As we move closer to the day of actually starting a French business, we’ve been talking to other people in a similar situation about the options. Every conversation ends ina horror story, and the dire warning that whatever we do we shouldn’t start a French enterprise, unless we like paying enormous costs and being buried in paperwork.

Two of my favourite stories are:

The person who ran a bed and breakfast business in the Dordogne for 10 years, paying thousands of euros each year in social charges for the privilege. He eventually reached retirement age, and contacted the pension office to find out his entitlement.

After long discussions and disputes he eventually heard that he was entitled to 2 euros per week. Arguments continued for some time, to no avail, until he eventually asked them to stop sending forms and questions all the time, because the postage costs of sending them back was greater than his weekly pension!

Story number 2 is similar to one I told a while ago. A restaurant employed someone as waitress, but the person proved to be unsuitable. Before they could be dismissed (complicated in itself) they claimed to have suffered an injury at work, and stayed at home for several months. Being France, the restaurant had to continue paying a significant amount each month, of course.

Fair enough, but then the restaurant found out that the waitress was working at the same job in a different restaurant. This didn’t cheer them up, and culmintaed in them accumulating evidence – witnesses, photographs etc – ready for a court case.

They thought it would be an open-and-shut case. Which it was, because the judge threw it out, saying it was not permitted for individuals to accumulate eveidence in this way, only ‘the proper authorities’.

Last I heard, some time later, the ‘proper authorities’ still hadn’t troubled themselves, the waitress is still working openly in the second restaurant, and the original employers are still paying hundreds of euros in ’sick benefit’ each month. This means that they can’t afford to employ a replacement waitress, and are back to doing all the work themselves.

One third little story. I understand that our region is a development zone, so anyone employing more than about 12 people gets significant grants from either Europe or France, I’m not sure which, to help them stay in business.

So it is virtually impossible to start a new business because of the costs imposed, but meanwhile perfectly successful long-standing businesses get nice handouts which they don’t need.

I wonder if there is something not quite right about this arrangement.

Disclaimer: these stories are all third hand and reported in good faith without elaboration.But it is possible that key information is missing and distorting the truth. I hope so, but I doubt it, given how often I hear them.

Got your own story to tell? Please let me know and I’ll publish it for you in full anonymity. See also these business directory listings for more general advice and support.