by you and your last done one it would probably be accepted.
Thanks @vero - it was what the notaire suggested so of course we went with it. Useful to know about the others though!
this makes interesting reading…
This forum is talking about English Wills but, of course, other nationalities are included in the arrangement.
Great resource Stella. Clause 2d has already caught my eye as to hinting things potentially outside of standard succession governance. Filed to read later
Thanks Stella - im very sorry but my French isnt quite to that standard…yet…
would you know where I could get a translated copy.
be very interested to read.
There will doubtless be other languages available… but, meanwhile, let Google Translate (or whatever you use) do the work for you.
One piece at a time… take it slowly and you’ll grasp it.
and a French Notaire will have no problems… and should be aware of the details in this Hague Convention, since it applies to so many nationalities who reside in France…
or copy paste the text into a word (or similar) document and drag and drop the document in to DeepL Translator
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The part I read @robwebber had French paragraphs followed by the English translation, alternately. Made it difficult to read but I don’t know if that continues through the document as I didn’t read all of it by any means!
The Regulation on Succession Law (Regulation 650/2012), known as ’ Brussels IV ’ came in in August 2015, but affects wills drawn up before that date. It sounds as if you have got it covered, but just in case! And maybe for others…
The UK opted out of this, but the broad principle is that if you are habitually resident in one country then the law of that country will apply to your estate. The exceptions are if you are very obviously more connected to another country, or if you specifically state in a will or codicil to that will that you wish the law of the country of your (birth?) nationality to apply instead.
The article Stella linked has an old date on it, so not sure whether it is all current (didn’ read very far…)
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cheers @JaneJones
Brussels IV is much clearer…
I know we’ve thrashed this whole subject about Wills… before… on this forum, but blowed if I could find it now or recall all the detail…
I know that “choosing the land of one’s birth for applying Inheritance Rules”… was NOT agreed/signed by UK… way back when
However, France (and maybe other countries) gave that Right to those Brits living in France… provided that choice was correctly mentioned in the Will.
I’ve witnesssed several Wills, for Brits , drawn up by French Notaires,
to cover this
Thanks for the warning Jane and for the wider confirmation @Stella .
No issues with jurisdiction. Wanted to play safe and put it under French jurisdiction. Just that within succession rules in France needed to make use of a French provision to override the normal rules of succession.
FWIW in the case of real assets such as immobilier, I would always want to have a will covering those assets written in the country where those assets are situated. Too many treaties and other cross-jurisdiction arrangements can fail later because of subsequent rule changes.
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We put the house under ‘tontine’ so that this can happen.
as did we (since that seemed at the time to be the convention for English purchasers in France, according to our notaire) but later information suggests that this is only necessary where a second marriage and/or children from different partners is concerned and where the person making the inheritances wishes to exclude certain people who would otherwise be automatically included under French succession law - none of which actually applies to us - single marriage, single (now married) child in his 40’s.
This brings the necessity for tontine into question but to escape from it requires considerable effort and more expense so best left well alone - in our case.
Yes, tontine is not a panacea! We were advised to and bought a flat en tontine as not married and with complex family structure, and this seemed best at the time.
Now we are older, and it worries us. If one of us pops off the other will have to pay inheritance tax of 60% on half the property.
End result, forced marriage in 21st Century…courtesy of French bureaucracy.
One reason why I always do extra research rather than accept advice on trust!
@JaneJones
You might just need to explain how that (tontine) works Jane… AFAIK there is no inheritance tax between married partners in France…
Surely that doesn’t apply if married??? Oh shiiiiiiittttt!
Divorce is always available. But probably won’t help 
My reference to forced marriage!
When we got the flat being young and not bothered about distant things like inheritance tax (and unmarried) the prospect of high taxes didn’t worry us.
I got my tenses wrong…meant to write
“Now we are older, it worried us. If one of us popped off the other would have had to pay inheritance tax of 60% on half the property.”
So we had to get married…
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ah… thanks for that… I can consign the draft divorce papers to the round objects then 
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