A century ago, France was having difficulty attracting tourists because of competition from Germany and Austria and because, as they recognised, the standards of their tourist facilities were often not very good.

So in 1910 the French Government had an idea. Introduce a tax on tourists – called a taxe de sejour – and spend the money on improving matters. The money raised by a commune could be used by that commune. Hence the taxe de sejour is a charge levied on everyone who visits the commune and stays in hotels, holiday rentals, camping etc, and is charged per person per night.

Now I would have thought that if you are having trouble attracting visitors then the last thing you want to do is start taxing those that do come, but that was the decision they made.

Moving forwards 98 years. I understand that a lot of communes no longer charge the taxe de sejour, but our commune does. In fact they have just doubled the rate we have to pay, from 15 cents per visitor per night to 30 cents per visitor per night. So about 13 euros per week on a holiday rental property sleeping six people.

So the amounts involved aren’t huge, but I object strongly on principle to this tax for a bunch of reasons. Mostly because the town and region benefit greatly from tourism, both directly from holiday makers spending money in shops and restaurants, and indirectly from the extra jobs that tourism supports in the region and the extra money it puts in everyone’s pockets. I do not think that tourists should be charged for coming here!

The rate is set by the local council, who say it makes no difference to us, because we just pass the cost on to visitors. Errr, even my poor knowledge of economics tells me that’s not right. If we have to charge the taxe de sejour and the next commune doesn’t, then we are less competitively priced – so they will stay elsewhere. So our total cost has to be the same, more or less, as other similar holiday accommodation, regardless of whether we have to pay a taxe de sejour.

I’ll leave questions about whether they really use the money to improve the commune to one side for the moment (I’m sure you can guess). I’ll also leave aside the question of how a council can be allowed to increase a tax by 100% in a year.

And I’ll ignore the scandalous suggestion that someone made to me – that because it is a farming community and the council members are mostly farmers, that the easiest charge for them all to approve is the one that doesn’t affect farmers.

But what about increasing a tax retrospectively? Locally they increased the tax for 2008 – at the end of 2008. So even if we wanted to charge people who stayed here it is too late. I would have thought there is a fundamental rule that taxes can’t be increased ‘after the event’ – what if the government suddenly announced that the income tax rate was 50% instead of 25%, and backdated to the beginning of 2008? Is that really allowed?

I don’t often get all hot and bothered about such things – it wouldn’t be possible to live in France and get too bothered about increasing taxes and charges. But this time they are bringing out my revolutionary fervour – and much as the ’salt tax’ once helped push France to revolution, I can see the day coming when I’ll be barricading the streets, setting fire to haybales, and singing the Marseillaise as I march on Paris.

Alone if necessary.