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MY FRANCE - PROVENCE

PROPERTY

‘Provence still has hidden corners to explore’

American food journalist Julie Mautner, 53, took a holiday to Provence 14 years ago and she's still living there now. As part of The Local's My France series she guides us round some of the best attractions and restaurants in the idyllic region of southern France.

Published: 15 March 2013 11:12 CET
'Provence still has hidden corners to explore'
Photo: Julie Mautner. Photo (right): K. Hurley

What brought you to Provence?

The first time I came here was for a holiday. I think it was on my third day, after the jet lag had started to ease, that I realized two weeks wasn't going to be anywhere near long enough.

I returned again, about a year later, and that's when reality hit: my long marriage to New York was pretty much over and my romance with Provence was in full bloom. I never really moved to France. I just came here for a while and stayed.

What made you stay?

As a freelance food and travel writer, I can’t think of any better place to live and work than Provence.  And now that I’m working as a travel planner as well, I’m finding—as I expected I would—no shortage of people who want to visit Provence but need a little help planning the best trip possible. I have a wonderful group of friends here, not to mention a pretty house, a career I adore and a happy life in the charming village of St Rémy de Provence.

I love the climate, the architecture, the history, the food and wine, the lifestyle, the geography, the mountains, the valleys, the rivers, the sea and all the different types of interesting people who come here from all over the world. And I absolutely love the Provençal sense of humour.

What’s the Provençal sense of humour like?

People here are always saying that Provence is paradise and that Provençal people are somehow more intelligent, more handsome, better cooks and better lovers than anyone else – but the truth is that they can also be self-deprecating. My experience is that they’re quick to laugh at situations and at themselves.

Was it difficult to settle in?

Yes! I did everything wrong. I had no idea how anything worked and I didn't speak a word of French. I had to find a house, buy a car, furniture and appliances. I also had to find the right providers for phone, cable, internet and TV and sign up for electricity and gas, none of which are easy to do let alone in your own language in your own country!

And of course I had to make friends and there weren't that many English speakers around when I first came to St. Remy. Once I’d found some great friends though, everything sort of fell into place and it became much easier and more fun.

What’s the first place you take visitors?

The Pont du Gard is a must. It’s a 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct on a stunningly beautiful site. If the river below is high enough, I take visitors for a swim or take out canoes. Sometimes we go to the city of Arles to take a little stroll through Roman history – there’s so much of it – plus around the great galleries, museums and shops.

During the summer, we might go to see an exhibition at the annual Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival, which gets better and bigger each year. Arles has a wonderful market on Saturday mornings, so sometimes we’ll start our day there. For a fabulous lunch or dinner in Arles, I love L’Atelier de Jean-Luc Rabanel – although the food is so good you always end up eating too much. Or we’ll eat at À Côté, Rabanel’s more casual restaurant next door.

Any more good bars or eateries you can recommend?

For casual dining, I love Le Mirabeau in my hometown of St-Rémy-de-Provence. The owners and staff are very friendly and the food is always good. I also hang out at Le Café de la Place for the same reasons. Plus, they make a great iced coffee – not so easy to find in Provence.

In the evening, I also like to go to La Cantina, an Italian-style restaurant that serves wonderful pizzas, salads and specials such as ossobuco. For a more special night out, I go to Le Mas du Capoun in Mollégès, where the food, service and setting are divine and the prices extremely reasonable.

Provence has been a tourist destination for years – are there any secrets left?

Of course! Provence is huge, and no matter how much time you spend here, there are always more hidden corners to explore. Even in the height of summer, when the most popular towns are thronged with tourists, it’s possible to find areas of completely unspoiled nature and tranquility that aren’t far off the beaten path.

What advice would you give someone thinking of moving to Provence?

Come and stay for a while – especially in the winter. Many French villages close up in the evening and are dead in the winter months, so you need to experience what it’s like. If I had to do it again, I would have paid a professional to help me get settled, buy furniture, buy a car, open a bank account, pay bills and generally learn the ropes.

Julie Mautner has her own website ProvencePost.com “For anyone who lives in, travels to, or even just dreams of visiting the South of France” and also runs Provence Post Travel, which helps couples, families and groups of all sizes plan holidays in Provence and on the Côte d’Azur.

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PROPERTY

French property: What is buying ‘en tontine’?

If you're buying property in France, you might be thinking about buying 'en tontine' - this has advantages especially when it comes to France's strict inheritance laws, but can also have tax implications.

Published: 25 March 2024 11:17 CET
French property: What is buying 'en tontine'?

What is it?

The ‘clause de tontine’ sometimes also known as a ‘clause d’accroissement’ is a clause that is inserted into the property deeds when you are buying a house or apartment.

It can only be inserted during the purchase, and cannot be added later.

It’s basically a ‘group purchase’. It’s most commonly used by unmarried couples who are buying together but it can be used by larger groups too – for example a group of friends buying a holiday home together.

You will have to ask a notaire to draw up the tontine clause during the property purchase and it can only be used if 

  • the parties are equally involved in the financing of the purchase
  • the parties involved have a roughly equal life expectancy (for this reason tontine clauses may be rejected if there is a significant difference in age between the purchasers)

What’s the point of it?

The main reason that people use it is to sidestep France’s strict inheritance laws, which assign that a certain portion of every estate must go to children, at the expense of a partner. 

READ ALSO How France’s strict inheritance laws work

For this reason it is particularly used by couples who have children from previous relationships.

On a property with a tontine clause in effect, when one owner dies their share of the property passes in its entirely to the other member/members of the tontine.

This cuts out children from inheritance, but means that a surviving partner is not evicted from their home in favour of the children of the deceased. 

It also has the advantage of making the intentions of the deceased clear, to avoid arguments among heirs after their death.

It should be noted, however, that the tontine clause only takes in the property that it covers – other assets may be subject to French inheritance law so it’s therefore probably wise to arrange a will, to ensure your wishes for your estate are met.

The surviving party can ask a notaire to update the property deeds to show that they are the sole owner, if they want. Be aware there will be a fee, which could reach four figures for the privilege – and it doesn’t actually involve any change to the property title.

Drawbacks

The advantages of the system are clear, especially for blended families, but there are some potential drawbacks too, which mean that anyone considering buying in this way would be well advised to take proper legal advice before they start.

Inheritance tax – while a tontine will help you to avoid restrictions on inheritance, it does not exempt you from inheritance tax. French inheritance tax is structured according to your relationship to the deceased, and people who are neither married nor related to the deceased pay an eye-watering inheritance tax rate of 60 percent.

The only exception to this top rate of inheritance tax is if the property is your main residence and it is valued at under €76,000 – in that case, tax is paid at a rate of 5.8 percent.

Married couples and family members pay a much lower rate or not tax, but if you’re not married to your tontine co-purchaser, be careful that you’re not lining yourself up for a massive tax bill in future years.

Wealth tax – depending on the value of the property, it could tip you over into the ‘wealth tax’ category when you inherit. France’s wealth tax is a real estate based tax and is levied on anyone who has real estate assets (property and land) worth €1.3 million or more.

The calculation includes property held en tontine.

Tax savings – you might hear tontines being advised as a way to limit your French tax liability.

While this used to be true, changes to tax laws means there are no no significant tax advantages to buying this way – the same is true for buying a property via an SCI, which used to represent a tax saving until the law was tightened up.

Disinheriting family members – One side effect of the tontine clause on mixed families is to effectively disinherit any children of the first person to die.

Because the property passed to the survivor, under French law, only their direct descendants – rather than any family by marriage – are entitled to automatic inheritance.

That means that the children of the surviving partner will be entitled to the statutory share of the entire asset (between 25 and 30 percent depending on the number of children), but the children of the first person to die will be entitled to nothing. Obviously you can choose to leave them something in your will, but you can only leave them some or all of the estate which is not automatically given to the children on the survivor.

Divorce/dispute – if the members of the tontine split up or (in the case of friends) fall out, then they can either sell the whole property or agree to buy each other out.

However, if one party refuses to sell, then you have very limited legal options – unlike a standard property purchase a tontine is not regarded as joint ownership, so one partner cannot be forced to sell as part of a divorce procedings, for example.

Basically the tontine can only be ended or changed with the agreement of all parties – so if you can’t agree between yourselves then you may be stuck with it.

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