If you move from a 2,000-square foot house to a 45-foot boat, you may have a two-bed/two bath waterfront condo but all the closets are smaller, the cupboards are fewer and there’s no two-car garage. You will find yourself locking with the commercial big boys who always have priority for entering the locks, and if your language skills aren’t up to speaking and understanding VHF French, you can follow the lead of the commercial barges. Costs will vary depending on the type of boat you own, it’s size, condition and how many people live on it. I married a French girl and we moved to Lyon for my job. “Living on a boat seemed very adventurous and different. In Paris, our medical doctor charges 25 euros a visit. Do you live in Tahiti? Boat living also gives you the freedom to live in many different settings. Large cities offer ports with full services and are more expensive, usually depending on the size of your barge. In the last couple of years an Internet connection through a land line has become very reasonable in cost. 1. It will be interesting to see how this law will work in France as we have heard that at present there are only four dump stations in the county. pinterest. The friends we made in those first months in France remain some of our best friends today, and each year only adds new friends to the list as we meet other boaters. If you are traveling downstream with a good current behind you, slowing down and timing your arrival at the lock is much safer for you than having to make a U-turn in front of a barrage. We dial a computer in the States, let it ring once and hang up. This could be a “Go Green” direction. Costs of Living on a Barge. We looked at many barges, but we never saw any boat that had the wonderful features of our barge. Average rating of France: 4.8 out of 5 based on 96 reviews. These companies require that their monthly bill be directly debited from your bank account. The majority of the canal locks are now automated, and you may be assigned a roving lock keeper who checks on you from time to time. To apply for a “long stay visa for non professional purposes”, you will need several different letters stating that you have income, health insurance, and an address where you will be living in France. If you want to live on your barge during the winter, you will need to have good insulation and a good heating system. However, it’s vital to identify your key priorities from the start. Most boaters agree that they are living here in France for less money than they would need to have the same quality of life back home, no matter where their home may be. Since there was someone at the café from morning to night, this worked very well. It took us a few years before we could pick up to phone, rather than having to go everywhere in person, to get the information that we are seeking, and we are still working hard to improve our language skills. Shopping to outfit your boat takes longer than you would expect. Get the boat ready for life aboard, not just a weekend in the islands. The only money we paid for our Carte de Séjour in France was for a mandatory physical exam, which consisted of a chest xray, answering a couple of questions about our health, and touching our toes. What are the options for keeping a boat in the Med? We also have learned that short visits are better, and so we tell our friends not to think of us as a “destination resort”, but to stop in and see us for a few days during their European vacation. We call to the US, to both fixed and cell phones, for free. You will need a bank account to start certain services, such as your telephone and Internet service. It seems it might be the eccentric way of living only having access to certain material products that we have all grown so accustomed to. You will need to tell them whether you are approaching from upstream or downstream and your ETA, and they will tell you either to come on ahead or to slow down to wait for the lock. This is no longer the case. You can find this book on amazon.com. As PassageMaker reports, he spends most of his summers in Maine, the cold winter months in Georgia and the Carolinas, and the rest of his … Once the line is secure and the boat has come to a halt, we can relax a bit and even get into a conversation with the lock keeper or people passing by and one of us can help with the gates. What is the Cost of Living Index? Most town moorings have water, but sometimes you will cruise through an area where water is hard to find even at the moorings. "The Barge Buyers Handbook" is a must "how to" book for anyone looking to buy a barge. The EDF bill, or a telephone bill, is what you will use to confirm your address, something that you will be asked for many times over for certain business transactions including the renewal of your long stay visa. There are many stories about boaters recruiting enough people from a local bar, after lunch is said to be best, to climb aboard to act as ballast, in order to lower the air draft so that the barge can pass under the bridge. on a dry-dock or slipway – so the condition of the hull can be checked. One must think about balancing the need for living space when you boat is acting like a house in the winter, with the need to cruise comfortably during the summer. France has some of the best hotels and restaurants in the world and top luxury shopping. We have also use our phone to call ahead to ports that take reservations in order to secure a mooring. The used boat market is huge, you will have more room to negotiate price, and most likely find what you want. The cost of living on a yacht will also significantly decrease your cost of life in other, indirect ways too. Besides the actual boat itself, you’ll encounter several additional costs, depending on how you use your boat: Canal and River Trust licences: Costs depend on your boat’s size, but as an idea, a 40ft vessel is just over £700 per year. For some strange reason, we had the idea that we would be cruising along the canals all by ourselves. During the summer crusing season the port captain can forward important mail to you by "General Delivery/Poste Restante" to any town you deisgnate. You can access images, information and interactive maps for Marinas in France. We use our cell phone to communicate with the lock keepers or the district VNF office to report a problem, and to inform them of the time that we will be at the first lock in the morning. We shopped online before we left the U.S. to see what was on the barge market in Holland, Belgium and France. We made the move from living in a house in California to living on a barge in France without any boating experience, so we needed to learn about boats as well as adjusting to life in France. We came to France with our dog and suitcases and duffle bags full of what we thought that we would need to cruise for a few year before we bought our barge. Because we had not yet come over to France to buy our barge, we did not have an address in France. My parents moved onto a boat a few years ago, so we were familiar with boat life, a little,” says Maria. In contrast, the average house costs £200,000. Cost of Living in Tahiti. They have 191 slips, all with water and electric service, for boats up to 250 feet. This makes cruising much easier. An ex-charter boat can be a good choice and will be equipped for Mediterranean sailing, but make sure you get a proper survey. We also scanned our passport photos into our computer, and have often reprinted those photos when we have needed to submit a passport type photo for our visa renewal, or when we renew our international driver's licenses by mail. Finland (And a bit of Berlin, Denmark and Estonia) Why I love India; Living in Luang Prabang & Weighing the Laundry Now, the Lawrences make savings of £8,000 per year on household bills. It is an old arched Roman bridge with one of the narrowest passages on the canals. Although I often … Cost of living in France - CON: Cost of essentials. This includes annual mooring & storage cost, delivery trip to and for France and associated travel costs, cost of berths during the holiday and diesel to get the boat around when it couldn’t be sailed. We like returning to the same port every year, but others like to see where they end up at the end of the summer and then find a winter port. There is a rate sheet on the web site that gives the current costs to other countries. Once you receive your Carte de Séjour it is valid for one year. Buying an ex-charter boat Many yachts, especially in the eastern Med, started their lives in charter fleets. Once at the lock follow the directions of the red and green traffic lights. A 50ft narrowboat can be purchased for as little as £20,000. This system works well for us, particularly while we are cruising when we do not receive our regular mail. Photograph: Will Hutchinson. To calculate each city's Price Index value, we start by assigning a value of 100 to a central reference city (that … Consider looking into aggregate data for Average in French Polynesia. Usually it is that more commercials are coming up behind you. We made a mistake on the initial paperwork, and that seemed to complicate the whole process for us. France Marinas. Topics covered in this guide include: Our web site has brought us many email inquiries from people who are interested in this barging life. Wait for a green light. Smaller out of the way boatyards in the Eastern Med can be in idyillic locations, like this one in the Gulf of Volos. The company that we use is UWT, United World Telecom We have used them for years and have found them to be more reliable than other companies. Designed in France by Andre Beneteau in 1977, the Antares line has undergone many changes over the years but remains the brand’s go-to family and live aboard boat. Selling prices vary: from 25 000 to 150 000 euros for a Freycinet without fitings, and 50 000 to 1 000 000 euros for a boat already fitted out. Check above link for full details. When we made our long stay visa application in San Francisco, they asked for our future French address. Cost of living in France is cheaper than in 50% of countries in Western Europe (9 out of 18) Cost of living in France is more expensive than in 77% of countries in the World (18 out of 75) You can tailor the experience to precisely fit your needs; from a wide variety of boat types through to location and lifestyle. We are based at Saint Jean de Losne which lies at the heart of the french waterways and canal system in southern Burgundy. We like this convenience as it is always good to be able to make a call in an emergency, but a word of warning, it is very expensive to use your French phone in another county, so if we are planning to stay for awhile we buy a local pre-paid SIM card. He writes about all aspects of boat ownership and marine travel, including destinations, seamanship and maintenance, as well as undertaking regular new boat and gear tests. Because everyone has different income levels and spending habits, it is difficult to put a dollar amount on how much it might cost each year to live in France on a barge. Visit Nimbus Boats for more information about the builder. whatsapp. I first arrived in Paris which is great when you are young and don’t mind living in a very small apartment but once you have a family and a decent job, it just becomes too expensive. Speaking French is necessary to transact any business and outside of Paris or other large cities, you cannot count on finding an English speaking employee to assist you. After looking at all of the boats that we could find on the Internet, we made a list of the ten most important items that we wanted on our boat and used that list as a guideline for choosing which boats to see in person. There are many different methods of teamwork to move through the locks, and every couple finds the way that works best for them. Boat licences and fees. Prepare the boat before you move so it feels like a home, not a camper. Our collection of boating holidays in France is one of the biggest on offer – with 20 Nicols bases in 12 different regions. Once you are in France and settled, it not a problem to change your address from the first one that you submitted at home. It might just be easier to say that you do not have to be rich to enjoy this lifestyle. After that, you’ll be saving money on water, electricity, and mortgage or rent. However, we believe it might better and take less time to complete, if you present your application to the préfecture of your department, as they are more familiar with all of the requirements. Note: At the Basel Rainwat agreement conference, new radio regulations were established for all inland water ships on the continent over 20 meters. If you like going out, this is very affordable (a beer costs €1 on average) although it’s more of a summer month activity. The cost of living in France is high, especially in the large urban centres such as Paris, Lyon and Marseille. This costs around £500 to £1,000 per year and gives you permission to use the waterways. We like the “Go Green” idea. Finding a good winter port late in the year is becoming more and more difficult however. After looking at several other barges in France, we drove to Belgium and Holland to see as many barges as possible. Be sure to bring all of your original letters and their translations to France with you, as you will need to re-submit some of the same paperwork after your arrival. Paris and the south of France are notorious for high rent. Having a clear understanding of the cost of utilities, food, transport and accommodation is essential to having a realistic budget of living costs and being able to plan for living in France. In our previous port of Roanne, we were supplied electricity by the EDF, (Électricité de France). Many staples in France, such as fuel, food and clothes, are very expensive. A good idea for a boat that’s predominately used for two or three longish trips each season is to dry-sail from a boat yard – this can frequently work out cheaper than the cost of summer mooring plus laying up ashore for the winter. In an average month, it costs them around $2,200 to live on the boat. France Boating Vacations. But, the bigger the boat, the more it costs to buy, berth, and of course, maintain. They also pay an additional $250 supplement to live aboard their boat while it’s at the marina. Is living aboard a narrowboat cheaper than living in a house 'Yes' for most people. Both have their benefits, and their costs. We use an online bill paying service, Pay Trust to pay our U.S. bills, and we are very happy with their service. Several other companies offer the same type of service. By comparison, they would spend $2,500 to $3,000 to rent an apartment in a similar area of … It’s also worth noting that, in addition to the shipping costs, you may also incur port handling charges during the delivery. Not to mention a dream come true. In France, a phone purchased directly from one of the service providers may be blocked from using any other service, and this would be a problem when you try to change SIM cards in another country. You also need a ‘driving licence’ from the French national waterways board, Voies Navigables de France (VNF), which costs between around €200 and €400 depending on the size of the boat, and permits for … Perhaps the biggest decision is whether to live on your boat at a long term residential mooring or to continuously cruise. You can also pound steal stakes into the canal bank to tie up for the night, enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside at no charge. If we cross a border for any reason, our phone will work without having to change SIM cards or without making any changes to our service. Your telephone bill is then automatically collected directly from your bank account. If you’ve got the wanderlust bug … But living on a boat is not that simple, we explain the essentials. In most ports the mail is delivered to the port captain’s office. You can also use the same captain’s letter to open a bank account. The tax rate would be 17.5% of the total value of both the boat – as detailed in your invoice – and the shipping costs. Moorings are less frequent along the rivers. There were so many little bits and pieces to organize. Having explored the various costs to consider when owning a narrowboat in the previous section; this section is a case study to illustrate the actual costs associated with living-aboard a canal boat. €350) for annual maintenance. Maintenance costs, fuel and marina services all add to the cost, as do insurance fees, upgrades (every liveaboard boater makes them) and licence fees. Every time is different, and you must be ready to expect the unexpected. Add a marina. A family sold their four-bedroom house for life on a narrowboat - because they could no longer afford the cost of living. We have found it very useful to subscribe to their email list where information regarding boating is exchanged between members. All of our monthly bills are on automatic payment, except for our visa bill, which we view online before we okay the payment. You can save a lot of money on rent! Moorings are less expensive and easier to find. Perhaps the biggest decision is whether to live on your boat at a long term residential mooring or to continuously cruise. 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