“There is a war”
There is a war between the rich and poor,
A war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
And the ones who say that there isn’t.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, that’s right, get in it.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, it’s just beginning.
Well I live here with a woman and a child,
The situation makes me kind of nervous.
Yes, I rise up from her arms, she says, “I guess you call this love.”
I call it service.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be a tourist,
Why don’t you come on back to the war, before it hurts us.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get nervous.
You cannot stand what I’ve become,
You much prefer the gentleman I was before.
I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control,
I didn’t even know there was a war.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, don’t be embarrassed.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, you can still get married.
There is a war between the rich and poor,
A war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the left and right,
A war between the black and white,
A war between the odd and the even.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, pick up your tiny burden.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, let’s all get even.
Why don’t you come on back to the war, can’t you hear me speaking?

New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974) is the fourth studio album by Leonard Cohen. “There Is a War” is the first song on side two.

I am writing this section of the current issue on October 18, a Sunday. In the office, everything is quiet and has been for hours. Yesterday, there were large demonstrations in all the major cities of France and numerous instances of violence; some of them could be called riots. In the USA, all major networks showed the violence but not the peaceful and joyful demonstrations. Violence creates buzz and therefore an audience.

I hate to use a title twice, and I used “There Is a War” for the February 2020 issue, over six years ago. But so much has changed since then in our daily life and in our work. Then, we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic. Today, in the USA, critical midterm elections will be held in a few days, and in France, presidential elections will be held in 2027 on Sundays, April 18 and May 2. Most of the focus in France is on the candidates of the extreme right and extreme left, who, according to the polls, are the only ones seriously in the race. I pray that the polls end up being wrong and that, between now and then, at least one other candidate with a serious shot at winning will emerge. We are running out of time.

Here is what I wrote in the February 2020 issue:
“WHICH WAR, AGAINST WHOM?
The word ‘war’ is now so misused that it rarely describes a military conflict between two or more countries. Today, in all the countries I am familiar with, almost all cases of opposing interests expressed forcefully are called wars. The fact that disagreements within the population of a country are described as a desire to annihilate the other side illustrates the extreme polarization of society. Yet several countries, including the USA and France, have actual military personnel deployed in places where they have to fight enemy forces.

“I find it striking that, 46 years ago, Leonard Cohen was able to describe so vividly and accurately the situation many countries now face. Extremely violent demonstrations occurred in many countries in 2019, and some are continuing in 2020. France is one of the countries affected. Even as I write this, a massive strike is under way, involving multiple demonstrations.”

Today, the media talks about “insurrections” taking place every Saturday, and on other days there are demonstrations in city streets around France. I see no insurrections, though, and people forget that a certain level of violence occurs regularly in France, every 20 years or so. On the other hand, an underlying war between categories of people continues to exist. That is why I chose this song again today. The public discourse has gone from talking to the population in general terms about what the country aspires to achieve to identifying and vilifying other people. There was a time when broadcast networks, unions, universities, newspapers, and so on aspired to reach the general public, ignoring things like race, gender, and political and religious affiliation. Today, all these information sources are slanted, and people choose the ones they agree with. This feeds violence, fear, and suspicion of others.

I see the last two centuries as steady progress in human rights, achieved thanks to dedicated and resilient groups of people. Success is reached when the general public agrees it is right to support this cause. I am thinking of the civil rights movement, the feminist fight, and others in our recent past. In France and other Western countries, these rights are diminishing and are in danger.

Who could have predicted in 2020 that the polarization existing then would look tame compared to what we have today? We should not be fooled by what we hear and see in the media; we should be more concerned about the real attacks on rights taking place today and less about material destruction here and there, or violence in the streets regardless of who is responsible.

THE CURRENT FRENCH UNREST AND STUDENT DEMONSTRATIONS
Unlike the joke commonly heard in the expat community, France does not riot for no reason. Unrest here always has a valid reason by French standards, though it might feel ridiculous taken out of context.

There is a world of difference between the police forces in the early years of the Fifth Republic and today. Aside from isolated incidents in the 1960s, there is pretty much consensus that today’s police use force more brutally, more indiscriminately, and much earlier in cases of mass demonstrations in the streets. No matter what was said at the time, during the riots of May 1968, Paris’s police prefect, Maurice Grimaud, systematically enquired about the number of people being badly hurt, making sure the violence was contained as much as possible on both sides. That is not what is happening today, when the policy is to crush dissent regardless of who it is. Throughout President Macron’s two terms, this policy has been used against firefighters, doctors and nurses of public hospitals, teachers, lawyers, farmers, environmentalists, and so on. In my view, the most interesting power struggle against the government is that of the gilets jaunes (yellow vests).

President Macron was first elected on May 14, 2017. The gilets jaunes movement started in November 2018 and was said to have ended on June 28, 2020, though it continued to be more or less active until 2023 and has seen a revival with the latest unrest. Originally, around 3 million people took part across the country. The movement peaked on November 17, 2018, with about 1.3 million people demonstrating. The protestors, many wearing high-visibility yellow security vests, set up roadblocks and occupied roundabouts and toll plazas, among other activities. Eleven people died, and 25,800 civilians and 1,944 public officials were injured; 12,107 people were detained, 10,718 were held in police custody, and there were 3,100 convictions and 400 prison sentences with immediate incarceration. Many see the brutal use of police force as having started there.

Here is the explanation from Wikipedia:
“The movement was initially motivated by rising crude oil and fuel prices, a high cost of living, and economic inequality. The movement argued that a disproportionate burden of taxation in France was falling on the working and middle classes, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. The protesters called for lower fuel taxes, a reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth and a minimum wage increase, among other things. On November 29, 2018, a list of 42 demands was made public and went viral on social media, becoming ade facto structuring basis for the movement. The demands covered a wide range of topics, mostly related to democracy and social and fiscal justice. Some demanded the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.”

Since none of those issues have actually been resolved, and the living and working conditions of the working and middle classes in both the private and public sectors have not improved, further unrest was bound to happen, even if it was not known who would go on strike next. It turned out to be middle and high school students, and once their revolt lasted long enough, other sections of the French population started to join in, seeing an opportunity to get their grievances heard.

This explains the brutal, indiscriminate violence against teenagers. The government hoped to crush this movement as quickly as possible, as it managed to do with previous ones. But the French government has clearly lost the first rounds of this fight. We will see how it ends, hopefully without people getting killed and with few people injured and jailed. Right now, that feels like wishful thinking, which is probably the saddest aspect of the situation. Children are being harmed indiscriminately, and the country is being impoverished.

HEATWAVES IN FRANCE AND AIR-CONDITIONING INSTALLATION
Over this past summer, we heard a lot of discussion about installing air-conditioning units in apartments, shops, and offices, especially in Paris. As you might expect, regulations on such units are strict: Three authorizations are necessary in most cases, since so many places in Paris are in or near national monuments.

The first step is to submit a request to the assemblée générale ordinaire (general assembly, usually annual) of a given property’s owners. The request takes the form of a motion to approve the installation, accompanied by blueprints and the AC unit’s technical characteristics in terms of noise, vibration, size, weight, etc.

Assuming the owners approve the motion, the second step is to send the request, including the meeting minutes granting permission and all documents submitted at the general meeting, to “le service de l’urbanisme” at the city hall. To simplify matters, installing an outdoor unit on a street-facing facade is prohibited. The AC unit must be discreetly integrated in a courtyard, on the roof near chimneys, in a former pantry, or in a suitable enclosure.

The third step, for buildings in secteurs protégés (protected areas), is to get approval of the Architecte des Bâtiments de France. This applies to sites patrimoniaux remarquables (notable heritage sites), which are subject to strict aesthetic requirements.

This issue will increasingly be raised as climate change leads to hotter and longer heatwaves. Most French buildings were not constructed to handle these kinds of temperatures. French media has talked about a need to drastically loosen the regulations. Air conditioning uses a lot of electricity and emits heat into the atmosphere. The idea of allowing everybody to have AC units in homes, businesses, and so on faces strong resistance in some quarters, as it is seen as making climate change worse.

The Paris City Hall will likely do everything in its power to stall any massive or widespread AC installations. It has become a political issue. The government needs to decide how to protect the population from brutal heat during the summer months. But it must also protect the historical parts of cities as well as the medieval small towns, preserving their ancient harmony, which is often what attracts tourists.

Of course, tourists want modern comforts, which help them enjoy their stay and have a great time. They expect to avoid excessive heat when they are inside buildings. But here is an anecdote that might counter the idea that air conditioning is the only way to achieve that comfort:

During a heatwave in August 2025, my father, in his 90s, visited us in Cluny and wanted to have lunch in the historical center of the town. He demanded that we find an air-conditioned restaurant due to his age. But instead, we went to the restaurant located in the portion of the 12th-century abbey that is now a museum. The temperature outside was over 100ºF, while inside was probably around 75ºF and we had a great time.

As this story shows, climate change is forcing businesses, governments, and the general public to rethink a lot of things they took for granted. Here is an idea that might at first sound idiotic: in southern Europe, hotels should advertise that they do not have air conditioning because they are in medieval buildings with thick stone walls. Spain, France, and Italy should have enough of such properties to make this feasible.

A READER’S COMMENTS
“I read your July newsletter with a bit of a smile. You and I engaged in almost exactly this discussion several years ago when I asked if it was actually stated that presentation of taxation information was required, explicitly in the CESEDA. The conclusion was that, well, not specifically addressed in the code, it was certainly within the rights of the prefectures to request such information in order to properly process a request for a carte de résident de longue durée-UE.

“So, in reading your question from this month’s newsletter, I think you may have slightly missed the key point. The purpose of submitting French tax filings is to prove that someone was a full-time resident in France. This flows from the definition of fiscal resident in France. Based upon the definition provided by the fisc, it is impossible to be both a full-time resident in France, meeting the presence requirements for thecarte de résident de longue durée-UE, without also being a French tax resident, and therefore being required to file taxes. The specific requirement is stated as….

“Your household (including your spouse, civil partner and/or children) remains in France, even if you are living temporarily or for most of the year in another country for professional reasons. If you have no household, then your tax residence is defined as where you have your main abode.

“So, someone who had spent a maximum of 10 months outside of France in the 10 years preceding their request for the carte de résident de longue durée-UE would, at a minimum, call into question their level of integration into French society, and such a test is permitted under the EU directive. Add on top of this the likelihood that such an applicant has been participating in the French Social Security system, and the questions become even more troublesome.

“For these reasons, someone who provides only US IRS tax filings is indicating that they may not have met the basic requirements for eligibility for long-term residence.”

CLUNY’S 12th CENTURY HOTEL DES MONNAIES AND 10th CENTURY ABBEY
As I have occasionally mentioned in my columns, we now have a second residence in Cluny, a town in the Burgundian countryside. Our house is located in the oldest part of town. The Hôtel des Monnaies (former mint) is located two doors away from our house. Fully restored, it is among the oldest individual houses in the town; it is publicly owned and is used for conferences and public events. Like some other historic monuments of the city, it can be visited. “Hôtel” here is used in the same sense as hôtel de ville (town hall, also known as the mairie), the official seat of local government.

Cluny is known for its abbey, about a fifth of which is still standing and is now a museum. Construction began in 910, and at its height it was the world’s largest Christian church until Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was completed. Large sections of the town’s medieval walls have been preserved, including the entry gates that existed to close up the town as well as regulate traffic in and out.

In the Middle Ages, each independent region and town had its own government, currency, and so on. Thus, money was exchanged at the gates as people entered the town so they could buy and sell in it. The abbey had obtained the authority from the king of France as well as the pope to issue its own currency.

Currency Exchange at the City Gates
In the Middle Ages, currency exchange in the town of Cluny was conducted under the direct control of Cluny Abbey, which held sovereign rights over the town, including the privilege of minting coins.

The Monetary Context and the Role of the Abbey
• Own currency: The abbey was authorized to issue its own currency (the Cluny denier) as early as the late 11th or early 12th century.
• Seigneurial control: As lords of the town, the abbots regulated the markets, fairs, and the circulation of the currency needed by the many pilgrims and merchants.
• The exchange office: Currency exchange (the conversion of foreign currencies or coins of various alloys into local currency) was strictly regulated to guarantee the institution’s revenue and the monastery’s monopoly.

In the Middle Ages, currency exchange at city gates or in marketplaces took place outdoors or under awnings, on a simple table or bench (banco).

The Role and Setup of Money Changers
• Strategic location: Money changers often set up shop near city gates, bridges, or at fairgrounds to intercept foreign travelers and merchants before they entered the market.
• Basic equipment: They conducted their business on a table covered with a cloth, equipped with precision scales for weighing coins and ledgers.

How the Process Worked
• Assessment of Currency: Since each lordship or city issued its own currency, gold, silver, and billon (a low-grade alloy) coins varied constantly. The money changer examined the weight and fineness of the metal and identified clipped or counterfeit coins.
• Conversion and commission: The money changer converted foreign currency into local currency while charging a commission (the profit from manual currency exchange).
• Origin of the word “bank”: This wooden counter, called a “banco” in Italy, gave rise to the terms “bank” and “banker.”

You might wonder who would be interested in such an explanation, but more and more foreigners immigrating to France settle outside of Paris, sometimes in the countryside, where many medieval towns exist. About 400 French communes are considered to be of historical interest, many with medieval buildings. Through my clientele, I have seen a steady change as foreigners who move to France increasingly settle in the countryside, away from large cities. They are looking for a balance between modern convenience, proximity to a highway and a large airport, and traditional France in towns of a few thousand residents.

Moving to a different country is a radical change in life, which people often underestimate. Thorough planning is a must to make such a move successful. Choosing to adopt the French small-town lifestyle greatly increases the degree of this radical change. One thing is certain: it requires a good level of French and readiness to quickly get used to the accent and local colloquialisms.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN NOVEMBER 2026
The SHIP studio is available as of November 1, assuming the current tenant does not extend the lease. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400 euros is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS VACATION
The office will be closed for one month over the Christmas vacation, from the evening of Friday, December 11, to the morning of Monday, January 11. I will be in Cluny most of that time, getting involved in a few projects. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements.

Best regards,

QUESTION

SPOUSE COURT COMPENSATION AND DIVORCE

We have been married and living in France for more than ten years. My husband is from Botswana, a tiny country in Africa. We have had the hardest time securing his French immigration, even though we also have a son born here, as none of us are French or even European. His salaried position tipped the request in our favour every time. Two things pretty much happened at the same time:
1 – After not being paid by his employer, a subsidiary of a South African multinational, the Parisian labor court awarded a substantial amount of damages.
2 – After years of infidelity, he started a divorce procedure to be with the latest one!I have been the sole breadwinner all those years. I do not want him to get all this money, give me nothing, and the new one enjoy his new wealth. One tiny detail gives me some hope: the bank closed all of his accounts for reckless behavior, so the only one he has is the joint bank account.

QUESTION

SELF-EMPLOYED IMMIGRATION STATUS AND WORKING AS AN EMPLOYEE

I have a four-year profession libérale visa, and I work as a proofreader, translator, and content writer. I’m also moving along in the process of applying for a part-time job as an English teacher. I haven’t confirmed this, but the position seems to be set up as a salaried, 10-hour per week CDD. Do I have the right to take that work on the side, in addition to continuing my work as a profession libérale? Or do I need to do anything regarding my visa to be able to do both at the same time?

“MIDNIGHT AT THE LOST AND FOUND”
Hey Ricky, now mine is empty
How about one for you
We could sell it out together
Seems tomorrow’s overdue
Captain video, done went home
One pilot laid to rest
And dragon ladies talk that talk
About who loves who, who loves best
Silver bullets in the jukebox
Spin another round
Everybody at the back of the line
It’s midnight at the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Lost souls in the hunting ground
A remedy for all your ills
At the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Midnight
Have a double, it’s gettin’ late
You’ll get home, just rely on fate
Place just finally came aliv
Good old boys just arrived
Stools keep changin’ faces
And the night just slips away
And like a long distance love affair
Soon you’ve got to pay
Silver bullets in the jukebox
Spin another round
Everybody at the back of the line
It’s midnight at the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Lost souls in the hunting ground
A remedy for all your ills
At the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Midnight
Hangin’ on barely, hitch a ride away
Belly up and bury, boy, all the hurt you feel today
Hangin’ on barely, hitch a ride away
Belly up and bury, boy, all the hurt you feel today
Silver bullets in the jukebox
Spin another round
Everybody get back in line
Last call for the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Lost souls in the hunting ground
A remedy for all your ills
At the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Lost souls in the hunting ground
A remedy for all your ills
At the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Lost souls in the hunting ground
A remedy for all your ills
At the lost and found
Midnight at the lost and found
Lost souls in the hunting ground
A remedy for all your ills
At the lost and found
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)
Midnight (at the lost and found)

I was fortunate to see Meat Loaf on stage in Paris. I believe I own all of his records. His 1980s albums sold poorly and received unfavorable reviews. He was always a storyteller who used exaggeration, passion, and sometimes even mythical references. Midnight at the Lost and Found was his third studio album, released in April 1983.

The vast majority of American people appear to be feeling lost as they witness what is happening to their country and nervously anticipate what might happen next. One could even use an allegorical image of the country ending up in the lost and found, waiting for someone to pick it up and restore it to functional condition.

Like most Meat Loaf songs, this one deals with teens’ anguish, lifestyle, arcade games, and fear of what their parents will do if they come home too late. I read those lyrics while transposing them to what is happening today in the USA. When I try to go deeper than the frenetic polls everybody has been commenting on, I sense that Americans feel they are losing the country they cherish, and I see this on both sides of the aisle. It is about much more than winning or losing the November midterm elections. From what I see, since living conditions can change literally overnight, making and implementing plans and looking to the future have become terribly difficult. The image I have is of needing to go to the lost and found office to find the predictability that used to exist but has been lost.

Of course, the midterms offer a radical choice. What happens during the next two years will differ a lot depending on which side has the majority in Congress. The Democrats propose radical policies and changes that they think are needed. That alone, even if it improves the situation, means there will be big changes that perpetuate the uncertainty and make it difficult to look forward.

As far back as I can remember, as I was growing up in the 1960s, the USA embodied the future. With each new invention, each new literary trend, each breakthrough, etc., we Europeans looked to the USA to see the appliances we would have in our homes, the movies we would see (often many months later), the next literary style, and much more. But in the last decade or so, the USA has lost this leadership, which is rarely talked about, probably because it was most visible to those of us living in Europe.

Standing at midnight at the lost and found, we desperately need light.

EXPLAINING FRANCE TO FOREIGNERS
There are thousands of topics that need to be explained to foreigners in an attempt to facilitate their integration into France. The current technology-driven society makes it more difficult to see and therefore experience, but the legal obligation of the French administration is real. The administration serves and protects the people. That is what is written in the lawbooks, though personal experience can be vastly different. This is radically opposed to the American view of government, especially the federal government and its agencies. I have seen countless situations at the prefecture and other places where a civil servant’s cold and distant reaction creates fear and distrust in foreigners, and this aggravates the problem.

The opposing approaches in the USA and France stem from the genesis of the two countries. The United States of America achieved its existence through a war against an absolute authority that curtailed the freedoms of the people living there. Even today, the assumption is that government actions, by definition, limit the population’s freedom and liberty.

France became a modern society during Napoleon’s reign. French people had their freedom secured and protected by the codes passed and implemented at that time. Their rights were codified and judicially protected. When France was a kingdom, the population had few rights, as the king and aristocracy made the rules, and the claims of aristocrats in a court of law always prevailed. From the 19th century onwards, France has lived with the certainty that the written rule of law blocked those same aristocrats and the previous rulers from infringing on people’s rights.

One place where this is clearly visible is the tax office. A French tax inspector is a tax adviser to the public. Tax offices are open to the public in the morning, and there are waiting rooms for people who come seeking help. It is common that taking tax officials’ advice results in people paying less in taxes, learning what claims exist, and even having their previous declarations revised in their favor. Tax inspectors are civil servants; they serve the public by applying the law regardless of the outcome. A similar situation, albeit less obviously, exists with URSSAF, CAF, CPAM, and CNAV – in short, all the divisions of the French administration that allow the public to come to their offices to meet with the civil servants.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR ALL FRENCH RESIDENTS
The French logic regarding unemployment payments for people who lose their job is often seen as idiotic at best by foreigners, especially Americans. For example, it is safer to renew an employee carte de séjour while unemployed than to change employers. The French administration considers that changing employers implies a higher level of risk than keeping the new job. The administration has the right to disqualify the new position because it does not comply with the requirements linked to the person’s carte de séjour.

Being unemployed – which, in the French administration’s view, means being the victim of dismissal – and receiving the related subsidies is a legitimate status, and since there is no new employee contract to review, renewal is automatic. But note that the card is for one year, and the following renewal must involve an employee contract, even if the applicant still has the right to receive unemployment.

Imagine the disbelief of a fired American being told that receiving unemployment benefits, not finding a new job, improves the chances of keeping their immigration status, and so they must register with France Travail as soon as possible. President Macron, throughout his two terms, has pushed to unify the French administration as it relates to work. This is quite visible, as there is now an integrated public health care program. All the different health care regimes linked to specific types of work have been merged into CPAM. All social charges owed by independents are paid to a single organization, URSSAF. Those are just a couple of examples.

In light of all this, and specifically the goal of unifying various procedures and centralizing services to one provider, I would like to explain unemployment benefits for self-employed people. At first, this may seem a total contradiction in terms. But just think: someone closing their business also loses their source of professional income, leading to significant hardship that can be alleviated.

The terms and conditions for a self-employed person to obtain the right to unemployment benefits may sound like nonsense. For instance, you might think that someone who manages their business well and closes it with no outstanding debt – i.e., a good steward of the business finances – would be rewarded. Not at all; that person is excluded from benefits, while someone who is declared bankrupt or has become insolvent is entitled to benefits, provided they comply with other requirements.

In short, the procedure is like the one for employees. Employees who quit their job are not entitled to the unemployment benefits delivered by France Travail, but those fired for incompetence, gross negligence, or worse are just as entitled to unemployment benefits as those laid off for economic reasons. Similarly, in the self-employment procedure, someone who closes their business clear of debts is seen as triggering the closure, which the administration considers to be like quitting the job. But someone who is forced to close their business is seen as analogous to an employee who is dismissed and thus should be assisted.

I can see some logic in employees being assisted by France Travail when they are dismissed. But from a business point of view, the procedure regarding the self-employed is insane. After having been in business for almost 30 years, I do not know anyone who has benefited in that way, and not just because hardly anyone knows about it. This is fascinating to me, because I saw it mentioned in a recent email message from URSSAF. Here is what the message said:
Votre couverture en cas de cessation d’activité involontaire
En cas de cessation d’activité involontaire et définitive, vous pouvez bénéficier, sous certaines conditions, de l’allocation de travailleurs indépendants (ATI) (liquidation judiciaire, cessation en cas de non-viabilité économique…). Cette allocation est versée par France travail.

Translation:
Your Coverage in the Event of Involuntary Cessation of Business
In the event of involuntary and permanent cessation of business, you may be eligible, under certain conditions, for the self-employed workers’ allowance (ATI) (e.g. court-ordered liquidation, cessation due to economic unviability, etc.). This allowance is paid by France Travail.

CAISSE D’ALLOCATION FAMILIALE
AND ALLOCATION PERSONNALISÉE AU LOGEMENT
The caisse d’allocation familiale (CAF) issues almost all personal and family subsidies. One such payment, the allocation personnalisée au logement (APL), is among the best known, as it affects a large number of people. Your taxable income and the amount of your rent determine whether you are entitled to a subsidy. And remember, the number of children in a household has a significant impact on the amount of taxable income.

Over the years, the CAF has strengthened its control over tenants’ situations, helping to avoid scams. This has had an unexpected consequence: the CAF is in direct contact with landlords to make sure the rent is being paid and also to review several aspects of the obligations of the owners, such as declaring rental income and complying with rent control legislation, even though the CAF has an official relationship only with tenants.

One of the many messages I’ve received from the CAF illustrates this supervision:

Demandez à votre bailleur de déclarer le montant de votre loyer du mois de juillet 2026
Votre bailleur n’a pas déclaré le montant de votre loyer du mois de JUILLET 2026. Cette information est indispensable pour nous permettre de calculer le montant de votre aide au logement pour l’année 2027. Sans cette déclaration, votre aide au logement sera interrompue.

Translation:
Ask your landlord to report the amount of your rent for July 2026. Your landlord has not reported the amount of your rent for JULY 2026. This information is essential for us to calculate the amount of your housing assistance for 2027. Without this report, your housing assistance will be suspended.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN NOVEMBER 2026
The SHIP studio is available as of November 1, assuming the current tenant does not extend the lease. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400 euros is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

Best regards,

QUESTION

WHEN THE ANEF WEBSITE IS NOT WORKING

Last year, I had no problem with the ANEF website and got the carte de séjour a couple of months later. This year I have been dealing with this website for months, and I cannot get in: it asks me to change my password because the current one is incorrect. So I do, and the site does not recognize the new one. It does not matter how many times I have tried. I called their phone number, and I was told just to change the password since the procedure is safe. Clearly, it is not, and they do not believe me. When I go on their dialogue page, I explain, and their answer is to explain to me how to change the password. No one is paying attention to my problem. How do I contact someone, a human being, who actually reads my message and is willing to help? Is there anyone?

QUESTION

RENT CONTROL IN PARIS

I moved in August 2024 and endured poor living conditions. It is a top-floor Paris apartment under a zinc roof. The skylights were very old, and one was leaking rain. It was extremely costly as a result until November 2025, when it was changed. This summer I had temperatures exceeding 40°C, suffering sleep deprivation, headaches, and other health effects because of inadequate roof insulation.
The landlord has offered me 630 euros in compensation for over a year’s worth of constant issues, and a window is still to be fixed, but they keep moving the appointment. They refuse to have another energy rating assessment as requested by the housing authority (ADIL).
My goal is to receive fair compensation.
French landlords must provide a logement décent (decent housing). This includes:
protection from weather, 
adequate ventilation, 
proper thermal performance, 
housing that does not present a risk to health or safety. (Service Public)
If the apartment is poorly insulated and becomes dangerously hot every summer, particularly during increasingly frequent heatwaves, you could argue that it no longer meets the standard of decent housing. This argument is becoming stronger as climate adaptation becomes a recognized issue, although there is not yet a clear legal rule setting a maximum indoor temperature. (Le Monde)
If they refuse and the conditions are severe, you can:
send a formal written request, 
contact the local Commission Départementale de Conciliation, 
ultimately, ask a court to determine whether the dwelling remains decent under French housing law.
I am paying more than the rent control maximum because the apartment had supposedly been fully renovated and in better condition than the average. Considering its condition, this is not true. It is a furnished rental, and they claim that it is prime-quality furniture; this is not true because I saw it in the IKEA catalog. They claim that there is 20m2 that were not measured in the surveyor’s report. The ceiling in that space is too low and should not really count in the calculation of the rent.The landlord and the agency are crooks. Can you help?

“Smoke On The Water”
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile
We didn’t have much time
Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun
Burned the place to the ground

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

They burned down the gambling house
It died with an awful sound
Funky Claude was running in and out
Pulling kids out the ground
When it all was over
We had to find another place
But Swiss time was running out
It seemed that we would lose the race

Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

We ended up at the Grand Hotel
It was empty, cold and bare
But with the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside
Making our music there
With a few red lights and a few old beds
We made a place to sweat
No matter what we get out of this
I know, I know we’ll never forget
Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky
Smoke on the water

Wikipedia:
““Smoke on the Water” is a song by English rock band Deep Purple, released on their 1972 studio albumMachine Head. The song’s lyrics are based on true events, chronicling the 1971 fire at Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. It is considered the band’s signature song, and its guitar riff is considered to be one of the most iconic in rock history.

People living in Western countries between 1970 and 1980 probably know about this song and might even have a recording of it. I am being facetious in choosing this title, as I spent my holidays in the French countryside in Burgundy, where the daily news kept mentioning heatwaves, drought, and wildfires. In my mind, drought is associated with water and wildfires with smoke. The image of smoke rising from water may seem idiotic except when a member of this band looks out the window, sees smoke covering Lake Geneva, and writes a song about it. What is depressing is that no matter how the message is delivered, or where or by whom, what global warming means to the future of mankind on Earth seems to be dismissed. So my choice of Smoke on Water may not be an idiotic symbol after all, as even water ends up in fire, showing how dire the situation is.

I hope you had a nice summer, went on vacation for part of it, and found a way to enjoy yourself regardless of the news or the hardships some of you may have faced. In both France and the USA, let’s hope for good news this autumn and maybe in 2027 too.

And for those who grew up partying and dancing to Deep Purple’s music, put on your favorite album and enjoy it once more, thinking of the teenager you were then. You are not alone: I do it regularly!

Here, by the way, is how I introduced my September 2023 issue:
“Deep Purple in Rock is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, released on 5 June 1970. “Into the Fire” is the second song on the album. I still listen to some of this band’s albums, which I have on my hard disk.

“When choosing the title, I was thinking of the massive devastation in Hawaii and the huge wildfires continuing in Canada, California, and parts of southern Europe, including France. Such fires are increasingly dangerous, killing a lot of people. Many of the survivors lose everything, all the belongings of a lifetime. It may be reaching a point where it will be difficult to rebuild what was lost and get people to move back. Some of the photographs from Hawaii show devastation that looks more like bombing than fire damage.

“September is back-to-school time. In France, la rentrée also means back to work. I hope you all had a nice summer. As I write, France is going through one of several summer heat waves. Some of them have broken records. I am lucky that my office stays cooler than the outside temperature even at the worst time of day.

“France used to completely shut down for the entire month of August. This was called “Sleeping Beauty syndrome.” Although long-term residents may notice that each year it is increasingly business as usual in August, a nonchalant ambiance still reigns in Paris during the month.”

Reading this three years later, seeing it describe almost exactly what has happened this summer regarding wildfires, it is clear that this is now a yearly situation. It cannot be accepted as the new normal. As for my summer vacation, this year I managed the horrid heatwaves in July and August inside a medieval house with such thick walls that the heat stays mostly outside.

I did not want to use the same title as I believe there are more important issues to address. I believe that the so-called rentrée is going to be challenging in both the USA and France, for different reasons.

GLOBAL WARMING WAS AN ISSUE IN THE 1974 FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
I was almost 15 and living at home with my parents when I followed the 1974 presidential campaign. Much of the news coverage and discussion was about politics, candidates, and so on, as with all presidential campaigns. For the first time, there was an écologiste candidate, René Dumont, who won 1.32% of the vote.

WIKIPEDIA
[René Dumont] was one of the first to denounce damages from the Green Revolution (“Révolution Verte”) and to fight agricultural productivism. He was an expert with the United Nations and FAO, and wrote about 30 books. He traveled widely and had a good understanding of farming issues in underdeveloped countries. ….

Ahead of his time, the most famous French agronomist, well known for his red sweater, surprised French people by showing on TV an apple and a glass of water, telling them how precious these natural resources were, and predicting the future price of oil. Dumont was one of the first to explain the consequences of what was to be called globalization, demographic explosion, productivism, pollution, shantytowns, malnutrition, rift between northern and southern countries. He was also one of the first to use the term “développement durable” (sustainable development).

In practically all Western countries, academics, researchers, and activists in the 1970s warned people and political leaders of the catastrophic consequences of lifestyles at the time. They were not listened to; they were ridiculed, even though many were esteemed experts in their field. I still remember what was said in my family, in the media, and in public places: nearly unanimous condemnation of Dumont’s positions, and how insulting it was that he was a candidate in the French presidential election. Only once, my middle school history teacher mentioned water pollution from household cleaning products and their long-term effects.

We have been warned for 50 years or so of what is going to happen. There is no point in listing what has happened this summer in North America and southern Europe, just to talk about what the media talks about, ignoring events just as fatal as the landslides in China, for example. Wildfires have dominated the news for several weeks, and rightfully so; the one in Fontainebleau was within the Parisian metropolitan area, and the one in the southwest was very close to Bordeaux and its wineries. The heatwaves are now so brutal that they kill a measurable part of the population.

It is a fact that Western countries suffer from complete blindness regarding this matter. It is not too late to address the situation, but it will take many years to fix what can be fixed.

This is Dumont’s 1974 stump speech; sorry, I could not find an English translation.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMRFKNu0f30

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Dumont

CLARIFICATION REGARDING WORKING IN FRANCE
Immigration lawyer Maître Daniel Tostado managed to submit a request regarding remote work in France for overseas clients to the Interior Ministry via Député M. François Gernigon. Here is the ministry’s response:

THE ANSWER
Il n’existe aucun texte relatif au droit du séjour des ressortissants étrangers en télétravail sur le territoire français au profit de l’économie d’un autre pays étranger, dont l’administration n’a aucun moyen d’en avoir connaissance. Sur le principe, un titre de séjour à finalité professionnelle (salariée ou non salariée) implique l’exercice d’une activité sur le territoire français intégrée à l’économie française, c’est-à-dire au “marché” français. A contrario, un ressortissant étranger résidant en France mais ne remplissant pas ces critères, et qui reste rémunéré et s’acquitte de la fiscalité liée dans son pays d’origine, doit solliciter une carte de séjour temporaire mention “visiteur”. Si un ressortissant de pays tiers n’est pas salarié en France ou n’exerce pas d’activité professionnelle en France au bénéfice d’une entreprise située sur le territoire, l’activité qu’il exerce dans le cadre du télétravail au profit d’un employeur de droit étranger doit conduire à le considérer comme non-actif au regard du droit français. Il est interdit au détenteur de cette carte de séjour temporaire d’exercer en France une activité professionnelle soumise à autorisation.

TRANSLATION
There is no legislation governing the right of residence for foreign nationals who are working remotely in France for the benefit of another country’s economy, a fact that the French authorities have no way of knowing. In principle, a residence permit for professional purposes (whether as an employee or self-employed) requires the individual to engage in an activity on French territory that is integrated into the French economy – that is, the French market. Conversely, a foreign national residing in France who does not meet this requirement, but who continues to receive compensation and pays the associated taxes in their country of origin, must apply for the temporary residence permit called visiteur. If a third-country national is not employed in France or does not carry out professional activities in France on behalf of a company located in France, the work they perform remotely for an employer governed by foreign law must result in their being considered non-working under French law. Holders of the temporary visiteur residence permit are prohibited from engaging in any professional activity in France that requires authorization.

I would like to describe, at a practical level, how this situation affects various procedures concerning the French administration.

ANEF – PREFECTURE
The ANEF website “Étrangers en France” https://administration-etrangers-en-france.interieur.gouv.fr/usagers/# handles renewals of the visiteur immigration status. The site proposes several types of documents to prove that one has the financial means to renew this status, i.e., at least the French annual minimum wage, or SMIC, currently about 18,000 euros. The fact that it is possible to submit foreign payslips as proof demonstrates that working for a foreign employer is compatible with renewing thevisiteur status.

FRENCH TAX OFFICE
The vast majority of people now fill out their income declarations online and so do not see the different forms involved, which are as follows:

CERFA #2042 is a generic form whose first two pages need to be filled out by everybody, as they cover personal information. The third page is mostly, in this case, about salary, as well as retirement and pension income. Slots 1AF and 1AK are for declaring foreign salary. Slots 1AL and 1AM cover foreign retirement and pension.

CERFA #2042 Cpro is the form for declaring foreign non-employee income, using slots 5DF and 5XJ.

CERFA #2042C deals mostly with capital gains, but there is a box that it is crucial to check, 8RP or 8RQ, stating: “Vous ne relevez pas d’un régime obligatoire français d’assurance maladie” (You are not covered by the French national public health coverage). See explanation below.

CERFA #2047 deals exclusively with all types of foreign income, detailing it so that the tax treaty with the identified country or countries can be applied. The amounts declared in the other abovementioned forms are mentioned again here, and section 6 is about wrapping up the declaration in order to avoid double taxation with the USA and other countries with a similar tax treaty with France.

This clearly illustrates that the French tax office issues fiscal forms that take into account the fact that one can be a French fiscal resident and earn foreign income taxed in the foreign country.

As stated above, it is critical to check either Box 8RP or 8RQ, found on the CERFA #2042C.Checking it states that the foreigner is not covered by the public system and therefore has a private policy in order to comply with the prefecture requirement to have health insurance. Overlooking this box has serious consequences, the most immediate and obvious being that URSSAF gets a copy of the declaration and calculates the amount owed as the cotisation subsidiaire maladie, also known as CSM; not checking the box amounts to stating under oath that you are covered by CPAM through the PUMa program. It is then possible that you owe this CSM calculated on your foreign-earned income, even if you are covered by the public coverage. This is why I cannot overstate the importance of checking this box when dealing with this issue.

Remember, URSSAF collects all social charges linked to employee and self-employment work. It sees one of its main missions as protecting workers, especially employees, as it collects social charges for the benefit of the general population. This is another reason to make sure URSSAF never sees your French income declaration.

I hope this issue is now clear, including the coherence between what the government stated and the procedures for immigration status renewal and tax declaration. Too often, it is difficult to see the connection between a general policy as explained at the government level and what people actually need to do.

REVOLUT OBTAINS A FRENCH BANKING LICENSE
Revolut is a British-based financial tech company later licensed as a bank. After Brexit, the bank needed to be in the EU to continue to serve its European clientele. Specifically, its European branch needed to be located in a country belonging to the Single European Payments Area (SEPA). Member countries share bank operating information, handling transactions as if they were all in a domestic market. Revolut’s first European office was in Lithuania, a SEPA member country. It offered full banking services in Lithuania but limited its operations to checking and savings accounts in the other SEPA countries.

Last year it moved its European headquarters to Paris, and as of August 2026 it also has a French banking license and can now offer its entire range of banking services, such as loans, mortgages, and portfolio management, in France. Another change is that customer IBANs will start with FR.

Under normal circumstances with regular transactions, this shift is of little consequence. But when the French administration wires money to a private individual, the legal assumption is that the person lives in France and has a French bank account. Any IBAN without the FR was blocked because government transfers could not be sent to someone living outside France. Thus, the change will benefit private individuals, including these not-so-small consequences.

THE PASSEPORT TALENT Nº9 ARTISTE IMPLIES A CAREER REBIRTH
In less than 6 months, I have dealt with several people holding the artiste immigration status who have little or no registration in France regarding taxes, social charges, public health coverage, and so on. When I am contacted before the visa request is ready, I spend a long time discussing with the client how their career will evolve and perhaps drastically change when they move to France. Sometimes, the career is the reason for the move. I can think of musicians blending several genres whom the American market found impossible to define. In Western Europe, some classical musicians with established careers have gone into rock and heavy metal and been just as successful. Connoisseurs might recognize the Concerto for Group and Orchestra in this connection:

WIKIPEDIA
It is a live album by Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September 1969, it consists of a concerto composed by Jon Lord, with lyrics by Ian Gillan. … Long planned by Jon Lord, the project was not very successful in the United States but helped establish Purple’s reputation and image in the United Kingdom.

The 1969 performance is considered “groundbreaking” because it was the first time that a major rock band recorded a live album with a full orchestra, cementing the “then odd but today very common” relationship between heavy rock and classical music.

It was one of the first albums I purchased by this band.

Most of the time, such artists have personal reasons to establish their residence in France, such as a desire to leave the USA. The natural reflex is to continue their artistic projects as they have always done, being fiscally anchored in the USA, clearing all their income in the USA, and keeping the same agent and accountant. Most have already spent a lot of time in France, being well known there. Hence, registering a visa on the ANEF website and going through the OFII procedure are seen as the minimum requirements to stay and enjoy French life without limitation.

As the expiration of the visa nears – often a few days short of two months before the expiration date – they look into renewing the artiste immigration status and can show plenty of proof of an active career. But then they realize the prefecture will want French accounting and fiscal documents, first registrations and then declarations showing they paid French social charges and income tax. In some cases, an artist can ask for a huge amount of leniency when requesting renewal, promising to clean up everything with the French administration, showing what has been done, and waiting for their answers. In other cases, nothing can be done on short notice to fix the problem. There is always a choice: one can choose from many other types of immigration status or even ask for another VLS-TS visa during a stay in the USA. This should be a no-brainer and will allow a fresh start.

Except for the visiteur status mentioned above and the complete expat one defined within the passeport talent, salariés en mission, sub-subcategory foreign labor contract, all others will sooner or later require basic registration with the rest of the French administration, not just the immigration part. Holding a VLS-TS is a paradigm shift for real. In my view, people should work on that aspect of their plans to move to France as part of an overall strategy. For some it takes several months, for others it is a matter of years. But 90 minutes is all the time it takes to fill out the forms on the France visa site https://france-visas.gouv.fr and the TLS site https://visas-fr.tlscontact.com/en-us/country/us/vac/usWAS2fr. You will need information on:

1. Budget
Start with how much the complete move will cost, considering where you will live, as well as professional assistance and settling costs, followed by a yearly budget once things fall into place.

2. Activities, occupation, organization of daily life
One very obvious consequence of moving to France is that if you need to work from 8AM to 5PM in your employer’s location, you will be working a large portion of the night. Guidebooks love describing the impact of time differences.

3. Length of time living in France
Staying four years on an expat status, with children going to the American School of Paris paid by the employer, is a totally different project than choosing to quit the USA for good to live the next 30 years or more in France. The various immigration procedures are part of that, but there is much more to it.

Of course, no matter how perfectly planned your move to France has been, something will derail sooner or later, but these unforeseen problems will be a lot smaller and cheaper to fix.

MY FEES HAVE INCREASED AS OF SEPTEMBER 1
Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN SEPTEMBER 2026 
The SHIP studio is available as of September 1, assuming the current tenant does not extend the lease. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400 euros is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

Best regards,

QUESTION

THE CONSEQUENCES OF ASKING FOR THE WRONG VISA

I urgently need help as my student visa application was just rejected for a second time. I originally was granted the self-employed (profession libérale) visa, but before I moved to France, I got into a master’s program at a Parisian university. At that time, I was advised by my school that I could start my program on that visa and then switch to the student visa when the self-employed visa expired. However, when I applied to switch to the student visa, my application was rejected. I had 30 days to depart from France, and I left within the deadline. I submitted an amicable appeal, requesting the student visa again. I just received the denial for this gentle appeal. The grounds are that they believe I was coming to France to study even though I was asking for the self-employed visa. They call this perjury that I would have committed when asking for this business visa. I never intended to commit perjury. On the contrary, I was totally honest and transparent. I asked the authorities if this was possible before applying. I have completed a year of school at this French public university. I now have 30 days to appeal this decision again; my second year of my master’s program is starting soon. Can my good faith overrule this decision?

QUESTION

CANNOT GO TO PREFECTURE BECAUSE OF A MEDICAL CONDITION

In April, I booked an RDV at the Paris Prefecture to pick up my new carte de séjour. I hurt my knee and rescheduled that appointment a month later. Lately, my knee problem has worsened significantly. I believe that I need to cancel once again. Indeed, there is no way that I can stand for the two-plus hours that are always required. So, my doctor has provided me with a medical certificate to ensure that I can cancel and book another one. But I am not sure about cancelling and rescheduling a second time. Will the system allow me to do that? Should a message be written to the prefecture to explain the situation? Should it be handled some other way?

I would like to wish you all a great summer and a very nice vacation,
enjoying the freedom of the moment, hoping for nicer weather in Europe.
I will close my office on July 3.

I’ve paid my dues
Time after time
I’ve done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I’ve made a few
I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I’ve come through
(We’re gonna go on and on and on and on)

We are the champions, my friend
And we’ll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
Cause we are the champions
Of the world

I’ve taken my bows
And my curtain calls
You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it
I thank you all
But it’s been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race
And I ain’t gonna lose
(We’re gonna go on and on and on and on)

We are the champions, my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
Cause we are the champions of the world

We are the champions, my friends
And we’ll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
Cause we are the champions
Of the world

Wikipedia:
““We Are the Champions” is a song by the British rock band Queen, released from the band’s sixth albumNews of the World (1977), written by lead singer Freddie Mercury.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATURALIZATION AND CARTE DE RESIDENT REQUEST
Over seven years ago, I had a conversation with blogger Stephen Heiner regarding the advantages of naturalization in France compared with getting a carte de résident. Our discussion was the basis for a section in the May 2019 issue, whose title was “Burn.”

After talking about the pros and cons of asking for one or the other, depending on the carte de séjour held at the time, we concluded that in the vast majority of situations securing the carte de résident first was the way to go.

Then, as now, the carte de résident immigration status is the best one for successfully obtaining naturalization. Back then, getting such a card for the first time was easy once the applicant had lived in France for five years and could prove they were a French fiscal resident. On occasion, the applicant could prove compliance with the minimum income requirement, French minimum wage, showing French bank statements and sometimes American fiscal documents. This issue comes up often for foreigners holding a visiteur carte de séjour who have never submitted an income declaration to the French tax office.

Since the beginning of 2026, I have been seeing a much stricter interpretation of the income rules, which just amounts to strict application of the law. In France, the only definitive way to prove the annual taxable income is to show the avis d’imposition sur les revenus. No other documents are as good, even though there may be some possible substitutes if the person works in France. But files relying on the 1040 form from the IRS, showing earned and unearned income, are now systematically denied. The civil servant explicitly states that the documents must be French and, of course, show euro amounts.

This opens a larger debate about what the goals of American immigrants living in France are. The French tax office makes it possible to back-file three years when the primary residency in France is clearly proved. This could result in another difficult discussion.

Oddly, I have seen the naturalization procedure being less strict about which carte de séjour is held but more strict about the level of integration in France, in the broadest meaning of the word. The most obvious evidence of this is the increased level of French now required and the addition of more tests. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Someone holding a four-year profession libérale carte de séjour has a fair chance if their integration is outstanding.

CELEBRATING VICTORY AND VANDALISM IN THE CITY
Soccer, or football as we know it in Europe and the rest of the world except the USA, is played everywhere. The World Cup is mainly happening in the USA, including the final game. Many question why it is being held in a country where this sport is minor compared to the main three: football, baseball, and basketball. Nevertheless, in a few weeks, at the end of the final game, a soccer team will be crowned world champion in the USA and will then be entitled to sing the song for which I have named this month’s column. Some people think the French team may win. That idea makes me fear there will be unrest up and down the Champs-Elysées.

Last month, on June 14, the New York Knicks basketball team won the 2026 National Basketball Association tournament. People rejoiced, and some were overexcited. The celebration turned chaotic: five school buses were set ablaze in Times Square, five police cars were damaged on Sixth Avenue, and a 17-year-old boy was shot in the foot. A total of 63 people were arrested overnight. Ten NYPD officers were injured. It would appear that this kind of violence is becoming more common in the USA in relation to high-level sports competitions.

Europe has been plagued for about 50 years by violence related to soccer games. The worst tragedy on record took place on May 29, 1985, in the Heysel neighborhood of Brussels, Belgium, where aggression between British and Italian fans led to a stadium wall collapse that killed thirty-nine people, mostly Italians, an hour before kickoff. The tragedy also left more than 600 people injured. This was a painful wake-up call, and security inside stadiums has since been improved.

Now, however, violence often occurs in city streets after matches. In the latest such incident, on May 30 in Paris, the Paris Saint-Germain team won the Champions League title against London’s Arsenal. A total of 219 people were injured in clashes between football fans and police across France, hundreds were arrested, and dozens of police were injured.

There is an exception to this pattern that I believe is unique in Europe: the city of Lens has had a soccer team since 1906. It has almost always played at the National League level and has been among the best teams in France for most of its existence. This year, on May 22, at the Stade de France just outside Paris, it won the Coupe de France against Nice. Over 50,000 Lens supporters attended the match, leaving almost no space for fans of Nice in the biggest stadium in France.

After the game, not a single act of violence or destruction occurred outside the stadium, in Paris, or in Lens. There are several reasons for this oddity. Lens is located in northern France in former coal mining country. When the mining industry closed in the 1980s, the city’s football team became a focus of the pride the people of Lens felt they had lost when they lost their jobs and everything attached to them. The team has a small budget, so the players are local, with no stars bought from other clubs. People know the players personally.

To illustrate the impact of losing the coal industry on Lens, I would compare this region with West Virginia.

WIKIPEDIA
Coal mining in West Virginia

West Virginia had only a few active coal mines during the US Civil War, with fewer than 1,600 miners in the whole state. Coal mining would flourish, however, between 1880 and 1900, after competing railroad companies began carving routes through the mountains of Appalachia. West Virginia produced 489,000 tons of coal in 1869, 4,882,000 tons of coal in 1889, and 89,384,000 tons of coal in 1917. The quick expansion of mining in West Virginia prompted many mining companies to construct company towns, in which the mining companies owned many, if not all, housing, amenities, and public services. Miners were often paid in “coal scrip”, paper notes issued by mining companies that could only be redeemed at company-owned stores in company towns.

In other words, to understand the scope of this oddity, imagine Charleston, the capital city of West Virginia, winning the Super Bowl.

One summer, our family of four drove from Delaware through Virginia and then from Princeton in the southern end of West Virginia to Blackwater Falls State Park in northern West Virginia. We saw how poor and desolate that part of the state was.

Driving through parts of northern France feels similar to some places in West Virginia. My Taquet family roots are in northern France. But thanks to French social programs, powerful community solidarity, and aggressive public policy geared toward attracting new businesses, the region has rebounded somewhat. The Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing triangle, known as the Lille European Metropole, is a thriving area comparable to Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill in North Carolina.

I am not that interested in sports, competitions, and who the winner is. On the other hand, sports competitions say a lot about the country, as well as the local community, in which the team is located. In mining company towns, there were rows of tiny houses where the miners lived. In French, these neighborhoods are called corons. For a long time after the mines were opened, it was seen as shameful to live there, as it indicated one was poor.

Then, in 1982, singer-songwriter Pierre Bachelet released the song “Les Corons,” with words by Jean-Pierre Lang. Although neither writer was from the north, Bachelet spent part of his childhood in his father’s hometown of Calais. The song imagines a boy’s memories of growing up with his father, a miner, and the community where they lived. Like the Lens team, the song transformed shame, giving northerners pride in being from these cities, born and raised in humble houses. At all Lens games, the supporters sing this song at the top of their lungs. For example, this was recorded just before the Coupe de France final. https://youtu.be/VCJB58QfmrM?si=fvuMfn0zv-0PTpEJ

After this long reflection, which I hope has not been too boring, I ask who the champions are, who should be celebrated, and why. My choice is quite clear.

The Knicks and PSG wins got international media coverage. The victory by the Racing Club de Lens barely got national coverage in France. Violence sells media coverage; excellence and proper behavior are boring and do not sell.

THE SCOPE OF MY READERSHIP
I am not a masochist, but I enjoy receiving messages reacting to the latest issue of my column with criticism of what I wrote. Some of my readers are registered Republicans and vote Republican in all elections. They strongly disagree with much of what I write, stating that I criticize the USA and the current administration and president too much, while being insufficiently critical of France.

Regardless of how painful the message may be or how unfair I may feel it is, I see these communications as validating my efforts to address issues in a different way from most, so that I reach a wide range of readers. Some readers react this way to nearly every column, which at least means they are not cancelling their subscriptions! Each new issue does trigger a few cancellations, but I never know what the motivation was.

Here is an example of criticism from a reader:
“Here’s what I see about France’s worst blemish when I was revising what I viewed as a visitor. Here’s my point of view. Put this in your search engine search slot:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_21st-century_France

“I was based in Paris when I met you decades ago, and even back then, every weekend, the Palestinians marched the Paris streets to condemn the Jews and Israel, and the citizens of Paris cheered, the Antisemitism was pervasive all over France.

“And here’s something else to put in your search engine slot:
www.gisreportsonline.com/r/france-budget

“It’s clear to me that France is violating EU rules, with a deficit GDP, there’s no incentive to work, socialism allows long vacances & because the rich have left for better economic climes, Macron’s budget is a deficit that violates EU rules.”

THE DARK SIDE OF PLACE VICTOR HUGO IN THE 16TH ARRONDISSEMENT
This topic occurred to me just a couple of days into the heatwave that struck most of Europe in late June. In this context, people talk about the parts of the population that are especially at risk and need special attention during such a situation.

First, I want to digress a little and talk about the album The Dark Side of the Moon, which was the eighth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on March 1, 1973. When the moon is out, we can all see its bright side, from the full moon to the smallest crescent moon, magnified by its glaring light. Who would be interested in what the dark side of the moon looks like? There is nothing to see there. But in reality, that side is just interesting and looks the same once you stand on it.

I enjoy this parallel a lot, although I might be the only one. The Place Victor Hugo is a square in one of the most residential neighborhoods in Paris. It also has restaurants and shops all around, making it lively and giving it another layer of charm. Every summer when it gets hot, a different population gathers around the square at night. They sit on the benches, and their friends bring folding chairs; they share their dinner and have a quiet party. These are Filipinos, most of them women. They live right under the roofs in the maid’s rooms of nearby buildings, often up to four in one room. The temperature in the rooms exceeds 38ºC/100ºF during normal summer weather, not to mention the heatwave.

To stay alive and be able to eat dinner, they improvise picnics. Being together and enjoying company helps them handle their living conditions when they go to work the next morning. This way, they form a large enough crowd that people should notice them and wonder why they are there.

But, just like when they are at work, these Filipinos are invisible; they are the dark side of the square, one nobody sees. I have been invited to dinner in some of those maids’ rooms and have also shared dinner during one of their so-called picnics. When we experience record heat, I think of them, wishing that their living conditions could be better known, and people do something about it!

MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN JULY 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on July 1st if the current tenant does not extend the lease. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for seven weeks over the summer, from the evening of Friday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, August 24th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France, specifically in Burgundy.

I would like to remind everyone there will be no August issue.

Best regards,

QUESTION

GETTING THE CARTE DE RESIDENT THE FIRST TIME

I have renewed my visiteur visa six times already without ever having a single problem. I know the drill! I own my apartment in Paris, I have lifetime worldwide health coverage linked to my pension, and my means are more than enough to comply with the French minimum wage requirement. Last year, I asked for the carte de résident by adding my five IRS income tax statements and a letter explaining how much I love France and that I am too old to take all those French tests. They never answered my request and received the approval for my visa renewal. This year, I wrote in the letter how much income I receive each year and applied the exchange rate to show it in euros, referring to my American declarations. I wanted to make sure that if they had problems reading the 1040 form, I explained everything. This last month, I received once again that my visa was renewed, totally ignoring my request. This time, I feel insulted. I spent a long time drafting this letter; it had all the information they needed. My request should have been approved. What can I do? Is there a way I can appeal the decision even though my request was never formally denied? It feels like I will never get it even though I deserve it!

QUESTION

PROOF OF ADDRESS FOR ONLINE IMMIGRATION PROCEDURES

I got my long-stay visa over a year ago, and I registered it. Everything went fine using my Parisian Airbnb contract I had at the time. Time to renew, so I went onto the website while staying with a friend in the countryside for a week before going back to the USA for just a month. I have my old Airbnb contract, which expired a week before I submitted, and I have the new one starting on August 1 in Paris. Since I could not prove any address in my own name, I asked my friend if I could use his as I was there when I submitted. ANEF asked a couple of days ago to prove my friend’s address. He refused to give me anything since I do not live there and it was just a visit. What can I do?

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side, yeah
We chased our pleasures here
Dug our treasures there
But can you still recall
The time we cried?
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

Everybody loves my baby
Everybody loves my baby

She get high
She get high
She get high
She get high yeah

I found an island in your arms
Country in your eyes
Arms that chain us
Eyes that lied
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through oh, oh yeah
Made the scene week to week
Day to day, hour to hour
Gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through, break on through
Break on through, break on through
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

From Wikipedia:

“Break On Through (To the Other Side)” is a song by the American rock band The Doors. It is the opening track of their debut album, The Doors (1967).

The news has become so dense, with so much happening in so many different areas, that I have chosen to stay away from it all. Summertime is coming, and everybody is looking at what may happen in September. Many think the old normal still exists. Political life slows down for about two months, and campaigning for the midterms resumes when children go back to school. It feels like the midterm election campaigns started several months ago and will not slow down until the voting is over. The longer the new way of running the USA lasts, the more the good old days of predictability will be gone for good.

I continue to follow the news closely, wondering what it would take to find efficient solutions and the right people to carry them through. As I said in my last issue, I always believed that the USA was the best country for innovation in just about all aspects of life. Clearly, today, China is where innovation blossoms and is disseminated to the rest of the world.

Even though I am not a great fan of The Doors, I admire their songs, both the music and the lyrics. I even read poems by Jim Morrison when a friend lent me his book. Also, as I explain below, since my youth, I have enjoyed intellectual exercises that involve thinking the unthinkable. That is one aspect of my law studies that I enjoyed a lot, taking the position of the opposite party and seeing how I would win the case. Thus, I find this desire to “Break On Through” and check what is on “the Other Side” extremely interesting. No need to take drugs to think that way.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
This was a popular expression when I lived in the USA in the 1980s, and apparently, it is used just as frequently today. Since I no longer live in the USA, I have to rely on my impression and maybe my intuition when I say the expression seems to have lost a lot of its meaning, possibly unconsciously. The American people have reached such a level of polarization that it is increasingly difficult to think transgressively. I could list many statements and thoughts that go against the idea of thinking outside the box. One obvious thing for me is that, as long as a person thinks his/her side is right and the other side is wrong, regardless of the issue, it is difficult to start the thought process by assuming that the so-called normal way is wrong and so I need to think differently with a different set of presuppositions and observations.

I remember a moderator of the American Church in Paris about 20 years ago. He was a senior manager of a multinational’s French subsidiary. We were talking about working conditions and the differences in the office between France and the USA. He told me he would often stop a brainstorming session with his team and move it from the conference room to a café nearby. He felt that putting them in a different environment forced his team to adapt so that they ended up thinking differently. This is pretty much the definition of “thinking outside the box” in terms of getting out of the physical box of the office.

I have always enjoyed the intellectual exercise of thinking the unthinkable. At first, what comes up seems nearly like pure insanity, but then comes the reflection on whether this is possible, if highly improbable. This is when one finds efficient solutions, especially in France, where there can be a significant difference between what is legal and what is the right solution with the lowest level of risk exposure and, therefore, possible liability.

That is what I had in mind last month when I wrote this:
“At the time when I lived in the USA, the country operated by taking risks; people wanted to improve their lives and move ahead. Today, my impression is that people living in the USA are scared of the future; they seek security, stability, and predictability. There are many reasons why the country ended up in this condition.”

Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 play Six Characters in Search of an Author illustrates my point. Written in Italian (Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore), it is an “absurdist metatheatric play about the relationship among authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners,” as Wikipedia puts it.

Common sense tells us, and it is universally understood, that authors create their characters, whether in a novel, a play, a movie, or what have you. The quality of the plot and characters proves how good the author is. Therefore, it seems insane at first to even consider an alternate reality where the characters exist by themselves. They wait for the author to find them and finally give them the life they deserve. This play, which is over a century old, makes the characters collide with the real world, with the actors in rehearsal and the stage director, who are trying and failing to impersonate them. One reason could be that the characters got hold of the actors, and not an author who would have done the job right. I believe that the majority of the people in the USA, France, and elsewhere dismiss all this as a waste of time, useless insanity. Others acknowledge that it opens interestingly and discuss how faithful the actor is to the character. Is the author the right person to direct the play or the movie? In the end, who owns the characters, the author or the public?

Going back to my initial point, is genuinely thinking outside the box the only way to resolve the crisis the USA is going through? I follow American politics, and the situation is not getting any better. How should either side of the aisle think in order to find efficient solutions?

ELECTRONIC BILLING, THE SEQUEL: TOTAL CONFUSION
As the deadline for electronic billing in France nears, the plot thickens, and we get more information. By the way, it is possible that more information makes the situation more confusing.

The new key element I discovered is that there are two different types of electronic billing. The first type is what you, as an independent business, will be issued. That was what everybody was talking about at first.

I discovered after speaking to a French expert-comptable that there is another side to the question. Initially, it felt like we were undergoing an absolute absence of communication, as I was pushing my initial explanation, which I believed I understood quite well, and she was pushing the fact that my understanding was wrong and that electronic billing was mandatory for everybody this September. After more research and another discussion, I realized that the new procedure will be required not just for invoices you issue but also for invoices you receive and pay.

In other words, large businesses will be obliged to send their invoices electronically this September. We, small businesses, will not be able to open those bills and pay them unless we are registered with one of the special electronic billing organizations registered with the French administration. This part of the government’s project forces everybody to register, but small businesses will continue at first to send Word or PDF invoices. It is expected that eventually about 150 sites will offer these services. As of a few weeks ago, there were over 100, and the number is growing. Some charge money, others are free. Those in the first category claim that they are charging for a global service that goes beyond the minimum legal requirements. Because the French fiscal administration is not sure it will be ready on time, my advice to everybody who needs such a service is to choose a free one. That way, whatever happens, you will be set up.

The platform represented by this website, for example, is easy to understand, which alone is welcome:
www.henrri.com

Below is a translation of the French government’s page introducing the list of registered platforms, as of January 19, 2026.

Electronic Invoicing: List of Approved and Registered Platforms

The electronic invoicing reform will be phased in for businesses starting September 1, 2026. As part of this change, it is mandatory to choose a platform approved by the government. The list of these platforms has just been published.

The requirement to issue electronic invoices will take effect:

• on September 1, 2026, for large companies and mid-sized companies (ETIs);
• on September 1, 2027, for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro-enterprises.

The requirement to receive electronic invoices will take effect for all businesses starting September 1, 2026.

Each business must choose a government-approved platform to:

• issue and receive electronic invoices;
• report its data to the government;
• process transaction and payment data.

View the list of approved platforms registered with the tax authorities.

https://entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr/actualites/A18759

MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN JULY 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on July 1st if the current tenant does not extend the lease. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

A SHORT ISSUE THIS MONTH
I cannot remember the last time I drafted such a short issue. Several things explain why I did not have the time or desire to write more. Lately, there has not been much news regarding French immigration or other topics important for foreigners living in France. We have had visitors, close friends as well as Rhobi Samwelly, founder and director of the non-profit Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania, who spent six weeks with us. The French non-profit Hope for Girls and Women France was able to sponsor her stay and organize events to promote her organization’s activities..

Best regards,

QUESTION

GIVING OUR PARISIAN APARTMENT TO OUR CHILDREN

My brother and I own with our spouses a Parisian apartment we bought a long time ago. We all reside in the USA, including my two children, i.e., one daughter and one son. My brother does not have children. The idea now is to give them the ownership of the apartment while we continue to use it during our stays in France.I need to calculate the gift tax and approximate notaire fees based on an approximate value of the apartment of €590,000. The apartment is in the 15th arrondissement, about 50 square meters. The four of us are about the same age, between 75 and 80. How can this be done, and how expensive will it be for everything, taxes, fees, and other?

QUESTION

SECURING IMMIGRATION STATUS WHEN OLDER AND IN POOR HEALTH

I have lived in France on and off, but mostly in France, since the 1990s, working as a French independent. I got stuck in the USA for about five years, and I was told that I needed to ask for a new visa, while I thought that I could resume my stay since the current carte de séjour had expired only for two years. I used my French business to get the self-employed status, and I entered it on May 5, 2017, securing this immigration status. I realized that URSSAF had unilaterally closed my French business without telling me. They sent the letters to my French address since I did not have mail forwarding set up. Today I hold a four-year carte de séjour expiring in October 2026. In 2024, I barely made minimum wage, and the 2025 billing was less than €3,000. My medical condition has worsened over the last few years, so I pretty much live exclusively on my American retirement, Social Security, and my pension. What can I do to renew my self-employed status?

From Wikipedia:

“Yesterday” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon-McCartney. It was first released on the album Help! in August 1965.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they’re here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be
There’s a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly
Why she had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Why she had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

I feel almost foolish putting down this information, including the lyrics, as my inclination is to assume that everybody knows the Beatles and this song. But I know better, since I am in my late 60s and the song is over 60 years old.

It feels, at least to me, that at all stages of our lives we experience this melancholic moment: “It was so much better before – I miss yesterday.” Similarly, the band Jethro Tull has an album called Living in the Past, which I like very much.

Such thoughts come when things do not go our way, when we are disappointed, when we face hardship – in short, when the future looks grimmer than the past.

All conservatives base their message on this starting point. Their platforms may mention new policies, but only as long as they are explained to the public as a way to restore the old situation. By definition, all political platforms involve intentions to fix what is wrong, to improve the current situation, and so on.

This feeling of missing yesterday is human, and there is nothing wrong with it. In many ways, past moments should be cherished. But building our lives on attempts to recreate the past is fundamentally wrong because it is impossible.

For immigrants, in particular, it is important to understand that fixing a problem means moving forward, learning from experience. The “yesterday” that we cherish in the country of our previous life is long gone. Even when an immigrant moves back for good reason, everything has changed, the country has changed, and the immigrant has deeply changed.

The only solution is to say, “How can I fix the situation efficiently?” This requires adapting to the new situation, giving up the old reflexes, and getting out of your comfort zone.

The USA is known to value failure as the best teacher. Americans say “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” France abhors failure, and many of its problems as a country and a people stem from the resulting lack of initiative, risk-taking, and trying new things, all of which entail a significant possibility of failure. At the time when I lived in the USA, the country operated by taking risks; people wanted to improve their lives and move ahead. Today, my impression is that people living in the USA are scared of the future; they seek security, stability, and predictability. There are many reasons why the country ended up in this condition. I believe it started 20-some years ago as one of the consequences of 9/11. This seems to me to be one of a lot of challenges the USA faces, both the most critical and the most difficult. So it is time to let “Yesterday” just be what it should be for all of us: one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

ELECTRONIC BILLING, CONTINUED
Below is my translation of the message we have all been receiving from the tax office. I have received it multiple times because I run more than one business.

Hello,
Electronic invoicing will become mandatory on September 1, 2026.
As of that date, all businesses must be able to receive electronic invoices sent by their suppliers.
That is why your business must select an electronic invoice reception platform approved by the Directorate General of Public Finance.
According to the information available to the administration, your company has not yet made this choice. We advise you to take the necessary steps now to secure a solution tailored to your organization.

Depending on your situation, simply contact:
– a certified public accountant, a management firm, or another trusted intermediary;
– an invoicing, accounting, or payment tracking software provider;
– or an approved platform directly.
The list of platforms approved by the tax authorities is available at www.impots.gouv.fr . … You can visit the “Switching to electronic invoicing” page on impots.gouv.fr for more information. You can also contact the tax authorities at 0 806 807 807 (Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. – toll-free + cost of call) for additional information.

What this message says is both true and misleading. Below is another message on the same topic, from URSSAF :
Effective September 1, 2026, electronic invoicing will become mandatory for all businesses subject to VAT.
To support this transition, particularly for microbusinesses, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the self-employed, the Directorate General of Public Finance has published a list of the first 101 approved platforms that allow users to issue and receive electronic invoices in compliance with regulations.
Review this list now to prepare for this change and choose a solution tailored to your business.
To learn more about this reform and view the list of approved platforms, visit the dedicated page on the www.impots.gouv.fr website.

The page from the Ministry of Finance linked below will help you learn if in fact you must comply by September 1, 2026, or the same date in 2027. The latter date is the case for those meeting the following guidelines, a profile common to most of my self-employed clients:
Small businesses or similar entities with fewer than 10 employees and (revenue or total assets ≤ €2 million)
Clients are individuals living in France and/or outside France
Provides services only
Holds the “franchise” status, i.e., below the VAT/TVA amount of sales of between 37,500 € and 41,250 €.

I strongly advise all self-employed people to go through the questionnaire offered below so they know where they stand regarding this matter.

www.impots.gouv.fr/facturation-electronique-qu-est-ce-que-ca-change-pour-moi

REPORT BY THE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING FRENCH PUBLIC MEDIA
On October 28, 2025, an investigative committee established by the National Assembly started work on the neutrality, functioning and financing of French public media. It closed down on April 27, 2026, after holding 70 hearings and producing a 400-page report. The investigation covered seven TV stations:

• France 2
  
• France 3 (which has local channels)
  
• France 4
  
• France 5
  
• Arte
  
• La Chaîne parlementaire, made up of two channels covering the National Assembly and the Senate
  
• France Info.

It also covered seven radio stations run by Radio France:

• France Inter
• France Culture
• France Info
• France Bleu (with 44 local stations)
• France Musique
• Mouv’
• FIP.

Radio France and France TV, which control most of the TV stations investigated, are larger than any of the French private networks. Their combined annual budget is 4 billion €. Radio France is headquartered at the Maison de Radio in the 16th arrondissement. It is a round building with a circumference of 700 meters and, at its center, a tower 68 meters high. It houses 1,000 offices and 63 recording studios, making it a major economic hub. Its main auditorium is a concert hall with over 1,400 seats.

Sadly, what I heard about the committee’s report sounded too familiar: The money involved is way too much for what these public companies produce. The programs are elitist and out of touch with the people, and the guests all come from the same liberal political camp.

Yet given the vast diversity of programs aired by the TV and radio stations, a large portion of the public is represented. Therefore, clearly, the political views of the media professionals and their audience must not play a significant role when some of programs’ ratings are so high. Indeed, several programs win even on the rating metrics of the private sector. The private media sector owners, who lean heavily conservative, are absolutely furious about this and claim fraud must be involved.

Everything is perfectable. The French public media faces valid criticism. For example, it subcontracts a lot of programming to private companies, which make a lot of money. It also seems to color its educational aims with some disdain for the lower class.

To me, this investigation, launched by the right, was a political stunt aimed at an easy target that the conservatives have wanted to tackle for ages. The quality of the programs is not the point. I believe that we missed a good opportunity to improve the French public media and question recent decisions regarding its leadership.

500 TEMPS BEING HIRED AT PREFECTURES TO SPEED PROCESSING
On April 4, 2026, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who previously served as Paris police prefect, gave an interview to Ouest-France newspaper detailing significant changes in the immigration procedures. Le Parisien newspaper summarized the interview:

Residence Permits: Laurent Nuñez Plans to Hire 500 Additional Temporary Staff to Reduce Processing Times.

The minister of the interior states that he has presented a plan to the prime minister to increase the capacity for processing residence permits at prefectures by 20%.

More staff to reduce processing times: Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told Ouest-France on Saturday that he had presented the prime minister with a “massive plan” that includes the hiring of 500 temporary workers to reduce processing times for residence permits at prefectures.

When asked by a reporter from the regional daily about processing delays that “keep getting longer,” the minister emphasized that he would “boost staffing levels in the residency departments of the prefectures by hiring 500 temporary workers on a full-time equivalent basis,” thereby increasing “the resources allocated to this task by 20%.”

Simplifications
In addition, the validity period for biometric fingerprints will be extended from five years to ten, and the requirement for holders of long-term residence permits to report a change of address will be eliminated, he explained.

The new official software, however, does not allow for changing anything. Any discrepancy will lead to a problematic accounting situation, multiplying what one’s accountant must record and hence increasing the fee owed. Additionally, the software itself is quite expensive, which could deter anyone crazy enough to want to master it and retain some control over their accounting.

What I consider to be the worst consequence linked to the complexity of the new software is that all micro enterprises will need to hire an accountant.

The government’s official reason for the change is to help businesses achieve legal and clean accounting. I see an obvious desire to control the auto-entrepreneur type of business, based on an assumption that they cheat and hide some income.

I am optimistic that the lobbies protecting tiny businesses will be fighting this legislation at full strength in an effort to exclude businesses that have no employees or are exempt from paying TVA, for example.

We will see. My advice is that even though the deadline is September 2027, it’s a good idea to get to know what the new system is and what it means in terms of change for most people.

http://www.leparisien.fr/politique/titres-de-sejour-laurent-nunez-prevoit-lembauche-de-500-vacataires-de-plus-pour-reduire-les-delais-de-traitement-04-04-2026-QQP2TXBOEBHUBHJTSH66JRTWCQ.php

Adding that many people will help, but I do not expect striking differences, such as ANEF answering in a couple of weeks. The other decisions seem minor at first, but can significantly improve the procedure: Digital fingerprinting is often complicated because the machine has a hard time reading the prints when the applicant is elderly, his/her manual work wears away the fingertips, and so on. I always have the impression that it is set for people who have worked in an office and whose hands are in good shape. The change should help a lot.

As for the address, in the old days, the police put a sticker on the carte de séjour with the new address, but today changing the address means reissuing the carte de séjour or carte de résident. This essentially means starting a new cycle, possibly close to the card renewal date. The change will save a lot of money for immigrants and the administration, as well as significantly reducing the prefecture’s volume of work.

It seems that, for once, this Cabinet position is held by someone who actually knows what immigration procedures entail because he ran the Paris prefecture for years! One can hope for further practical, commonsense policies.

CAPITAL GAINS EXEMPTION WHEN SELLING PRIMARY LODGING
France’s entire income tax structure is built on the concept of the household. In its Napoleonic ideology, the household is made up of a father, a mother, and children. For tax purposes, a married couple is considered a unit, especially when money is owed. In the days when divorce was not legal, this system worked well. But now that couples can readily divorce, it leads to unfair situations. For instance, the woman may end up having to pay the income tax on her ex-husband’s income. The system is slow to fix such situations.

A recent ruling takes into consideration the reality of modern couples, not just the strict application of the law. In this case, the husband had moved out and started a new family, with children. The house the former couple had owned was now the wife’s primary residence (they were not divorced!). She was entitled to a capital gains tax exemption that applies to selling the primary residence. Although, legally speaking, the old household still existed, the Conseil d’Etat (the superior court hearing civil law cases) ruled that the actual situation was obvious, so she was entitled to the exemption and he was not as he was part of a new household!

Here is my translation of the Le Monde article about the case:
When separated spouses remain subject to joint taxation, thereby forming an indivisible tax household, it would appear that the exemption from capital gains tax on the sale of their main residence should apply in full.

The Council of State ruled otherwise in a decision of December 15, 2025, concerning the situation of separated, but not divorced, spouses, where the wife remained in the couple’s main residence while the husband moved in with another partner, with whom he had two children.

As they did not meet the conditions for separate taxation, the couple remained a single tax household for administration purposes. Several years after their separation, the property that had once been their main residence was sold. ….

[The court ruled that] in the case of spouses no longer living under the same roof, only the spouse who can demonstrate that the property is in fact his or her primary residence is entitled to claim the exemption, and only to the extent of his or her share of the sale price.

www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2026/02/22/separation-des-epoux-et-cession-de-la-residence-principale-l-exoneration-de-plus-value-est-elle-totale_6667772_1657007.html

MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN JULY 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on July 1st if the current tenant does not extend the lease. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for seven weeks over the summer, from the evening of Friday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, August 24th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France, specifically in Burgundy.

Best regards,

QUESTION

REGISTERING FOR FRENCH PUBLIC HEALTH COVERAGE

I spend half the year in the USA and the other half in France. I own a small house in the southwest of France. I manage to renew my visa every year by showing my French bank statements, my American taxes, and some American savings, and I’ve never had a problem.
For about a year now, I have tried to get coverage by the public health system, and they always ask for more documents. The last letter I received in February is a request from CPAM for an updated residency document and a better copy of my birth certificate. So I was obliged to purchase a new copy of my birth certificate from Michigan and wait for that to arrive, and it took a really long time to get to me in France.
At about the same time, I received their notification that I missed their deadline, and therefore, my application is closed. I wrote to them ASAP, sending all the other documents they asked for, and explained that the birth certificate was going to take a very long time.My question for you is, since I missed the deadline, is there any point in appealing, or would it be better to initiate a new application? If the latter, I know the proof of habitation and so forth will have to be updated, but it would be a good place for me to start. Should I wait to get my birth certificate to reapply, or should I do it now? Are there any other considerations that I should be aware of?

QUESTION

THE RIGHT TO WORK AS A MINOR

I have been living in France for a few years, renewing my visa. My daughter, Virginia, turned 16 in February. She was asked by an ice cream shop on Boulevard Saint Michel if she could work during school vacations and the summer, especially this upcoming July and August, pretty much full-time. I read online that in France, teenagers from the age of 16 can work with parental permission.Aside from these summer months, is it possible for her now to do some part-time work during breaks from school?

From Wikipedia:

Once Were Warriors is a 1994 New Zealand tragedy film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff’s bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of the Heke family, an urban Māori whānau living in South Auckland, and their problems with poverty, tobacco, gambling, drugs, alcoholism, and domestic violence, mostly brought on by the patriarch, Jake. It explores the detrimental effects of the colonisation of New Zealand suffered by Māori, and the survival of Māori culture against all odds.

I have been deeply interested for years in the Māori culture, from its distant origins in a tribal group from South-East Asia, today China, which used long outrigger canoes to go from island to island and populate from Hawaii to New Zealand.

This movie is very well done. The Polynesian culture that Māori is part of has been making men warriors for 6,000 years. That is the aspect that interests me today. The father, Jake, is constantly looking for a fight to demonstrate how strong he is. His two sons are crushed by such a father. Each of them dives in his own way into the ancestral culture to become a warrior able to stand up to the father and be respected. Most rugby fans, at least once in their life, have seen the New Zealand team play internationally. The majority of the players are Māori. They prepare themselves on the field by performing a haka.

From Wikipedia:

Haka (/ˈhɑːkə/; singular and plural haka, in both Māori and New Zealand English) are a variety of ceremonial dances in Māori culture. A performance art, haka is often performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment. Haka have been traditionally performed by both men and women for a variety of social functions within Māori culture. They are performed to welcome distinguished guests, or to acknowledge great achievements, occasions, or funerals.

Originally, it was a warrior song asking the gods for victory. Members of opposing teams say that it is scary to witness and gives the NZ team a significant psychological advantage.

This leads me to question how one defines a warrior. Is a soldier a warrior? Does military training produce a warrior or just a skilled soldier? Each nation is different, but some have a long tradition promoting a fighting spirit, often mixed with duty to protect the clan, ethnicity, or group. Such a country could be considered a nation of warriors.

Persia, now Iran, has been a great nation for some three millennia and is mentioned in the Old Testament. In recent times, there was an Iran-Iraq war from September 22, 1980, to August 20, 1988. Iraq was heavily supported by the monarchies of the Middle East, the USA, and others, while Iran was more isolated. The invasion was stopped right away, and Iran ended up not giving up any of its territory. Persia, now Iran, is a nation of warriors. I do not doubt that the best American forces on the ground are capable of overcoming the Iranian military forces, but the American casualties would be huge.

IMMIGRATION IDs ARE BECOMING MORE EXPENSIVE
Immigrants rarely strike or demonstrate about their living and working conditions. So, for France, increasing the cost of immigration documentation is politically safe. Immigrants who have not been naturalized do not vote and thus have no leverage even at the ballot box. But since the vast majority of immigrants have lower-salaried jobs with lower pay, an increase in renewal costs of 50€ or 100€ can put a serious strain on their budget.

Here is the information on the increases as conveyed by the government.

The standard fee for initial issuance of temporary residence permits (CST), multi-year residence permits (CSP), and resident cards (CR), previously 200 euros, has been increased to 300 euros.

The reduced fee for initial issuance of CSTs, CSPs, and CRs to certain categories of foreign nationals increased from 50 euros to 100 euros. As before, this rate applies to students and similar categories (interns, au pairs, job seekers), recipients of accident and health insurance benefits, beneficiaries of family reunification, and seasonal workers.

The stamp duty for the issuance, renewal, replacement, or modification of residence permits and resident cards has doubled, from €25 to €50.

The fee for a long-stay visa serving as a residence permit or exempting the holder from the requirement for a residence permit increased from €200 to €300 (or from €50 to €100 for the reduced rate).

The fee for a regularization visa, applicable to foreigners who have entered or are residing in the country illegally, increased from €200 to €300 (including a non-refundable portion due upon filing the regularization application, which rose from €50 to €100).

A new fee of €100 has been introduced for the issuance and renewal of a provisional residence permit (APS), with two exceptions (APS for those exiting prostitution and APS for beneficiaries of temporary protection).

The stamp duty applicable to applications for naturalization, applications for reinstatement of French nationality, and declarations of acquisition of nationality increased from €55 to €255.

SCANDINAVIAN ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS SERVE IN THE MILITARY AND CAN BE ON ACTIVE DUTY
As I drafted this issue, the war in the Middle East was escalating daily with no apparent end in sight. In my Facebook feed, I get a lot of posts about the Scandinavian royals, as I have expressed interest in the Danish royal family and especially Queen Margrethe II when she stepped down. I attended the New Year’s Eve royal concert in Copenhagen with my wife and my cousin’s family. At midnight, the queen gave a speech, shown on a screen in the concert hall, informing the country that she was stepping down. I always liked her, and not just because she married a Frenchman, Prince Henrik of Denmark, Count of Monpezat, born Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat. I greatly admire what she is doing for her country now that she is free of the major official duties of being queen.

I loosely followed 19-year-old Danish Crown Prince Christian’s military service as he completed training and qualified for the Guards Hussar in 2025. He joined the regiment in full capacity in February 2026. Intrigued, I checked the other Scandinavian royal families and saw similar things happening.

Wikipedia
Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland (Sweden)
He completed his military service at the Amphibious Battalion at Vaxholm Coastal Artillery Regiment as a combat boat commander (Combat Boat 90) in the autumn of 2000. In December 2002, Carl Philip was promoted to second lieutenant, and in 2004 to the rank of lieutenant in the Swedish Amphibious Corps. In 2007 and 2008 he went to the Swedish Defence University. … After that course, he was appointed captain. On 1 October 2014, Carl Philip achieved the rank of major.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway
In September 2024, the Norwegian Royal Court announced that Ingrid Alexandra served as a gunner on a CV-90 infantry fighting vehicle. The Court also announced that she extended her military service to 15 months. She completed her military service on 4 April 2025.

A well-known example outside of Scandinavia concerns Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. He completed officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned as a cornet in the Blues and Royals. He served briefly alongside his elder brother, William, Prince of Wales. He was deployed twice on active service in Afghanistan: for ten weeks in Helmand Province in 2007–08, and for twenty weeks with the Army Air Corps in 2012–13. His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, served during WWII in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as an ambulance driver.

Too often, we think of princes and princesses living lavishly in castles, having the easiest possible time in life. In recent generations, though, princes and princesses serve in uniform, are trained for combat, and are ready to be deployed when needed.

Maybe it is time to rewrite the fairy tales we read to our children to reflect this change in the world. Maybe the executives of some countries I have in mind should not deploy military personnel so readily.

FACTURES ELECTRONIQUES: GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION & REALITY
Many clients have asked me about messages they are getting from the French tax offices as well as several organizations. Everybody is talking about September 2026 as the deadline to adopt the new electronic billing procedure. Consultants working alone without employees – who make up most of my clientele – have an extra year, until September 2027, to comply.

Considering what is at stake and how much disruption this change will create, it is worth describing and warning people about what is coming.

The goal is simple. French law heavily regulates business invoices. Most small businesses and maybe some mid-size businesses do not comply with the law. Thus, the idea is that forcing everybody to use the same software to create invoices will fix the problem. But organizing this new system is leading to a long list of problems for which, as far as I have heard, there are not yet any solutions.

The most common issue is that the electronic invoice must be issued in French, as the companies issuing them are French businesses. Some of my clients have nearly 100% of their clientele in the USA and so must be able to invoice in English, or in both languages in some cases. Will the software allow a second language?

Another problem is that many consultants are required to use clients’ software so their invoices comply with the clients’ systems. Will the French administration accept that there are two sets of invoices? I doubt it.

Consultants serving private individuals are accustomed to clients sometimes paying a few cents less than the amount due because of exchange-rate fluctuations, loss of focus, simply getting the amount wrong, routing it to the wrong bank account, and so on. Currently, it is easy to destroy an invoice and generate a new one matching the reality.

The new official software, however, does not allow for changing anything. Any discrepancy will lead to a problematic accounting situation, multiplying what one’s accountant must record and hence increasing the fee owed. Additionally, the software itself is quite expensive, which could deter anyone crazy enough to want to master it and retain some control over their accounting.

What I consider to be the worst consequence linked to the complexity of the new software is that all micro enterprises will need to hire an accountant.

The government’s official reason for the change is to help businesses achieve legal and clean accounting. I see an obvious desire to control the auto-entrepreneur type of business, based on an assumption that they cheat and hide some income.

I am optimistic that the lobbies protecting tiny businesses will be fighting this legislation at full strength in an effort to exclude businesses that have no employees or are exempt from paying TVA, for example.

We will see. My advice is that even though the deadline is September 2027, it’s a good idea to get to know what the new system is and what it means in terms of change for most people.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS WERE HELD ON MARCH 15 AND 22
There has been a lot of talk about which parties are the real winners in the last elections. Without wanting to be provocative, I would say instead that all parties involved in the elections lost in terms of what their objectives were. I wrote the following about these elections in my December 2025 column.

“As of today, the identity of the (progressive) candidate is still unknown, and the different factions are incapable of agreeing on who should lead the campaign and become the next mayor. The conservative side seems to have made its choice: Ms. Rachida Dati, the current mayor of the 7th arrondissement. So, depending on the polls, her chances of victory would appear to lie between possible and probable. This having been said, she is under criminal investigation for some serious felonies, and could be stripped of her right to be elected.”

The Socialist Party’s candidate, in the end, was Emmanuel Grégoire, a previously obscure politician at the national level. As the progressive candidate, he went on to win the election. Adding the far left candidate’s result, that side got 58.48% of the vote, while Dati received only 41.52%.

Objectively, the Parisian population is not that leftist. But many specialists believe that, in the second round, conservative voters preferred the socialist candidate over the conservative one, explaining the wide gap. I believe one reason is that Dati’s trial is scheduled for September 16–28 at the Paris Criminal Court. If she is convicted, the principal sentence she faces is ten years in prison for passive corruption and a fine of 450,000 euros (half of the amount in dispute) for receiving stolen property. She is also subject to an additional penalty of a five-year ban on holding public office. In short, why vote for a candidate who may be barred from being the mayor a year or so later? The office does not come with absolute immunity.

A good friend asked me to expand on my idea that all the parties lost, as it sounds odd at best, if not insane. I admit that some further explanation is required.

For centuries, starting with the early days of the 1789 French Revolution, the French political spectrum has been made up of four factions:

The nationalistic Conservatives focus on the interests of France and the French. Today, it is represented by the Le Pen party, the Rassemblement national (RN), and those with similar views. The traditional leaders of this faction have pretty much all disappeared, so the extremist RN party has taken their place.

The internationalist Conservatives consider treaties, alliances, and domestic policy to be the best way to take care of people living in France. They include most of the conservative French presidents of the Fifth Republic. Of course, they believe that helping businesses helps the people later on. Today, the most visible member of this faction is Edouard Phillipe and his party, Horizons.

The internationalist Liberals have employee interests in mind, and their domestic policy is mixed with international treaties. The Socialist Party has upheld this platform for 70 years. The new Parisian mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire, has today become probably the best-known leader of this faction.

The nationalistic Leftists used to be represented by the Communist Party, and the majority of its leaders also led France’s largest union in those days, the CGT, so they fought for their members. Today, this faction has changed almost beyond recognition. It is represented by La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, but there is wide agreement that LFI is too extreme to fit into the traditional spectrum.

President Emmanuel Macron’s political party was meant to hold a kind of middle ground on this spectrum, but it has now shrunk to virtually nothing. So in a way, we are back to the traditional four factions. The two traditional “internationalist” parties remain prominent but are losing ground. The extreme far right and far left received a lot of votes in the recent elections, but did not win most large cities. They are still on the fringe. After that explanation, I hope my comment – that all parties involved in the elections lost in terms of what their objectives were – makes a lot more sense.

WHEN HEALTH INSURANCE POLICIES ARE SCHENGEN-COMPLIANT
Health insurance classified as “Schengen compliant” may not offer coverage as good as I had thought. Some policies seem to be “comprehensive” only until you look at the fine print.

Below are three situations people face when they ask for an immigration visa, for which a health insurance policy is a key document. The strategies needed will depend on the applicant’s needs, age, and plans.

1 – The applicant is going to France to work
The public insurance kicks in almost immediately, so one can choose minimal coverage for the couple of weeks or so that it will take for the public coverage to begin.

2 – The applicant has excellent international coverage from the USA
The policy required to comply with the Schengen visa can once again be minimal, since it is unlikely ever to be used.

3 – The applicant is getting a visiteur immigration visa
It is crucial to be aware of differences in the coverage and in the willingness of the insurance company to provide the needed insurance. There are two subcategories here:
a – The applicant will sign up with CPAM to obtain public coverage as soon as possible. There is a double delay, both in the start of public coverage (three months after landing in France) and in the issuance of proof that the file is being worked on. Since a carte vitale is not issued until one has a definitive French social security number, the process can take months or even a year or more. There is a common misconception on social media that everything is settled after a three-month presence in France. But that period is just the time it takes to have the right to send in the file; it is the beginning of the procedure, not the end. I strongly advise people in this situation to choose good comprehensive coverage. French medical procedures are cheaper than in the USA, but a day in the emergency room still costs about 1,370 euros.

b – The applicant chooses to retain private health coverage, in which case the policy chosen must be truly comprehensive, and the company chosen must have an excellent reputation for providing coverage right away without an out-of-pocket even if it reimburses later.

Recently, one of my clients needed a serious operation. It took about four months between the discovery of the condition and the date of the operation, as nothing could be scheduled during the summer vacation. The insurance company informed my client the day before the surgery that it would not cover the operation. Tiny print in the policy stated that coverage only existed if the surgery occurred two days, 48h, after discovery of the condition. The entire cost ended up being nearly 20,000 euros. This is a scam, not a comprehensive policy. The company proudly stated in its condescending answer to my letter that the policy was fully Schengen compliant and that they did absolutely nothing wrong. The insured had signed and was aware of the terms and conditions of the policy. French private insurance companies can be just as bad as American ones.

FRENCH INCOME TAX DECLARATION TIME HAS STARTED
I always send revised information on the tax schedule, as the dates change every year.

The paper version of the 2025 income declaration must be filed in France by midnight on May 20, 2026. The declaration forms will be available at www.impots.gouv.fr starting on April 9. That is also the day you can start filing your declaration on the same website. To do so, you need a tax ID number (numéro fiscal) and a password.

If you are making your first income declaration to the French tax office, you should do so using the paper form and check the “first time” box on the form (CERFA #2042) where it says “Vous déposez une déclaration pour la première fois cochez” (“Check here if this is your first declaration”). You can get the tax office to give you the information needed to declare for the first time electronically, but I advise against it because using paper documents makes it easier to see and understand how the system works.

The deadline for online declarations is later than that for paper declarations. The schedule depends on your postal code:
• Départements 01 to 19 must file by midnight on Thursday, May 22.
• Départements 20 to 54 by May 28.
• Départements 55 and up by June 5.

Reminder: if you are self-employed in France, the quarterly declarations sent to URSSAF do not constitute income tax declarations, which must be sent to the tax office. Many foreigners are under the mistaken impression that the quarterly declarations are their only fiscal obligation.

You are a French fiscal resident if you:
• stay in France 183 days in a calendar year, whether you have legal immigration status or not
• have immediate family members (spouse and/or minor children) who live in France and therefore are French fiscal residents
• have a French employer
• run a French business, even something like tutoring schoolchildren in English.

Occasionally, you may have a year with no tax owed to France, either because you only had foreign income not taxed in France or because your taxable income was too low. Make sure you continue to declare. Otherwise, this can cause a problem, such as the prefecture wanting to see your income tax bill (avis d’imposition sur le revenue), as can happen with many types of immigration status.

Unlike in the USA, filing is a two-step process. The income declaration is sent in, with no payment attached. Then, starting in August, the tax office issues the avis d’imposition sur le revenu based on the declaration, and the deadline to pay the income tax is September 15.

Many organizations in France, in both the public and private sectors, may require you to furnish an avis d’imposition. For example, the Caisse d’allocations familiale (family subsidy bureau) uses this document, among others, to decide if applicants deserve aid and, if so, how much.

MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN JUNE 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on June 1st if the current tenant does not extend the lease. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for seven weeks over the summer, from the evening of Friday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, August 24th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France, specifically in Burgundy.

Best regards,

QUESTION

CHANGING IMMIGRATION STATUS FROM SALARIÉ DÉTACHÉ ICT TO VISITEUR

My American employer managed to get me a carte de séjour pluriannuelle as a salarié détaché ICT. That carte de sejour will expire on May 16, 2026. My employer told me it is no longer valid because I retired as of July 31 last year.How should I proceed to obtain a new permit that will allow me to continue living legally in France? I have been living in Paris for a long time, since before I was hired. All this time, I have been living with my French partner at her place in Paris. The HR of my employer last summer told me that I should have left France the day I retired. They told me that I needed to apply for a new visa at the French consulate in the U.S. Clearly, I want to change my status even to visiteur if this is all I can get with the Paris prefecture. Let me know if this can be done, even though I am not married or PACSed to her.

QUESTION

RENEWING SELF-EMPLOYED PROFESSION LIBERALE STATUS

I have been living in France for several years. I am trying to renew a four-year carte de séjour as an independent. It expired at the end of July 2025, and I have not heard much from the prefecture.
My first question is, can I ask for the carte de résident while I wait for their answer, as I will have been a resident for way over five years?
Is it possible to be denied? My annual sales have been about €30,000 for the last three years.
I have sent all my URSSAF declarations since 2020, as I entered with the self-employed visa. This is all the income declarations I need to do. Can I apply for another type of visa if this one fails, knowing that I am single?By the way, I do my billing in the USA, and I get paid into my American account.

Below is a quote from my March 2020 issue.

From Wikipedia:

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” is a song by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from the band’s 1976 album Agents of Fortune.

Also from Wikipedia:
Death is frequently imagined as a personified force. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper causes the victim’s death by coming to collect that person’s soul. Other beliefs hold that the Spectre of Death is only a psychopomp, serving to sever the last ties between the soul and the body, and to guide the deceased to the afterlife, without having any control over when or how the victim dies.

I have been listening to Blue Öyster Cult since my first year in high school, and I probably have most of their albums. I find their music a lot more eclectic than the vast majority of hard-rock bands.

The world is now looking with great fear at the rapid spread of the coronavirus from one country to the next. Those who have some historical perspective might think of the Black Plague, the terrifying bubonic plague pandemic that swept through Asia, Europe, and Africa in the 14th century, killing an estimated 50 million people. The term la Grande Faucheuse, French for the Grim Reaper, dates from that time. It has been over a century since the last major pandemic: the Spanish flu at the end of World War I, which lasted from January 1918 to December 1920.

The above is what I published in my March 2020 issue as I was catching the worldwide fear of COVID and the silent death going through the neighborhood. At that time, I focused on “The Reaper.” For over 30 years, I have had a policy not to use the same title twice. This is only the second time I have done it. This time, I am focusing on “Don’t Fear.”

Some people are so immersed in faith that they take Psalm 23 literally: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want, and especially verse 4: Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

But other people are subject to fear and need ways to handle it. Fear is a real emotion with huge effects and sometimes devastating consequences. The lavish decades that followed WWII are now gone for good. Parents fear that their children will never enjoy the careers and the good lives they had. Entering the job market is a challenge; good jobs are scarce, and working conditions for employees are poor. Meanwhile, in the news, we hear about war in many countries and a high level of violence in our communities. In some places, people even die because of their political ideas.

In France, poll after poll, including those done by Amnesty International, has shown that the number of people willing to demonstrate has been shrinking for the last ten years or so. This trend has become a lot more visible with the rise of the “Gilets Jaunes” grassroots opposition to the government and the extreme violence on both sides, with the use of excessive police force being well documented. A majority of French people (61%) feared that violent protests would erupt following the results of the early legislative elections in 2024, according to a CSA Institute poll for CNEWS, Europe 1, and the Journal du Dimanche published on June 27, 2024. France used to be known for putting together demonstrations blocking the boulevards of eastern Paris in no time, with bands, food vendors, and complete families attending. Those days are gone.

The American situation is different and always has been. No parallel can be made. Even so, American political violence has skyrocketed in the last few years, and I do not need to go into detail on this situation. Some fear sending their children to school, going to work in construction, or going shopping in certain neighborhoods when large policing forces are present in town.

There is no point in discussing whether the current level of fear is reasonable. In both France and the USA, we are dealing mostly with fear of the policing forces dedicated to maintaining law and order. The media talks about other Western countries facing similar circumstances, but I do not know enough about them. The situation in the USA and France raises the question of how the current case came about, since the mission of these police forces is to enforce law and order, to protect, to secure premises, and therefore to offer people a safe public place.

There is also a deepening distrust of the government and its various administrative divisions. Again, their mission is to serve the public, offering help and support. They should be popular. But as time goes on and suspicion of fraud has grown, the scrutiny embedded in administrative procedures has made people feel as if they are treated like criminals.

There are commonly three types of response to fear. The first is obedience, excessive caution, and focusing on staying safe. The second is panic, incoherent behavior, and survival mode, which often leads to a far worse situation. The third one is overcoming fear, refusing to bend in the face of violence, and confronting the powers that nourish fear. Many observers have pointed out how large crowds in Minneapolis have overcome their fear and expressed their views, knowing the danger they faced.

THE POLICY OF FEAR USED BY AUTOCRATIC REGIMES
WIKIPEDIA
A dictatorship is a form of government that is characterized by a leader who holds absolute or near-absolute political power. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, and they are facilitated through an inner circle of elites that includes advisers, generals, and other high-ranking officials. The dictator maintains control by influencing and appeasing the inner circle and repressing any opposition, which may include rival political parties, armed resistance, or disloyal members of the dictator’s inner circle. Dictatorships can be formed by a military coup that overthrows the previous government through force, or they can be formed by a self-coup in which elected leaders make their rule permanent. Dictatorships are authoritarian or totalitarian, and they can be classified as military dictatorships, one-party dictatorships, and personalist dictatorships.

One thing that all such governments do as soon as possible is to spy on citizens to detect, then identify, voices of dissent to keep these people under surveillance and perhaps eventually arrested, usually with no court hearing or public sentencing. Under Stalin and Hitler, or today, Putin in Russia and Xi in China, surveillance is total, so no dissenters talk openly or take known risks. The sophistication of current means of control increases the capacity for surveillance. There is no need to tap phones. Those in control have access to text messages and emails, and posts on social media, so they know exactly what each individual says. In China, everybody knows that all these media are totally controlled.

The situation in the USA is different. Many people question how far police surveillance of social media, emails, and messages goes. In some cases, for instance, where lawsuits have been brought against people for flimsy reasons, it is clear that there has been serious digging to come up with minor illegal acts and prosecute people on those grounds. When I lived in the USA, people felt safe because they knew that neither the public nor the private sector could spy on them, thanks to strict limits of the law and the Department of Justice enforcing the law. When people owned firearms, it was more about feeling safe. Many feared losing their job or needing to go to the hospital, as they were uninsured. In addition, there was profiling of minorities, which exposed them to higher risks – that was true then and is still true today.

The current situation in the USA is the result of an acknowledged political choice. As I suggested above, the current French government follows the same kind of policy, albeit on a much smaller scale. In contrast, Spain, for example, has today chosen a different political orientation.

SPANISH GOVERNMENT PLANS TO REGULARIZE 500,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
BBC, January 27th, 2026
The Spanish government has announced a plan to legalize the status of undocumented migrants, a measure expected to benefit at least half a million people. Regularization will be available to foreign nationals who do not have a criminal record and can prove they lived in Spain for at least five months prior to 31 December 2025. “This is a historic day for our country,” said Elma Saiz, Spain’s minister of inclusion, social security, and migration. The measure will provide beneficiaries with an initial one-year residence permit, which can then be extended. Requests for legalization are expected to begin in April, and the process will remain open until the end of June.

“We are reinforcing a migratory model based on human rights, integration, co-existence, and which is compatible with economic growth and social cohesion,” Saiz said. Spain has seen a large influx of migrants in recent years, mainly from Latin America. The conservative think-tank Funcas found that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain had risen from 107,409 in 2017 to 837,938 in 2025 – an eight-fold increase.The highest number of undocumented arrivals currently living in Spain is believed to be from Colombia, Peru, and Honduras. Spain’s socialist-led coalition government has been an outlier on this issue among the larger European nations, underlining the importance of migrants for the economy. The country has been outperforming the other main EU economies in recent years, posting expected growth of close to 3% in 2025. Unemployment, a longstanding weakness of the Spanish economy, has dipped below 10% for the first time since 2008, according to figures released on Tuesday.

******************

I wanted to start this section with a quote from a respected media outlet so that no one would think this is fake news, which can happen more often than we would like. Viewed in the context of the immigration policies of the current American and French administrations, the Spanish one may seem at best insane, and at worst, suicidal for the country. Yet France, Italy, and Spain, among countries in Europe, have fairly regularly opened the way to grant illegal immigrants a legal stay. The two main reasons to do so may appear very different, but I believe they can be seen as pretty much the same.

The first is that the economy is doing well, and there is a need for new workers. Thus, the labor market can absorb these new legal immigrants without harming businesses. The new workers need to pay taxes, comply with legal limitations on hours worked, and so on. This is the motivation explained above.

The second reason is that the government deems the stable illegal population to be so large that there is an imbalance that must be addressed. Giving these people a legal stay diminishes the risk associated with having illegal immigrants in the workforce. This, in turn, improves their job security and health coverage, thus ending the main abuses illegal immigrants endure.

Interestingly enough, the Italian and French governments are currently making it more difficult to get a legal stay through regularization.

France’s Ministry of the Interior announced on January 27th that the country had issued 384,230 initial residence permits last year, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%, but that the number of regularizations had fallen by 10.1%. The decision to make it more difficult to regularize one’s immigration status is totally political. It is based on making illegal immigrants look like bad people who do not deserve legal status. The French government is unpopular, as is President Macron, and stirring up fear on various issues is seen as a possible way to reduce their unpopularity.

Clearly, it is always a political choice to have policies based on fear. This brings up another topic. The current American administration depicts almost all immigrants as criminals, dangerous people who destroy the well-being of their neighbors. For several weeks, people in Minneapolis have overcome their fear of the massive policing forces’ presence on the city streets. They rejected the government’s position and flooded the media, especially social media, with videos of what was being done to non-American citizens, some of whom had legal stays, as well as American citizens. Some American citizens were killed, but it did not dampen the protests, which only grew. These people overcame their fear of what could happen to them if they took action.

AMERICAN CITIZENS DEALING WITH DUAL NATIONALITY
My family has experienced dual nationality for over four generations. The youngest are my children. My paternal grandmother was born Spanish in Morocco and naturalized French. When my daughter was born in 1991, my wife went to the American Embassy to register her birth as an American citizen. She was warned against her becoming French through naturalization. Even though the regulation had changed in 1986, decreasing the risk of losing American citizenship upon naturalization, she met women telling horrid stories about what happened to them. Before the 1986 change, an American citizen had to testify in court that if they became French, they would not renounce their American citizenship. To win such a court case, the person had to prove that they never took advantage of the prerogatives of being French, thus in many ways defeating the purpose of being naturalized. The US federal administration later shifted the burden of proof away from the individual. This made it much safer, as the guidelines for challenging such people in court were based on whether obtaining the new citizenship meant automatically losing the previous one, or whether the adopted country was considered an enemy of the USA.

Now, there is proposed legislation in Congress that would take the rights of the American people backward, to a situation worse than what existed prior to 1986. I see two different issues with the proposed change.

1 – The vast majority of Western countries do not mind dual nationality. They view dual nationals as if they only held that country’s nationality. If complications arise from being a dual national, most countries let these people deal with them. By contrast, countries that monitor the obtaining of a second nationality are afraid of losing control of their population; they idealize their own nationality to keep the country homogeneous. Such governments show insecurity about their country’s future and its possible transformation. The current American administration sanctifies American nationality when it deals with well-off children on American soil, hoping such children will become “good” grown-ups sharing pre-Civil Rights Movement values.

2 – In Western Europe, most countries allow multiple nationalities with little if any oversight as to what the other nationalities are. Nationality may be acquired through marrying a national, by establishing a long enough residency, or by being born in the country. Most countries, like the USA, have requirements other than just bona fide five-year residency. Even Germany, which for a long time only recognized blood affiliation, now accepts dual nationality linked to the birthright of the soil (the legal term – ius soli). Historical reasons explain why, and I am happy that they are moving away from the old policy.

The bottom line is this. When a country believes it can integrate and assimilate an immigration flow, the path to citizenship is simpler, and dual nationality is a given. When the country is afraid of the consequences of an immigration flow, it tightens the naturalization requirements to preserve what it considers its traditional values. Over the last few decades, the naturalization procedure in the USA has become increasingly difficult, with more and more requirements. Lately, some ceremonies have been cancelled, preventing people from becoming Americans. Disputing American citizenship by birth in the USA follows the same logic.

George Clooney and his family became French. He openly admits that his level of French is insufficient to meet the minimum required for naturalization. I believed he submitted two files with his spouse, a native French speaker (she was born Lebanese), and their children also speak French well. On the screen, he is the boss. In this situation, he is the weak link. Administrative logic would insist that the rest of his family could be naturalized, but not him. Therefore, he needed and got preferential treatment. I do not see this as a big deal. The important thing to me is that he will undoubtedly be at the forefront of the fight against automatic loss of American citizenship, as in the proposal mentioned above. This issue will now be personal; it will affect him right away. Can anyone imagine George Clooney not being an American icon?

THE REVEREND JESSE JACKSON’S DEATH
The Rev. Jesse Jackson died on Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. I remember his two presidential campaigns. On March 12, 1995, he preached at the American Church in Paris, and I was there. I have a vivid memory of his sermon, which lasted for a long time; my recollection is that it was close to an hour. He was passionate and engaged. What I remember most was that his sermon was almost a political speech, well structured, and that he went back to his main theme on a regular basis, and made sure the congregation was following what he said. He was a fantastic speaker in that regard.

He came to preach a second time on August 9th, 2009. The ACP monthly magazine, the Spire, which was still published at that time, said: “What a privilege this morning to shake hands with Jesse Jackson. He preached at the American Church in Paris, on his way from Chicago to the Ivory Coast. He made an impassioned call for peace in the world, calling himself a ‘troublemaker for peace.’ He says he is asked sometimes whether, with all his political speeches, he ever preaches much anymore. His answer: ‘I preach the gospel every day – and I use words if I have to!’” He also visited in August 2021, but did not preach that time.

THE FRENCH TAX OFFICE IS BANNING PAYMENT BY CHECK
When I started my career in 1997, checks were the most common means of payment. I remember depositing them twice a month, up to 20 at a time. I would send a check to pay utilities, in the special envelopes provided. Today, hardly anyone uses a checkbook anymore. One client tells me she writes one check per year to pay my fees. It is a fact that checks have just about completely faded away. For one thing, processing checks is expensive, as it requires manpower at both banks.

In France, checks now account for less than 2% of non-cash payments across all sectors, compared with more than a third in the early 2000s. For years, the tax office has had a center in Rennes specialized in processing checks, speeding tickets, and other types of payments. It is due to be closed sometime in 2027.

Every time some procedure goes totally digital, members of the population who have no internet connection, or a very poor one, are penalized, as are those incapable of using the internet properly.

MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN APRIL 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on April 1st. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for seven weeks over the summer, from the evening of Friday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, August 24th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France, specifically in Burgundy.

Best regards,

QUESTION

HOW TO PROVE FINANCIAL MEANS WHILE RENEWING THE VISITEUR STATUS?

I renew my visa every year. I am always asked to show bank statements. It feels like a never-ending quest. So I never got a clear answer: when it comes to showing my funds/money during my visa renewal, can I show mutual funds and stock accounts I own with some investment statement? Or does it need to be ready-to-spend liquid cash in a checking/savings account? If I show my mutual fund account, I have a large amount there, and I do not feel comfortable sharing this with the French immigration police. On the other hand, I don’t think there’s a point in showing my retirement account (401k) as it will be many, many years before I have access to this money, but it has a much smaller balance. The reason I have always shown my American checking and savings accounts is that cash seemed a lot less risky than a mutual fund or stock account. In my mind, the stock market could plummet suddenly, and my stock accounts and mutual funds could end up at $0 tomorrow, so I was thinking they were not very “safe” in the eyes of the French government. Can you clarify this point so that I can submit once and for all with peace of mind that it is well done?

QUESTION

RENEWING SELF-EMPLOYED PROFESSION LIBERALE STATUS

I have been living in France for several years. I am trying to renew a four-year carte de séjour as an independent. It expired at the end of July 2025, and I have not heard much from the prefecture.
My first question is, can I ask for the carte de résident while I wait for their answer, as I will have been a resident for way over five years?
Is it possible to be denied? My annual sales have been about €30,000 for the last three years.
I have sent all my URSSAF declarations since 2020, as I entered with the self-employed visa. This is all the income declarations I need to do. Can I apply for another type of visa if this one fails, knowing that I am single?By the way, I do my billing in the USA, and I get paid into my American account.

As January ends in a few hours, I would like once again to wish you all happy holidays. We can hope that 2026 will bring what we wish for, even though 2025 did not do so for probably more than half of the American population. I hope we all can find a way to sincerely exchange best wishes with each other, even though in some instances this might take a near miracle. There will always be worries and looming dangers. In some cases, the dangers are at people’s doorsteps, whether at home or at work. The 2026 mid-term elections can instill hope and fear simultaneously in the same person, leading to a wide range of emotions and a lot of uncertainty about the future. Nevertheless, I wish you all.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

WIKIPEDIA

The Dictator is a 2012 political satire black comedy film directed by Larry Charles and written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel, and Jeff Schaffer. Baron Cohen, in the role of Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya, visiting the United States, stars alongside Anna Faris and Ben Kingsley.

So many books and movies are used to refer to the current situation in the USA. The novel 1984 is mentioned very frequently.

WIKIPEDIA

Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) is a dystopian speculative fiction novel by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell’s ninth and final completed book. Thematically, it centers on totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and repressive regimentation of people and behaviors.

Not as often, the Charlie Chaplin movie The Great Dictator is mentioned or referred to, as some compare the current situation to the Nazi rise in the early 1930s in Germany.

WIKIPEDIA

The Great Dictator is a 1940 American political satire black comedy film written, directed, produced by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. Having been the only major Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, Chaplin made this his first true sound film.

Chaplin’s film advanced a stirring condemnation of the German and Italian dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, as well as fascism, antisemitism, and Nazism. At the time of its first release, the United States was still at peace with Nazi Germany and neutral during what were the early days of World War II. Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator and a persecuted Jewish barber.

The Great Dictator is a masterpiece. It would not take much to make it a documentary. But it depicts so closely what happened in Germany during the Nazi regime that I am afraid it looks too foreign for the younger generations. It is not easy to transpose what happens in the movie to any country in the world today.

I would hope that the 2012 movie set in the USA was easier to relate to, with viewers seeing it as contemporary. Various publications have been reporting on a trend to elect conservative, sometimes far-right governments in Europe and in Central and South America. Several countries in Asia have also become more authoritarian. Each country has its own history and characteristics, and each can explain how it ended up that way. As I look at the global picture, I wonder if such a trend can be explained at the world level. American private groups and the American federal government are helping European far-right political parties. It is known that Russia, China, and maybe a few other countries are also influencing elections held in Europe, the USA, and probably in some other countries as well. It is reasonable to believe that such an intervention has an impact and can tip an election in a given direction. Strongmen prefer dealing with other strongmen.

Recently, a few personalities have stood out for implementing bold policies, such as Prime Ministers Mark Carney of Canada, Sanae Takaichi of Japan, Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, and Jonathan Motzfeldt of Greenland. They have all had to deal with striking changes in American foreign policy, although their countries and territories were, until recently, considered to be among the USA’s closest allies. In their own way, they are pushing back, and this does not always make headlines in the major Western media.

For several months, many in the media and on the internet have mentioned the fictional 1984 as a guidebook to how dictators and strongmen secure unlimited power over their citizens. It might appear to some that the 2012 movie The Dictator is now similarly used as a tutorial on how to bring about such regime change in the USA. The movie is, of course, totally fictional, and the main character is the dictator of a fictional country somewhere in the eastern Caucasus, part of the former Soviet Union.

THE NEW FRENCH EXAM REQUIRED FOR MULTIYEAR CARTES DE SEJOUR
A law approved on January 26th, 2024, on controlling immigration and improving societal integration, strengthens the requirements for proficiency in French and integration into the French Republic for foreigners wishing to remain in France for the long term.

In particular, the law specifies that as of January 1st, 2026, a civics exam is mandatory, and a certificate of success on the exam must be submitted by all first-time applicants for multiyear residence permits (cartes de séjour pluriannuelles and cartes de résident) who are nationals of countries outside the European Union.

A decree of July 15th, 2025, also made a civics exam mandatory for all naturalization applications as of January 1st, 2026. Information about the exam is available on the website of the Direction générale des étrangers en France (DGEF, Directorate-General for Foreign Nationals in France), part of the Ministry of the Interior.

To assist foreigners with the new procedures, they launched a website entirely dedicated to civics training. This training, which is part of the Contrat d’intégration républicaine (Republican Integration Contract) and provided by the OFII, helps participants understand the principles and values of the Republic, learn how institutions work, and understand the rights and duties associated with living in France.

The site brings together 222 thematic fact sheets and structured content to help foreigners in their training, deepen their understanding of essential concepts, and prepare for the civics exam. It also provides practical answers about the exam’s contents and procedures for taking it. Questions that are likely to be asked are also posted online.

The website also provides information on approved centers where the exam can be taken, located throughout the country.

This new platform will be regularly updated to offer foreigners comprehensive support in their integration process and in taking the civics exam. The requirements for naturalization applicants have been tightened as well.

For more information on this process, see the DGEF under the heading Integration et Accés à la Nationalité.
www.interieur.gouv.fr/actualites/communiques-de-presse/a-partir-du-1er-janvier-2026-reussite-a-lexamen-civique-sera-necessaire-pour-obtenir-carte-de-sejour

THE CIVICS TEST FOR THE NATURALIZATION PROCEDURE
To be naturalized as a French citizen, applicants must demonstrate their assimilation into French society, in particular through sufficient knowledge of French history, culture, and society.

The level of knowledge expected is assessed in a civics exam, which was introduced on January 1st, 2026, and consists of a multiple-choice test in French with 40 questions, including knowledge questions and scenario-based questions. The questions cover the following five themes:

Principles and values of the French Republic
Institutional and political system
Rights and duties
History, geography, and culture
Living in French society.

A minimum of 32 correct answers (i.e., 80%) is required to pass. The test is conducted digitally and lasts a maximum of 45 minutes.

To prepare for the exam, applicants can consult the citizens’ handbook, the charter of rights and duties of French citizens, and the list of knowledge questions (document available below). The scenario-based questions are not available. A certificate of success in the civics exam is one of the documents required for a naturalization application.

Applicants may be granted accommodations or exemptions from certain parts of the civics exam if they have a disability or health condition. To this end, they must provide a medical certificate attesting that accommodations are necessary, specifying the recommended accommodations, or indicating that their disability or health condition makes it impossible for them to take the civics exam.

Two organizations have been approved by the Ministry of the Interior to administer the civics exam:
(1) The Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
(2) France Éducation International.

Find approved centers and registration procedures at the following links:
Civics exam Naturalization external link.
https://formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr

You will find the link to approved centers and registration procedures here very soon.
https://www.immigration.interieur.gouv.fr/Integration-et-Acces-a-la-nationalite/La-nationalite-francaise/Les-procedures-d-acces-a-la-nationalite-francaise

RUNNING THE BUSINESS IS NO LONGER THE ONLY FOCUS IN MY LIFE
In 2026, I will turn 67, and I will have been in practice for 29 years. Over the years, I have been more and more interested in volunteering for different causes.

I have been faithful to my church, the American Church in Paris (ACP), and I remain available to people there who seek my help and advice. I plan on continuing to be available.

A couple of years ago, my wife bought a house in the medieval city of Cluny, located about 500 kilometers from Paris. The house is close to what is left of the Cluny Abbey, which is now a museum. There were numerous reasons for this purchase, but the main one in her mind was that we would both retire there when I am done working in Paris. Another major reason was to get involved in classical music differently. Instead of singing soprano in a choir or being a soloist, she wanted to help young classical singers and other musicians. The ground floor of the house is somewhat like an extension of the abbey, with acoustical quality like that of an ancient church. We have created a non-profit organization that holds concerts and other musical events, and local musicians can rehearse there, even when we are absent. As the musical activity increases, so will our presence there.

The ACP has had an African Fellowship for about 20 years, and I have been involved in it pretty much from the beginning. This is how I learned about NGOs, projects helping people living in Africa, and so on. A Tanzanian woman, Rhobi Samwelly, founded an NGO called Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania in 2017 and established the Mugumu and Butiama safe houses to protect girls seeking to avoid female genital mutilation (FGM). Rhobi is herself an FGM survivor and Human Rights Defender winner of the Marianne Initiatives Award bestowed by President Emmanuel Macron.

Members of AAWE and ACP organized an early screening of a documentary about Rhobi’s actions, In the Name of Our Daughter. Then, in the fall of 2024, we established a French branch of her NGO. This association is registered out of my office, and I deal with the legal and administrative aspects. Members quickly organized several events and participated in others, such as the AAWE Christmas Bazaar held at ACP. When I was in my early twenties, I read a lot about sexual mutilation in Africa, and later read a series of articles in Le Monde on the issue, which ran for several weeks. So it was a topic I was familiar with, even 40 years later.

For years, I have made sure to keep my professional business and my involvement as a militant for projects and some causes separate. Now, I want to dedicate more time to the latter, and I believe I owe my clientele and my readership this information.

THE VIKING ERIK THE RED DISCOVERED AND CLAIMED GREENLAND IN 982
The saga of the hot-headed Erik the Red, who was exiled first from Norway and later from Iceland, is very interesting. Furthermore, his son, Leif Erikson, was one of the first Vikings to discover North America in about the year 1000!

Swein Forkbeard, the first king of Denmark, which then included what is now Norway, died in 1014. Denmark has been a sovereign country since ancient times, and Greenland became a fully integrated territory of Denmark in 1721. Today, it is a semi-independent territory under the political authority of the Danish crown.

In the Middle Ages, the most feared Vikings – seafaring warriors from Scandinavia – came from what are now Denmark and Norway. Today, both countries maintain a vibrant patriotic feeling.

Greenland’s Inuit people, who have lived there for millennia, clearly prefer the Danish umbrella over any other. Ideally, they would like to be a totally independent country, but this idea is not sustainable, as half of their budget is financed by the Danish administration.

The current American administration should look beyond the Danish population of about six million. Though it is minuscule compared to the American population, there is still enough Viking fighting spirit for the Danes to stand tall and fearless. International tension regarding Greenland seems to have faded for now, and the US administration has mentioned other ways to obtain what it wants. The situation is still likely to have long-lasting effects on the Danish and Greenlandic populations, as well as somewhat less severe effects on other European nations.

JAPAN WANTS TO DEFEND TAIWAN
With everything that is happening in the USA, the ousting of the Venezuelan president, and the war in Ukraine, there has not been much attention to what is happening in East Asia. Only a few media outlets spent a couple of minutes on the fact that Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has declared that she is ready to send the Japanese military to defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression.

There are a few things to unpack here. Takaichi is Japan’s first woman to serve as prime minister. Also, for a good 20 years, Japan has been increasing its military spending and is now capable of taking the offense, though this is not allowed by the constitution imposed on Japan by the Americans after WWII. Neighboring countries have mixed feelings about Japan rearming. They have painful memories of atrocities committed during the war, though they have also witnessed Japan’s recent evolution with a focus on peace and staying safe.

Until recently, the USA was considered the only country standing strong in the military defense of Taiwan. But in President Trump’s current term, he has shown little interest in protecting Taiwan. This leaves the Taiwanese population essentially stranded, as Taipei lacks the military capacity to stand alone against mainland China.

Japan believes its military can face that of China, which says a lot about its confidence as well as how strong it has become, even if it does not yet really measure up to the Chinese military.

This development also shows that the USA is no longer considered a reliable and strong ally and cannot be trusted.

Who is planning to defend Taiwanese independence, and why does this matter to Western countries? Does it matter, in fact? The situation has echoes of WWII, when Japan was on the wrong side of history. The countries in this region still vividly recall Japanese atrocities and war crimes.

The Chinese propaganda machine has been raising the specter of Japanese wartime activities almost daily, stating that the massacres and war crimes Japan committed disqualify it from protecting Taiwan. This indicates that China has become more concerned about what the “small” Japanese military can do than about how US forces would react should China invade Taiwan. It also implies that a Japanese commitment can be trusted, while an American commitment must be taken with a grain of salt.

The last time I wrote about Taiwan, a reader told me to stop discussing issues nobody is interested in. I agree that few people care about this country or even where it is on the map, and most do not see how events there could have a direct impact on their lives. But remember this: the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC), a multinational manufacturing and design company, is one of the world’s most valuable semiconductor makers, largely on contract. It produces the most sophisticated microchips used in AI, as well as many other components. Western industries and people would immediately feel the consequences if TSMC factories stopped production because of war.

MY FEES WILL INCREASE ON SEPTEMBER 1st, 2026
I will be increasing my fees by 20% at the beginning of the next scholastic year, after the 2026 summer vacation. Here are the new rates:
1st meeting/1st work: 420€ euros for 2 hours
Extra hour(s): 180 euros per hour
Handling mail at my office: 50 euros per month
Surcharge for out-of-office meetings: 90 euros, assuming less than 30 minutes’ transportation
Surcharge for meetings and phone calls at the client’s request after 7PM weekdays, all weekend, on national French holidays, and during vacations: 30%
Clients paying by wire to an American account must add $20 to the fee to cover the bank charge for processing a wire transfer.
Bounced checks incur a charge of $20 or 20 euros.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN MARCH 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on March 1st. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately, as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions, I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER VACATION
The office will be closed for seven weeks over the summer, from the evening of Friday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, August 24th. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France, specifically in Burgundy.

Best regards,

QUESTION

PAYING HOUSEHOLD HELP LEGALLY WITH CHEQUE EMPLOI SERVICE UNIVERSEL

I recently retired from my French employer. A couple of years ago, I hired a housekeeper paid through the cheque emploi service universel. I just noticed that I am paying her salary, and at the same time, the government is taking money out of my account at the end of the month. Will I be getting this sum back as a reduction in taxes, or did I, in essence, pay my housekeeper double? Usually, I received a check from the CE to cover this, and now I don’t.

QUESTION

BEING APPROVED AND DENIED BY THE PREFECTURE

After holding a visiteur carte de séjour as an American retiree for a few years, I asked for the private life status a couple of months ago, as I had an appointment at the big prefecture. I PACSed with a French person, and she had moved in with me a couple of months before that ceremony. Since my old card was up for renewal, I chose to take advantage of this opportunity to change it. Uploading the documents took a long time, but it felt easy. I had all the documents ready; there were many of them! The meeting went great, I did not even need to show the file I sent out, even though I was asked to come with it. Yesterday, I got a postal letter from the prefecture stating that my request was denied. I was not told to leave the country in 30 days; there was no expulsion order. It just said that our cohabitation was too recent, and I did not comply with the one year of living together. The letter tells me to submit a new request when it happens.How come I was not denied right away if I did not qualify? They accepted my request twice! I have a récépissé that is still valid. Should I worry that I lost my French residency?

Christmas is around the corner, and my office will be open for less than three weeks before closing for the holidays on Friday, December 19th.

I would like to wish you all happy holidays. We can hope that 2026 will bring what we wish for, even though 2025 did not do so for probably more than half of the American population. I hope we all can find a way to sincerely exchange best wishes with each other, even though in some instances this might take a near miracle. There will always be worries and looming dangers. In some cases, the dangers are at people’s doorsteps, whether at home or at work. The 2026 mid-term elections can instill hope and fear simultaneously in the same person, leading to a wide range of emotions and a lot of uncertainty about the future. Nevertheless, I wish you all.

A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

Appetite for Destruction is the debut studio album by American band Guns N’ Roses, released on July 21, 1987. For the lyrics, I could have used the first song on the album “Welcome to the Jungle.” The situation in both of our countries is making less and less sense. Considering what is happening in the world, I knew that I was not going to choose a Christmas carol celebrating all the love floating around the Christmas tree found in everyone’s homes.

I still cannot reconcile myself with the fact that the leaders of these two countries are choosing, day in and day out, the best way to harm their constituents, the people living in these countries. If I started to make a list of examples, it would be close to endless.

I have to admit that an image stands out in all of this – the tearing down of the East Wing of the White House. This made a deep impact on me, perfectly epitomizing what is happening: leveling down everything in order to make it possible to build anew. I often wonder what the new thing, the new country they want to build, will be.

Closing this topic, I recall the Godzilla movies and other similar ones where monsters tear down buildings and destroy everything in their path.

I do not like this kind of destruction, and specifically the kind of Appetite for Destruction described above. I admit that I do really like the album and the following couple of releases by Guns N’Roses. For those who do not have it yet, it could be a good Christmas gift. I had to find something to lighten up the atmosphere on this issue, but it was a tough one!

ETIAS IS BACK IN THE NEWS – MORE DELAYS EXPECTED
This is what I wrote in the May 2025 issue:
In the last quarter of 2026, the European Commission plans to implement new border management systems, including the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).

ETIAS is a travel permit, not a visa.
The 30 member states of the enlarged Schengen area will require it for entry. It involves payment of a seven-euro fee, which will be charged to nationals of some 60 countries outside the European Union who are currently authorized to travel to countries in the enlarged Schengen area for up to 90 days without a visa. The fee will not be charged to people under 18 or over 70, or to family members of European citizens or third-country nationals who have the right to move freely within the European Union.

This fully electronic system, similar to the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), will reinforce checks on foreign travelers within the European Union, intended to detect potential threats. ETIAS will have to be applied for prior to travel and will be valid for three years or until the expiry of the travel document registered at the time of application.

The official European website still gives the last quarter of 2026 as the timeline for its final implementation.
https://etias.com/etias-requirements/
https://travel-europe.europa.eu/en/etias/about-etias/news-corner/revised-timeline-ees-and-etias

The media covering this issue state that it will probably come into force in 2027, most of them mentioning the month of April.
https://www.imidaily.com/europe/postponed-etias-travel-authorization-system-wont-become-mandatory-until-2027/#:~:text=From%20April%202027%2C%20the%20authorization,compulsory%20for%20all%20eligible%20travelers.

On the other hand, the EES was implemented on schedule. This is what I wrote in the October 2025 issue:
Starting on October 12, 2025, the European Union (EU) will begin rolling out the Entry/Exit System (EES), with full implementation by April 2026.

This new digital border management tool will replace traditional passport stamping with biometric records, transforming the way millions of eligible travelers experience border crossings.

The EES is a new digital border control system being rolled out across the EU starting in October 2025, with full implementation by April 2026. It replaces traditional passport stamping with a secure process that records biometric data, entry dates, and exit dates, making border checks more accurate and efficient for travelers.

It seems that nobody seems to be bothered by this procedure. I have not heard a single negative comment about it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP EXPRESSES CONCERNS ABOUT NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS
On November 2nd, the Le Monde website published an article stating:
“The President of the United States has placed Nigeria on the list of countries of ‘particular concern’ in terms of religious freedom, stating that ‘Christianity [there] faces an existential threat.’ These accusations have been denied by Abuja.”

“Le président des Etats-Unis a inscrit le Nigeria sur la liste des pays « particulièrement préoccupants » en matière de liberté religieuse, estimant que « le christianisme [y] est confronté à une menace existentielle ». Des accusations démenties par Abuja.”

A lot could be said about this statement and Trump’s decision. I am wondering if he is well-informed about the political situation in Nigeria that creates those massacres, or if he learned via the American media that a massacre occurred, and either way, wants to use it to score political points.

This is the explanation given by this French newspaper, which is the real one and has existed for decades:
“In the center of the country, deadly clashes between Fulani herders, who are mainly Muslim, and farmers, who are often Christian, are recurrent and are often presented as interreligious conflicts, when in fact they are generally rooted in competition for access to land.”

“Dans le centre du pays, les affrontements meurtriers entre les éleveurs peuls, principalement musulmans, et les agriculteurs, souvent chrétiens, sont récurrents et souvent présentés comme des conflits interreligieux, alors qu’ils trouvent en général leurs racines dans la compétition pour l’accès aux terres.”.

This is quite an accurate description of the situation. We knew well an American Christian missionary family living in that region, the Middle Belt, who fled about 15 years ago and moved back to the USA when they judged that the situation was untenable. Later, they moved to Kenya with the same missionary organization.

WIKIPEDIA

Across Nigeria, there are a series of disputes over arable land between Fulani herders and non-Fulani farmers. The conflicts have been especially prominent in the Middle Belt (North Central) since the return of democracy in 1999. More recently, they have deteriorated into attacks on farmers by Fulani herders.

Attacks have also taken place in Northwestern Nigeria against farmers who are mainly Hausa (almost entirely Muslim). Many Fulani communities, usually agricultural, have also been attacked and raided by Fulani bandits and other militias. The conflict has taken on religious and ethnic dimensions: many of the farmers are Christians of various ethnicities, while most of the herders are Muslim Fulani. Thousands of people have died since the attacks began. Sedentary farmers in rural communities are often the target of attacks because of their vulnerability. There are fears that the conflict will spread to other West African countries, but this has often been downplayed by governments in the region. Attacks on herders have also led them to retaliate by attacking other communities.

Background
Herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria have deep roots and date back to pre-colonial times (before the 1900s). However, these conflicts have become far more severe in recent decades due to demographic pressure, climate change, and various other factors. During the British colonial era, herders and farmers would agree on a system called burti, in which specific migration routes were set up for herders, with mutual agreement among the farmers, herders, and local authorities. However, the burti, system collapsed during the 1970s, when farmers increasingly claimed ownership of lands along cattle migration paths, leading to an augmentation of conflicts. This is all that I wanted to say. I understand that my little voice does not carry much weight. I am happy that Le Monde, at the very least, gave the minimum information for people to understand the real nature of this conflict.
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2025/11/02/donald-trump-menace-le-nigeria-d-une-intervention-militaire-en-raison-des-meurtres-de-chretiens_6650895_3210.html

THE REALITY CONCERNING THE COST OF FRENCH PUBLIC HEALTH COVERAGE
I have read a lot about this topic. A few things really angered me, among them the idea that France is targeting American citizens, going after them because they are accused of cheating.

I would like to explain how we ended up here, with this being discussed in the French Assemblée Nationale. The starting point was the creation of the CMU in the year 2000. Public health coverage was made available for all legal residents of France, and was therefore no longer linked to working in France. This created the specific status called CMU for destitute people, for foreigners who did not work in France, many of them were and are receiving foreign retirement. At that time, these foreigners were submitting two income declarations: one for the tax office and one for URSSAF, so that the contribution towards their health coverage could be calculated. The system was working very well because each office was handling its own calculations. I even knew people who were only declaring their income to URSSAF, and this was not creating problems, as the two offices were not in contact with each other or sharing information. The reality is that these two, URSSAF and the tax office, had distrusted each other for decades!

In 2016, the system changed radically. Coverage was now specifically identified by the acronym PUMa (Protection Universelle Maladie), with just one declaration being made to the tax authorities. President Macron personally insisted that URSSAF finally accept information coming from the tax office. By the way, this shows how deep the distrust had been between the two! In the midst of these changes, the way to calculate contributions was altered, which I consider to have been an error. Foreign retirement income was taken out of the calculation.

In the expatriate community, the vast majority of visiteur immigration status holders are retired. Some of them live on Social Security, pensions, and other retirement accounts. The insane consequence is that they do not pay anything into the French social system, or else a minuscule amount. This makes no economic sense: given their age, they tend to have more medical problems, and their coverage costs a lot of money compared to the rest of the population.

The current discussion among elected officials, therefore, concerns how to fix this situation. A way needs to be found that is fair to the system, with people making contributions while bearing in mind that they live on a fixed income, and that their contribution should be calculated differently as a result. The normal calculation is about 6.5% of the income used for the calculation.

It is obvious that there is no desire here to go after American citizens, nor to punish the visiteur immigration status holders. The French administration made a mistake, and it took close to ten years to become aware of it.

MY READER EXPLAINS

A very faithful reader of mine who is highly knowledgeable on the subject sent this to me:
“They are targeting – rightfully so – the “visiteur” immigration status holders. It happens that a lot of them are North Americans and therefore Artificial intelligence repeatedly claims there is no publication by France of the number of visiteur visas accorded by nationality. I have nonetheless located the attached report, which does give such figures, though not in all the detail desired. The table says that 288,049 longue durée visas were granted in 2024. Of these, 33,694 were visitor visas (note also that visiteurs represent about 2/3 of VLS (visas de long séjour) accorded for various reasons). The US obtained 6% of the VLS: 16,782 visas, according to the.

The result is that 3,710 Americans receive the VLS marked visiteur each year, in addition to those already in France who will be affected by Amendment 1751. It seems that the British have about 5,300 visitor visas. Together, the US and UK represent around 9,000 VLS in the visiteur category.

THE FRENCH BANKS’ LENIENCY REGARDING OVERDRAFTS IS OVER
Previously, banks had been giving clients the right to go negative without incurring major problems. For a very long time, including when I was a young adult, this was an informal agreement. This had some advantages, but it also had a significant drawback, in that the banker could cancel this leniency when he got scared by the situation! Before this new legislation, clients knew the limits concerning their accounts and could be charged a high interest rate if they went negative. If this scenario became more or less permanent, there could be consequences depending on the situation.

Applying a new European regulation, this is no longer possible. The bank must sign a loan agreement with the client, fixing its terms and conditions. On paper, this is good news, but bad news in reality. Many such clients cannot qualify for such a loan, as the French banking system is asking for guarantees under French law. As a result, the poorest clients will find their financial situations even more difficult, whereas the government will be happy that they have protected people from paying too much interest and falling into debt and then bankruptcy. This is a very honorable intention. The reality of poor clients, however, is that some, if not most of them, rather than being forced to make heartbreaking decisions involving children, decide it may be worth paying high interest the following month in return for still being able to put food on the table and paying rent!

The rules governing bank overdraft facilities will be tightened in November 2026, requiring banks to assess customers’ creditworthiness and ensure that they are able to repay any loans, as is the case with consumer credit.

The order amending the regulations concerning consumer credit is a transposition of the European directive on consumer credit agreements (CCD2), which will come into force on November 20, 2026.

However, overdraft facilities granted before November 2026 will not be affected by the new consumer credit regime.
https://www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2025/10/29/des-decouverts-bancaires-plus-difficiles-a-obtenir-a-partir-de-novembre-2026_6650181_1657007.html

THERE WILL BE FRENCH ELECTIONS ON MARCH 15 AND 22
These are called “élections municipales” to choose the mayor and elected officials who will be governing towns from town halls.

Unlike the USA, France has few elections organized by the government. The upcoming one concerns the lowest level of representation. The current development is that mayors are becoming increasingly popular and are appreciated by their electorate. In the midst of the global loss of credibility among politicians, people mainly like mayors because their actions are immediately visible, giving the impression that votes count. The French media is already publishing polls regarding the main cities, including Paris.

At a time when traditionally strong political parties have lost support, and the two parties most strongly represented constitute the extreme end of each side of the political spectrum, it is difficult to anticipate the result. The situation in Paris illustrates this quite well. The Socialist Party, leading a liberal coalition, has been in charge of the city since March 25th, 2001. As of today, the identity of their candidate is still unknown, and the different factions are incapable of agreeing on who should lead the campaign and become the next mayor. The conservative side seems to have made its choice: Ms. Rachida Dati, the current mayor of the 7th arrondissement. So, depending on the polls, her chances of victory would appear to lie between possible and probable. This having been said, she is under criminal investigation for some serious felonies, and could be stripped of her right to be elected.

This, for me, illustrates the deplorable condition of French politics.

THE SHIP STUDIO IS AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN FEBRUARY 2026
The SHIP studio is currently available on February 1st. I am finally getting a lot more requests and have had to refuse a few lately as it was already rented. When people contact me about renting it, I send them to the website. I hope it shows how cozy the accommodations are. The monthly rent of 1,400€ is all-inclusive. While I continue to favor rentals lasting between two and six months, under certain conditions I have accepted one-month rentals.
https://www.jeantaquet.com/home-in-paris

OFFICE CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS VACATION
The office will be closed for three weeks over the Christmas vacation, from the evening of Friday, December 19, to the morning of Monday, January 5. As always, I will be reachable by email for emergencies and important matters. The service I offer of receiving mail for clients will continue while the office is closed, and Sarah or I will honor prefecture meetings already scheduled, as well as a few other engagements. Like last year, I should be away from the office for most of the time, but I will stay in France.

Best regards,

QUESTION

TVA/VAT AND AUTOENTREPENEUR STATUS

I changed to self-employed after being a visiteur for a few years. As an auto-entrepreneur making around 30,000€ every year, as a biochemist consultant, I manage every time to stay below the TVA limit. Recently, I have been following very closely the proposed changes regarding the amount of revenue I earn before I need to charge TVA. Throughout the year, the media has reported that the changes will and then will not be implemented as often as France changes prime ministers. As of 6 November, the latest news report suggests that the change is now completely off the table. At the same time, the proposed budget is lowering the limit insanely, such I would be affected. What is the reality, please, as this is totally contradictory? This is my source of information.
https://www.presse-citron.net/tva-auto-entrepreneurs-seuil-25-000-suppression-journal-officiel/

QUESTION

CONCERNS REGARDING FRENCH TESTS FOR OLDER PEOPLE

I am 72, and I have renewed my visa for over ten years. I cannot stand what is happening in my country. I am now ashamed to say that I am American. So now I am planning to apply for French citizenship in January. In your November 2025 issue, you stated in your newsletter: “People aged 65 and older will not need to take the test or the new French language exam.” Is this only applicable for residency permit applicants or also for naturalization applicants?