A New Life in France, Buying a Campsite in France – Part Two
Three years ago we bought our campsite in France and two carp fishing lakes, Twinlakes in the Charente Maritime region. We had 8 static mobiles of our own to rent out to tourists and since then we have gone from strength to strength after lots of hard work today we have seven of our own for rental, and we have eleven private mobiles on site, six belong to French families and five to British. They pay a yearly fee for the emplacement including electric and water, and enjoy as many holidays as they like throughout the year.
We now also have two swimming pools, and 9 more emplacements making a total of 35 emplacements. We also built an area with TV and pool table, converted the front of the house to a bar and snack bar, with a dinning area, and had a communal BBQ built with tables and benches. We serve beers and wines up to 18%, and 3 times a week evening meals at the bar from 6pm till 8pm , Fridays we do a pig roast in high season.
Planning permission for the extra emplacements went pretty smooth, although here in France there is so much paperwork its unbelievable at times. The local plumber and local electrician have become family friends, the amount of time we have had them here for work over the years. Everything needs to be done right and we must have all the paperwork for any alterations and additions for not only insurance purposes and tax purposes, but certificates yearly for the business. Also things like fire extinguishers and boilers must be checked yearly and all certificates kept in a log, to be checked at anytime by anyone of the French authorities.
When we look back at our first year here there were problems that cropped up such as, French electrical hook ups for campers. There were 4amp, 6amp and 8amp, then we wondered why things kept tripping out when a customer plugged in the hairdryer in their caravan whilst the TV and microwave were on, Garry would have to run out at all times of the day and night! So they were all changed to 10 amp, and our mains updated, now we are mostly 16amp and updated accordingly, a bad storm would trip us out, but fingers crossed since last year nothing has gone wrong yet, touch wood!
Paperwork was difficult, but with the help of the Maries secretary who speaks perfect English, and very eager to help us, we seemed to be sailing through, in fact everyone we have had to deal with gives us so much help and assistance, I always on meeting anyone new start with the apology, for not speaking French, in French of course, I got that off to a T from day one, and believe me it works, in fact my neighbour Silvie, speaks no English, but corrects my French.
We found a very good French accountant in Royan, who has two English accounts assistants and translators, seemed expensive at the start, but has help us no end over the past years, although I did the sons accounts in the UK (in my spare time) once a month for him, then passed all spread sheets and receipts to the accountant. Well its nothing like here I might add, I am now over the three years up to speed, doing the accounts on spreadsheets and emailing direct to the accountant for the year end. It’s all 19.5% this 5.5% that, how much we charge this how much we charge that, camping listings, bar listings, fishing listings, food listings, easy now, but at first thought I would never get the hang of posting this here and that there.
Then the forms, for planning, quotes for the work, finding a good architect, to get the project together for our new toilet and shower block, has just taken over 12 months from start and still not finished yet. However the building work can’t be done during the tourist season April to end of September, so last year we built the small block, had another fosse septic installed in the side field ready for the big new block we aim to complete this winter, and for the new emplacements. We already had a fosse septic of 8000 litres and now running along side is a new one of 12000 litres.
The swimming pools have to be cleaned each morning when we are open from May till closing at the end of September, this was taking over an hour each morning, and an hour at night especially in September when the leaves were falling from the acacia trees in the area at the front. So last year one morning I heard Garry with the chain saw, only to have him cutting the trees down, ah well enough wood there for a winter. During the time the pools are open to the public, we have to check the PH and Cl morning and night and keep records, also every 3 to 4 weeks they are checked by the local authorities if they're not right they close you down. So this is the first job of the day before we open them at 10am , and last job when we close them at 8pm. Better safe than sorry, and last year we also purchased a poolboy, a fantastic device, plug in and let him hoover the bottom of the pool! This year we also bought a dosing device, this regulates the CL and PH to the pool water, takes the reading automatically and hey presto, never had a problem yet, works out very expensive on the onset to buy, but saves time and effort. So a good job well done. But Garry still insists it’s because he cut the trees!
I keep a list on the back of the door of the jobs to be done, and by the time we have crossed one off there always seems to be at least another two or three added, seems never ending, but we get there. Moving to France and buying a business in France is only the start of all the hard work but three year on we still love our new life!
You can read our other articles here:
A New Life in France , Buying a Campsite in France – Part One
Camping in the Charente
San and Gerry
Find us for a camping holiday in the Charente Maritime, France at www.twinlakesfrance.com |
