Getting Internet Service in France

| Alan

With moving to new unfurnished apartment (A Change of Address) in Argelès-sur-Mer, Tracy and I were faced with getting broadband internet service, something that had always been included as part of our previous furnished apartment rentals.  We very much rely on the internet for our communication and entertainment.

There are numerous options for internet service in France:  Alice, Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange, SFR, and additional smaller providers. Since we lack the language skills to really comparison shop well, we took the easy path by selecting Orange (formerly known as France Télécom), the largest national brand who provides service to more than 40% of France’s internet customers. A large “plus” for us was that Orange has an English language customer service line (+33  09 69 36 39 00) for sales, questions, service, and trouble-shooting. We liked the security of being able to resolve possible future problems in English rather than attempting to do so using our very limited French.  

Orange logo
Orange logo

I telephoned Orange, spoke with a service representative, and had the account arranged in a few minutes.  Installation was scheduled for a two-hour window in six days. Between my phone call and the appointment, I was told to expect the “LiveBox” (a combined modem and wireless router) to be delivered to our new apartment by La Poste (the French Post Office.)  The LiveBox device did arrived two days later. I also received also an e-mail reminder of my installation appointment (with the option to “click” on a button to delay the installation if necessary) and a mailed “hard copy” of my contract with Orange.)

Six days later while we were waiting to go to the apartment to meet the installation technician at 3:00, we received a phone call at 1:00 saying that the technician was ahead of schedule and asked if we could meet him early.  We went right over to the apartment and met our technician.  He set up the apartment’s LiveBox, went to the end of the block used his truck’s “snorkel” to “switch on” the connection on the telephone pole, and then went to the main control box down the block to activate our service.  The LiveBox is only the size of a hardback book and it is a “stand-alone” unit that does not require that it be connected to a dedicated computer.

The whole installation was done in less than an hour.  We then had active broadband internet as well as landline phone service that is included with the account.

Orange LiveBox
Orange LiveBox

In France the norm for internet service is by ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) carried over the copper telephone lines. France is the second largest ADSL market in Europe after Germany.

An issue we had over the last year has been the slow internet speed and narrow bandwidth at our prior apartment in Argelès-sur-Mer. While the landlord’s provided internet service was technically “broadband,” at best it measured at .52 Mbps, most often at .42 Mbps with frequent periods of even slower and sometimes complete outages. Several times I attempted an internet ‘speed test’ and the return was so slow the test “timed out” with no results possible. Tracy, who enjoys Netflix, often had an episode repeatedly interrupted and she was forced to sit and watch the frozen show buffer and buffer and buffer and buffer.  Uploading photos to Facebook could be problematic, YouTube videos might never actually load, and often we both could not be on the internet at the same time.  Our biggest problem occurred when the internet was out-of-service during the November 13, 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and friends and family were unable to reach us to confirm our safety.

Our new internet service “speed test” shows an increase of more than 20 times faster download speed with at least 10.5 Mbps and a 300% increase in upload speed. The difference in “Ping” return is much better; 32 ms for our new service compared to an average 678 ms at the old apartment.

Netflix recommends a broadband connection speed of at least 1.5 Mbps download for standard viewing and 5.0 Mbps for high-definition. Skype recommends 0.1 Mbps for voice calls, 0.5 Mbps for video calls and 1.5 Mbps for HD video calls. (But since most speed tests measure download and upload speeds separately, a person making a Skype call needs higher internet speeds than the minimum recommendations because the communication is in two directions at the same time.)

While we were moving items to the new apartment this morning and putting together a new shelf unit, I received a follow-up call from Orange. They wanted to double-check how our appointment went, if everything was working properly and if we were pleased with the technician who installed our service. Very nice customer service from Orange so far.

So along with the excitement of moving into our new apartment, Tracy and I are thrilled to once more have efficient internet access and that the whole process was simple and easy.

 

 

Getting Renter’s Insurance and an Attestation d’Assurance Habitation in France

| Alan

So with Tracy and I “upping our game” from living in a “furnished one year vacation rentals” to taking on a “Bail de Trois” (standard three-year lease) of an unfurnished apartment (A Change of Address), our real estate agent Camille advised us we needed to obtain renter’s insurance before we can take possession of the new apartment’s keys.  Contrary to renting a furnished apartment, there is an “obligation on the tenant of an unfurnished tenancy to take out insurance against the risk of fire, explosion, and infiltration of water etc. for which they may be responsible. The minimum insurance required by a tenant is for risques locatifs, but a more prudent policy would be for multi-risques d’habitation, which would include damage or theft to personal belongings. The tenant is required to supply the landlord with a copy of the insurance certificate each year.”  (French-Property.com)

Asking Camille if she had any insurance companies she recommended, she advised us there are many insurance companies available, but the quickest and simplest way would simply be contacting our French bank for coverage.  (Yes, in France you can get home, vehicle, and supplemental health insurance at the bank.  Pet insurance, too. Equally odd to US expats, you can set up a bank account and buy cell phones at the Post Office.) With visions of 1.) a long difficult conversation in our stumbling French, 2.) difficult to understand contract options – all in French legalese, and 3.) a delay in obtaining insurance resulting in a delay in getting the new apartment, we steeled ourselves and headed to our local branch of BNP Paribas.

The bank receptionist was very helpful and was happy to try to complete our request for renter’s insurance, although she did not speak English, she was patient with listening to our poor French.  After a moment she enlisted the help of Julien, a conseiller de clientèle bancaire (bank officer), who spoke English and who could make the transaction easier.  Julien’s excellent English was the result of working in his youth for a year outside Detroit as an au pair and then spending his final month in the US driving Route 66 across America.  His wife and he had just returned from a vacation in New York City.

Julien made the process easy with €20,000 worth of liability, theft, and damage coverage for about €14 a month.  (More than enough coverage with Tracy and my minimalist lifestyle.) We elected to pay an annual premium rather than a monthly payment.  Three signatures and we had the document required for our real estate agent, an Attestation d’Assurance Habitation. We don’t think we ever purchased insurance coverage as easily before.  Quick, painless, and fun discussions with Julien about his experiences in America.

Attestation d'Assurance Habitation
Attestation d’Assurance Habitation

A Change of Address

| Tracy

IMG_2925

Each year in order to renew our Carte de Sejour (visa) the first document we must obtain is a lease. The lease must be for a minimum of one year. Our first three years in France we found apartments online through rentaplaceinfrance.com. It’s a great site that has the added benefit of owners who speak English as either a primary or secondary language.

But our current landlord is planning to sell the house this coming year so we needed to find a new place to live. We very much wanted to stay in the Pyrenees-Orientales region for access to the 1€ Bus and the benefits of a large city like Perpignan close by for culture, entertainment, travel, shopping, etc.

Before this year we didn’t much care where we ended up and felt that anywhere would be perfect as we seem to assimilate easily into whatever town or city we live. But a few things happened this year. One | Sami decided that she loved the beach and the ability to run leash-free. Two | We adopted a second dog, who also loves the beach (though he has currently lost his right to run leash-free, see Renaming the Dog for details). Three | We fell in love with this area. Four | We have friends living nearby. Five | We are already treated like locals.

So starting in June of 2015 we began looking for a new place in this region. We looked at AirBnB and found several options that were close to the beach but the first few we saw were just too small for year-round living. Next we looked at St. Cyprien, just 7 kilometers north of us as they have lovely biking paths and beach access, a larger Saturday market, and more restaurants that are open year-round. The two places we tried to rent didn’t pan out. In both instances the owner or property manager no-showed on the day we were supposed to view the apartment. We decided that it wasn’t really where we wanted to be anyway as they do not allow dogs on the beach or even on the promenade (which is asphalt and not dog-friendly in the heat of summer).

So we moved on to Plan B and stopped into a realty office here in Argeles, Foncia is a large chain of realty offices that can be found throughout France. We talked to an English-speaking realtor and told her that we were interested in a one-year lease somewhere on the Plage (Beach area) and gave her a price range that we would be willing to pay. She asked when we needed the rental and we told her April 1 of 2016. She asked for our e-mail address and promised to let us know if anything came up. We never heard from her.

We lost traction in our new home search August through October as we had returned to Spain to hike the Camino de Santiago a second time, but picked back up the search just after Thanksgiving. We had decided that the stress of finding an annual rental was beginning to be too much and thought we might try the Bail de Trois, a three-year lease.

We considered the pluses and minuses of a three-year lease:

  • + less stress while trying to get the coveted rental contract in time to renew our visas
  • + the lease automatically renews unless one party gives notice
  • + a power bill (a very important document for visa holders, proving that we actually live somewhere)
  • + a fixed address for a while
  • – apartments are not furnished, so we would need to adapt our minimalist lifestyle
  • + we can buy furnishings that we actually like and not have to live with someone else’s design choices
  • – there will be a huge financial obligation right at the outset for a bed, fridge, living room furniture, etc.
  • – if we decide to move we would need to give the owner three months notice instead of the 30 days that are required for a furnished apartment
  • – moving our furniture could be a hassle if we move as we do not own a car
  • – we would have to purchase rental insurance, and have an annual expense for maintenance on the large building for stuff like the water heater, furnace, etc.
  • – we would have to pay the taxe d’habilitation ourselves

In the end, we decided that the benefits far out-weighed the risks. So we started a new search by picking up all the “for rent” listings from local realtors, looking at their online offerings and checking all the rentals posted in their windows. Once we found one that seemed like a perfect match, we headed back to Foncia Realty as that was where it was listed.

Marita, the English-speaking realtor, was very helpful. We showed her the listing of the place we wanted to see and she immediately set up a viewing appointment for 10 am the very next day. We went to the apartment the following day and took a look around, it was PERFECT.

Just a block away from where we currently live, right behind our favorite boulangerie, a two-bedroom with a loft storage area, small (but equipped) kitchen and living room, and even a small terrace for the dogs. The price was great too, just 450€ per month. It would allow us to stay near the dog beach where we walk the dogs everyday and we could still stop for coffee and croissant each morning on our way back home. We put in our application, excited with anticipation of hearing a positive response in a day or two . . .

One month later, we still hadn’t heard anything from the owner. We had been checking in with Marita once a week to see if she had heard anything. Then after the first of the year, we finally got an answer. “The proprietor does not wish to rent to foreigners.”

We left the realty office quite dejected. It was an awfully long wait to get a negative answer. Concerned that we might not have a contract in time for our visa renewal if each time we looked at a place it took a month to get a response, we devised a new plan.

The rental process works a bit differently here. You find a place you’re interested in, you make an appointment to view it, if you like it you put in an application, then you wait. They do not show you multiple places and allow you to put in multiple applications. So we found our own work-around. We researched all of the local realty offices, went online to see if there was something listed online that wasn’t in their brochure, we went to the online “classifieds” (leboncoin.fr) as a friend suggested, then we compiled a list of our top choices and the list of realty agencies that each apartment was listed with, selecting a different realty office for each listing.

The following Monday we went to the agency that held the listing of our first choice. There we met Camille. Camille speaks a little English, she isn’t afraid to use a translation program when she isn’t sure of the English word, she was welcoming, warm, and charming. She immediately made us an appointment to view the apartment the following morning.

At 10 am Tuesday morning, we met her at the agency and she drove us a few blocks up the street to the apartment. The previous tenant was still in the process of moving out, which she apologized for, though it wasn’t necessary, we can imagine a space empty even when filled with houseplants.

When we said that we really liked it, she asked to make sure that it wasn’t too small a space. At just 38 m2, (approx. 410 square feet) it is a small space, but for just the two of us it was perfect.

It has a nice sized bathroom with room for the washing machine; a small, funky shaped kitchen — but with a nice big pantry; a small living room and bedroom — with the most amazing french doors; a balcony; a private entrance and staircase; and our own private terrace with a gate and room to park a car (for visitors as we are still sans car). But the nicest benefit is that we are just one block from Centre Plage where all the events happen in the summer, only 50 meters (150-ish feet) from the beach, 1/2 block from a year-round grocery store, and 1/2 block from the bus stop. And the price was amazing too, just 495€ and that includes water. (We normally use about 80€ of power each month, so that with our renter’s insurance which is 15€/month, plus €50 for Internet service and we will still save quite a bit from our current rent of 900€.)

Imagine our surprise when we finished our application and she said that she should have the answer the NEXT day! After waiting more than a month for an answer from our first attempt, 24 hours was a great improvement. We stopped back at her office the following day and were told that the owner had not called her back yet, and could we please come back on Friday thus giving him time to respond to her phone call.

Friday came and when we arrived at Camille’s office she smiled, shook our hands and offered us each a “Ça Va” and asked us to please sit down. She told us that she had heard back from the owner, who lives in Paris and only comes to Argeles two weeks each year, and that he had accepted our application. “When would you like to move in?”

I almost fell out of my chair. Just a few days earlier I had been chatting with my friend, Lisa, who told me that it was very hard to get a three-year lease as not too many French people want to rent to foreigners. It had me really worried about finding a lease in time to renew our visas. We had even put in place a back up plan if we weren’t able to secure a lease in time for our renewal appointment.

When would we like to move in??? “Well, since it’s nearly empty now, how about February 1st?” I told her. She said, “No problem. I will go by the apartment in a few more days and check to see if everything is out and then I will make up the contract. No worries.”

And she was right. No worries. We signed the lease on January 25. We picked up the keys on Monday, February 1. We have the electric now turned over in our name, Internet service is being installed on Feb. 8th, the couch should arrive in a week, the bed in about two weeks. The rest of our furniture will have to wait until we get the two large pieces into the space to see what else may fit. We’re planning to outfit the kitchen after we make the final move over there. Even the dogs have given their approval, met the neighbor and his dog, checked out the balcony and all of the rooms, and successfully navigated the stairs a few times.

We’re moving stuff over a bit at a time, one backpack each per day on our morning walk. We should have everything over there in a few days and we’re ready to settle in once the furniture arrives.

Et Voila! We have a long-term lease in France. Now who’s coming for a visit?

Shower
Bathroom, with space for the washing machine in the corner
Kitchen counter and space for the fridge
Where we will set up the cooking area, an induction hot plate, toaster oven and microwave. This space is 13″ deep x 26″ wide!
Double-doored pantry, plenty of storage!
Sink with a view!
Living room with French doors
Sami and Lou checking out their new home
Plenty of natural light
Looking into the bedroom
One grey accent wall and doors accessing the kitchen and stairway
Bedroom with one sad-lonely electrical outlet!
French doors from the bedroom onto the balcony
Balcony facing south
Balcony facing north
Terrace with built-in patio table
Our general area
Alan checking out the new outdoor space
Tracy posing in front of the new place!

 

 

Lucifer’s Morning After

Aside | | Tracy

UPDATE: Lucifer Lou had his first day of being grounded to his leash while taking our morning walk.

We made it to the far end of the beach where we usually let the dogs run, Sami happily took off bounding around. Lou took four steps and realized he was still attached. In true Lou form, his response was to wag his tail, tangle us up in the leash, while bouncing joyously and shouting, “I regret NOTHING!!!!”

Sami was able to get some exercise while chasing birds up and down the beach. She managed to come back immediately when called . . . Lou called her a “show-off.”

Yep, life with a dog!

"I regret NOTHING!!"
“I regret NOTHING!!”

Conversations with Sami

Aside | | Tracy

As long-time pet owners, we often have conversations with and for our pets. Sami has a wicked sense of humor and often has some great one-liners.

Here is an excerpt of a conversation with her Dad while we having coffee the other morning.

SAMI: Daddy, are there boulangeries in the US?

ALAN: No, Sami, there are no boulangeries in the US, they have Starbucks.

SAMI: Cool, can dogs go there?

ALAN: No, Sami, dogs are not allowed into the Starbucks.

SAMI: Well I don’t know why not. It can’t be because they’re afraid of dogs, they’re all heavily armed.

Just life on a daily basis with our MinPin!

Renaming the Dog

| Tracy

We’ve decided to rename the dog from Lou to Lucifer. Our evil genius gave us quite a run this morning. Quite unintended on our part.

He turned off his hearing. Headed up the beach, always keeping us in sight but not willing to come close enough to be caught, even for a treat.

Three kilometers later, he had stopped to smell something of interest, when Alan managed to put the grabs on him.

We normally enjoy our mornings on the beach, two hours or more roaming on the shoreline, letting the dogs off-leash for some fun. Today was not that kind of day. Lou has lost ALL of his off-leash privileges.

Sami, however, remains the diva princess that she is. She came back when called and assisted in rounding up her wayward minion. Though in the process she nearly impaled herself on a piece of driftwood, poor baby. She’ll be a little sore tomorrow, but no worse for her escapades.

I’d love to add a photo of today’s adventure, however we were both to busy trying to catch the stupid dog to think about stopping for a photo.

Taking the Cat Out

Aside | | Tracy

On our morning walk today we saw our neighbor from across the street with her beautiful brindle boxer/pit bull mix.

Sami and Lou are very fond of the brindle and we have had many encounters with him as he often slips his collar and heads to the beach. He is a big friendly baby and is very gentle with our harridan and her minion. Minion Lou loves this big guy who will run along the beach with us whenever he spots our foursome on a morning walk.

Today when we came across him and his mom (who we see less often than her dog), the family cat was tagging along on their morning walk. Minot, the cat, comes when she is called, walks alongside her mom and big brother, and gives other dogs the stink eye as only a cat can do.

The brindle and his mom
Minot with her mom and brother

Things that make you go . . . hmmm

Image | | Tracy

 

While walking the dogs on the beach this morning we came across this shoe. Can’t help but wonder if the damage was from a small shark. Sure do hope that there wasn’t a foot in it when it happened! We have never seen a shark ourselves, but last summer one was caught in St. Cyprien, just a few kilometers north of us, so we know they’re out there.

DSCN0179

Celebrating Alan’s 3rd Year of Retirement

Image | | Tracy

 

12471857_10156439552930173_7046289986850943907_o

January 7 marked the third anniversary of Alan’s retirement. It is hard to believe that it’s been that long already, time seems to fly right by. There are some people who believe that retirement will lead to boredom . . . we wonder how we ever had time for a job!

Being party animals (not) we are celebrated with a day of cuddles from the pups (at least until the fight breaks out between Sami and Lou over who gets Daddy’s lap) and a home-made lemon cake!

Happy Anniversary Husband . . . so glad we made this change!

BTW . . . has anyone else noticed that Lou looks a little devilish in all his photos?? He always seems to have something devious in mind!