The Sun Tax

I’ve often mentioned the high cost of living down here on the Côte D,Azur but I’ve come to realize that it’s the cost of living in France which is the problem, not our sunny little enclave.

And calling it a 'sun tax’ is probably unfair as it’s the retailers and tradesmen who generally benefit, not the Government, although given the high social costs and benefits which prevail in this country as well as the restrictive nature of employment, (i.e. virtually no sackings, multitudes of ‘civil servants’ retiring at 50 on 2/3rds pay including gas, electricity and water workers), you can see how businesses might need to have higher charges to offset their higher costs.

This came home to me the other day after I’d bought my iPhone which came with a call plan. The phone cost me €149 (say £135) and the call plan included unlimited texts and just 2 hours of calls. In the UK, the same phone is free and comes with 10 hours of calls!

A Flymo Lawn Mower is €110 (£100) in our biggest and cheapest DIY store but it’s only £68 in B&Q in the UK.

Rather more mundane, a 2 litre carton of milk from Tesco costs £1.34 (€1.47) but costs €2.15 out here in our nation-wide supermarket. And if you think wine is cheaper, there are so many special deals in UK supermarkets that if I was driving south from the UK, I’d definitely think about bringing down a couple of cases with me.

One of our larger bills however is the local tax bills we get at this time of year. One is called Tax Fonciere which is paid by the homeowner and the other, Tax d’Habitation, is paid by the person who actually lives in the house. As I both own and live in the house, it’s a simple (but expensive) matter to add both together and come up with a bill of over €5200 per annum which is about £4700 a year. Looking up the council tax for an equivalent house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, the bill would be a ‘paltry’ £2560!!

Our beloved but battered Honda CRV would cost €27,700 to replace here but only €24,000 in the UK.

So after all this what price do you put on sun and quality of life? I reckon it costs our family about €8,000 a year more than it would back in the UK – but I think it’s worth every penny, sorry Euro cent.

What price can you put on your children going to school knowing they'll never get bullied or be in a fight? What price do you put on them and us walking around town knowing there'll never be any yobs about causing havoc? What price do you put on the roads being fixed as soon as a pothole appears? And what price do you put on a health care system which whips you into hospital as soon as there's a problem? And finally, what price do you put on raising the shutters each morning and feeling good because the sun is shining? That €8000 is a high price to pay but it's definitely worth it.