The contracts for gîte lettings are a maximum of 90 days to the same person.
YOUR ability to rent gîtes is, in some areas of France, limited to 120 days a year. In boring areas like ours we can rent year round, just not more than 90 days per contract.
We just used to give them another contract…sometimes 
Isn’t the idea of “restrictions”… that Gites are for folk who have a Main Address elsewhere??
Thanks for the reply, if and when I’ll look into it further.
Tut tut…
That’s a separate thing. Lots of other details to establish a gîte
hi, email me at futurehelen@gmail.com. I am in Massachussets right now but I do have a rental I can let out for a year. I am in the Orb Valley, closest airport is Beziers.
the place is an entire apartment below my house–1 bedroom, one bath with shower and 1 very large living room with kitchenette. I can do month to month. It would be 650 + utilities
cheers
helen
I have a Visa meeting in London on Wednesday, so may be able to answer some questions after that. However, I already have a house (since January and paid for) and a work pension that is just above SMIC. Then State pension and S1 coming in 2025.
Thanks.
That’s a very generous offer 
I’m actually aiming for Finistere, but an initial stay in the south would be a very interesting option - I see there are even cheap flights from Bristol
I might be able to spend the time doing a free French gov language course as well as the immersion I need…
It’s a year off, but I might contact you nearer the time to see if you still have a vacancy
Finistère, my old home for the past 32 years. Miss it dreadfully as it was never too hot or cold in winter, but the call of family is more important now so am 1200kms south where I am melting currently at 10am and its already 75°F outside.
I have so far been unable to access the visa form online to see what I need to get organised (sadly including renewing my passport and DL with ones lacking the EU flag 
)
Will I need a sponsor / reference from someone as I did with getting my UK passport ?
I’m doing it already (trying to re-establish contact with some of the French citizens I used to work with - one of whom is based in Bristol who is likely known to the French government due to his language teaching and other activities - it might be a useful excuse to re-connect …
Sounds good!
Forgot to add, the income requirements are aimed to cover everything, so don’t consider cotisations separately. But anyway as an inactif you will hardly pay anything on your income, just a few hundred €s for first years until you get your S1. And it’s up to you whether you pay for a full mutuelle or not, many just get hospital cover.
Not sure what your concerns about passport and DL are? As long as they are valid!
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Forgot to add, the income requirements are aimed to cover everything, so don’t consider cotisations separately. But anyway as an inactif you will hardly pay anything on your income, just a few hundred €s for first years until you get your S1. And it’s up to you whether you pay for a full mutuelle or not, many just get hospital cover.
Not sure what your concerns about passport and DL are? As long as they are valid!
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Using a French tax calculator my social charges will be around 4K per year.
I got my passport in 2015 and renewed my lost DL at the same time…
It seems I will need three passport photos for the visa too.
There are two different things. You mentioned what you might have to pay once signed up to CPAM and in the French Health Service. These are called (social) cotisations and are specifically for your health cover. As an inactif you only pay around 6.5% on all income above €20k. (% and threshold might have changed a bit). So if your income is say €23000 then you will pay €195 a year.
Then there are social charges, which cover many things like unemployment, repaying national debt and so on, and are levied on your income. As older immigrants we pay for the benefit of others as most are useless for us, and for the warm and fuzzy feeling of contributing!
In your first two years you will pay social charges as every other French resident, but once you get your S1 then you only pay the prélèvement sociaux at 7.5%.
If your passport doesn’t expire until 2025 you have plenty of time. And for your driving licence check when the photo-card expires (4b) as that need to be in date - but the overall licence should be ok.
Only on bank interest etc though - I still don’t know what to do with my savings in 3 bank accounts now and probably 5 when I sell the house…
I’m unlikely to leave before mid 2024 - I started preparing early so I will need to renew my documents soon,.
The whole process is very scary as I only ever bought one house - 39 years ago - and haven’t driven in 15 years - or travelled further than an enthusiastic cycle ride since then… perhaps I should sign up for a few lessons once I’m there - I definitely need to do the online part of the test …
I was thinking this morning that given I’m likely to want to rent for some time, I ought to get established in France with my CDS - then come back as a foot passenger and sell the house - - buying a car in France will also be scary but I’m certainly going to need one once I start visiting houses…
Hi @verdoux , jumping into the conversation. First I’m happy to say that the vast majority of visa applications are accepted especially coming from the UK, the US or any of the English speaking countries. You mentioned having a pension so you may be eligible to the S1 program which would avoid you from having private medical insurance BUT you would have to withdraw your rights to the NHS so it’s often best to not use the S1 at first just to make sure you can go back and PHI is only necessary for the first year so it’s not that much of a massive commitment. If you’d like to have an idea of the kind of premium you can expect you can use this quick calculator => Medical insurance - Fab Insurance
I’m not a visa advisor in the sense that I do not sell that service but I’ve seen nearly a couple thousand applications so I’m happy to help if you’d like. You can book a conversation with me (for free) using this link => Calendly - Fabien
That’s very kind of you
I will definitely take you up on the offer at some point - not least as I will clearly need various kinds of insurance.
I’m actually “only” 63 - I retired early at 60- fairly content that my LG pension was roughly the SMIC and that I would be able to emigrate before I added my state pension at 66 - and as a glorified hippie, I comfortably live on half of that and given my self-sufficiency plans, fully expect that to continue .
Only recently did I realise that my LG pension is taxed in the UK so I lose twice - firstly on the exchange rate and secondly on the lower tax rate in France :grr:
So assuming I manage to finish emptying my house of 40 years of hoarding after getting derailed in 2021, I would hope to be moving aged 64 so there would be 2 years before I qualify for my S1.
I find it ironic as I watch France looking ripe for a 6th republic, that I would be remigrating at that age … part of my inspiration for retiring at 60 was because at the time that was the French retirement age.
That seems ridiculously generous !
Effectively free healthcare as SMIC is actually only 20k …
And prélèvements sociaux are only levied in my case on bank interest - once I’ve used up all the tax-exempt savings plans - so 7.5 percent of a few percent of my modest savings…
Wow that sounds unbelievable😳 free healthcare if you earn less than 20k euros😳
Not free! You still have to have to pay (or have a mutuel that does) the proportion of any cost incurred that isn’t covered by the state. It’s only free in the sense that you are not paying cotisation sociale in order to have health care cover.