Becoming an auto-entrepreneur is recognised as being the simplest way to set up a business in France, so it’s the route I’ve taken with my language classes. But all things are relative and simple isn’t the word I’d choose to describe the hoops I’ve had to jump through.

When filling in the original forms, I asked several people what one question meant; none of them knew; I ended up going to see the nice man in the local tax office, who made several phone calls on my behalf and concluded “You tick yes, but don’t ask me why!”.

Last week I received an email saying that they’d changed the dossier numbers of all auto-entrepreneurs, since January 1st. Since I only set up on January 1st, I don’t understand why I wasn’t given a new number to start with, but……   There was a link in the email to allow me to change to my new number, so I filled in all the little boxes, going through the reams of paperwork containing INSEE numbers, SIRET numbers, dossier numbers, social security numbers, declaration numbers…… you name it, to find what I needed. However, after numerous attempts over the next two hours, I received an email telling me that these co-ordinates don’t correspond to anyone in the system! A lot more searching led, finally, to a way of contacting them by email, so I’ve sent copies of all the papers they may find useful and I’m waiting for a reply. Perhaps if I don’t exist, I won’t have to pay taxes????

There’s been no sign of Joel yet, but Nick and Kieran have been keeping themselves busy with the task of putting drainage in the garden. So far they’ve laid 40metres of piping, some with slots cut in, to collect the water, the rest left intact, to drain it away into the well.