If you can find one. Rare round our way as it is time intensive, and make better profit with an hour hedge trimming @ €60 than mowing @35.
Will you pay twice the price?
Sometimes the cost is “elevated” but usually still works out cheaper
What do you mean? Twice the price of someone doing it au noir? I wouldn’t employ someone au noir. By using a registered artisan you ensure they have a pension, pay their charges etc - maybe it is more expensive but at least you are keeping the economy going, and you get your rebate. And I like being able to sleep at night ![]()
It is not unknown for people doing SAP work to add a € or two more per hour onto a devis if they know you will be claiming. I had a brief halcyon period when we had a cleaner to help with our house so I had the time for the gîte. As it was SAP she charged rather more than what straight AE cleaners seemed to charge.
Whilst not knocking this and the pension, the use of artisan for grass cutting seems a bit far fetched. None of us are artisans at cutting grass but we all manage it.
Ah yes, but there’s grass and then there’s l’herbe française…
Sorry artisan in French just means someone who works with their hands and has a business, it isn’t as niche and hipstery and lookatmymanbun as artisan in English.
My plumber is an artisan, my tiler is an artisan, they aren’t arty-farty types.
Yes, but when it comes to artisan boulangers and bouchers, there are important differences…
Yes but here it just means they do things by hand and have their own business or a family business. It’s the personal investment in your business that makes you an artisan, just according to how we define it in French. Your artisan boucher or boulanger is going to be doing things by hand from start to finish without cutting corners and it’s going to be his or her business rather than a chain or a butchers/bakery counter in a supermarket.
When I was having work done on my house I had a whole lot of artisans working on it, their employees were ouvriers.
We really don’t use the term as it is used nowadays in English.
A few years ago my wife did a series of portraits of Aveyronnais artisan boulangers and separate still life paintings of their loaves. They were definitely distinct from mere boulangers, largely through only making pain au levain. Similarly my boucher, who advertises himself as ‘third generation’ doesn’t necessarily joint meat that differently to others, but I now he chooses individual animals from local farms in the Cantal and uses every bit of the carcase. In other words, I’d suggest that in these contexts, it’s not simply a matter of working with one’s hands but of being some sort of master of ones trade or craft.
Thanks for explaining, in Dulwich they would only ever employ/shop at artisan places ![]()
It’s so neat, you could déjeuner on it?
Quite, you really need both - néanmoins my plumber and tiler and roofer are all artisans even though they probably aren’t as artistic as eg my stonemason or my lovely now retired butcher who are also artisans. My wrought-iron smith is definitely an artisan ![]()
This is what the Robert and Larousse have to say
But of course since nothing in France is totally straightforward, the top class artisans can also be ouvriers
As in one of the meilleur ouvriers de France (MOF). Our roofer sported that title proudly, and our favorite baker narrowly missed out last year.
That just translated as workers, does that mean the patron roles up their sleeves as well?
€6500!!!
My Husqvarna ride on has cut my 10,000m2 for the last 9 years and up until 3 years many other areas when I used it fir my gite maintenance business. It is currently being repaired due to a steering failure after which its 20hp Kawasaki engine will I am sure will continue to function for many more years having had 25 hour oil changes and servicing by me from new. The beast also serves as a tractor to tow my large garden trailer around my ‘estate’ moving all kinds of hedge and other garden waste to my green dump it area at the bottom of the garden.
I thought about replacing it and an equivalent tractor is around €4500 so a saving of €2000 against a robot.
When a robot mower is avialable that I can sit on and enjoy tripping around the garden taking note of what I need to attend to and will pull a trailer I might give it some thought .
For now I will continue as I have done enjoying the relaxing task of drifting around the garden on my ride on where my thoughts wander from this and that and my world is at peace.
Yes and it is wonderful - but again it is very specific, getting MOF is like getting a master’s degree. You get the title relatively young before you have your own business and keep it all your life with the snazzy blue white and red collar
ouvriers become artisans when they set up their own business, traditionally.
Originally I think it was just for the Compagnons but it has evolved, and of course they have added to the trades that can be entered for it.
Now using AI !
We are thinking of getting one but I don’t think it will climb the house façade to remove the campsis climber from roof tiles. ![]()
Is he a part-time cook in his spare time?![]()
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