IL Postcard

Toddlers, Taxation, and Subterfuge

Date: 06/18/2007

With days at their longest, you know that the annual music festival can’t be far away. There will be music in the air all over France on June 21 for the 26th Fête de la Musique. Come evening in Paris, free concerts in every arrondissement will be yours for the taking. Check out what’s going on in France (and elsewhere in Europe) by looking at www.fetedelamusique.culture.fr, or www.paris.fr for the Paris program. But that’s only half the story—the reason that this special event has taken off is that it’s a free-for-all for any budding musician. Wander the high street of any town and you’ll come across countless impromptu jamming sessions—the artistes may even invite you to join in.

Music is not the only reason to be in Europe, however, and this week I invite you to read on for more about the attractions of visiting Paris with children, the home cooking of Le Marche, and exploring Portugal’s “silver coast.”

Enjoy,

Leigh Fergus
Editor, The European

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Five tips for toddling around Paris

by Carmen Jenner

The French are a welcoming people, especially when it comes to les petits enfants. But if you shudder at the thought of dragging your young children around endless monuments in the capital, then read on, and you might just change your mind.

1. Water babies
Paris’ most popular water park is Aquaboulevard, with its wave pool, water slides, and grassed area. In summer, Paris-Plage never fails to excite with its makeshift beach along the river Seine. And if the day is too cool to get wet, then visit the creatures of the sea at the Palais de la Porte Dorée aquarium.
Aquaboulevard, Metro: Balard (line 8) or Porte de Versailles (line 12). $24.
Palais de la Porte Dorée. Metro: Porte Dorée. $11 (per family).

2. Parks
Paris boasts a plethora of parks and gardens, but two child-friendly favorites are the Luxembourg Gardens and the Jardin d’Acclimatation. With its marionette shows, playground, carrousel, outdoor café, controlled model boats sailing in the lake, sand and water pits, and donkey rides, the Luxembourg Gardens are popular with locals and tourists. And its central location ensures you’ll be back more than once. The Jardin d’Acclimatation in the Bois de Boulogne is less central, but this cross between a zoo and an amusement park makes the trip worthwhile. It includes a children’s theater as well as circus, pony club, mini railway, and boats.
Luxembourg Gardens. RER: Luxembourg. Free admission.
Jardin d’Acclimatation. Metro: Porte Maillot or Porte Dauphine. Free admission.

3. Scientific yearnings
Another park worth exploring is Parc de la Villette, specifically for its science museum: Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie. The Cité des Enfants section caters well to the three- to five-year-old set, with hands-on activities illustrating many aspects of science and modern technology. Little ones won’t mind returning to play with the regularly changing activity-type exhibits—assembling buildings on a miniature construction site, experimenting with sound and light, manipulating robots, racing their own shadow, and superimposing their image on a landscape.
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie at Parc de la Villette. Metro: Porte de la Villette. $10.

4. Young Picassos
The Pompidou Centre ensures great views from its caterpillar escalators that creep on the outside of this inside-out structure. Downstairs, the Atelier des Enfants interactive children’s gallery gives kids a taste of modern art as they touch and play with the exhibits, or attend a workshop. If cabin fever strikes, outside the front of the gallery is a large plaza with street performers, including musicians, fire-eaters, and artists. If you prefer classical art, then the Louvre also organises special sessions to introduce children to various aspects of art.
Pompidou Centre Metro: Rambuteau or Châtelet or Hotel de Ville. RER: Châtelet-Les-Halles. $13.
Musée du Louvre. Metro: Palais Royal or Musée du Louvre. RER: Châtelet-Les-Halles. $11-17.

5. Theme parks
When your kids get older and discover that you didn’t take them to Euro Disney, they may be a tad disappointed. However, this is a BIG day out. Preparation is the key to success here as you wait in endless queues to watch the kids spin around in a teacup for a few minutes. Be sure to head straight for Fantasyland, as it caters well to the little ones. Not far from the Charles de Gaulle airport, Parc Astérix, which centers around the world of Asterix the Gaul, includes six themed "worlds" that feature gladiators, slave auctions, and rides.
Disneyland Paris. RER: Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy. $63 for a day pass.
Parc Asterix: RER: Charles de Gaulle Airport, then shuttle bus. $47 per adult for a day pass.
US$1 equals 0.74 Euro

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Taxation of real estate sales in France

by Sam Okoshken (Member of NY and Paris Bars)

We anticipate some refreshing legislative policy changes under President Sarkozy’s initiative. However, the set of tax rules that will probably not change appreciably, as they have recently been revamped, are the capital gains rules affecting sales of French real estate.

What’s the rate?
Let’s start with the capital gains tax rate. What rate do you pay if you sell your French property? It depends on where you reside: the rate is 16% for residents of EU countries (except France), 27% for residents of France (the sale of your principal residence in France is totally tax-free), and 33.33% for non-EU residents, such as U.S. residents. Americans must also report the capital gain to the U.S., using U.S. capital gains rules, but they can write off the French tax against the 15% U.S. tax.

Figuring appreciation
How is the French tax on appreciation calculated? You can work out the gain by subtracting your sales proceeds from your cost. Special rules apply to what categories of capital improvements can be taken into cost in computing the gain. The rules are detailed, but generally speaking, only major structural changes and improvements affecting your enjoyment of the property, such as heating or air conditioning, are counted. Bills and receipts must be produced to justify these expenses. After the fifth year of ownership, a 15% flat addition to cost in lieu of proof of actual expenditures is possible. In short, the French rules are less liberal than the U.S. rules.

A sweetener offered by the new law is that, beginning after the fifth year of ownership, the amount of your taxable gain is reduced by 10% per year. This means that, if you sell in the eighth year of ownership (i.e., after seven full years), the taxable portion of the gain is only 80% (10% per year tax-free for the sixth and seventh years). After 15 years of ownership, you pay no capital gain tax at all. Of course Americans still have their U.S. tax to worry about, along with another concern: They must translate the purchase price, any improvements they’ve made, as well as the sale price, into U.S. dollars, so in periods of a falling dollar, the capital gain in dollar terms may be much larger than in euro terms.

[ Editor’s note: Sam Okoshken is an American lawyer practicing in Paris. For further information, contact him by e-mail at: Samuel@Okoshken.com ]

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Portugal’s Silver Coast: Sardines and skullduggery in Nazare

by Steenie Harvey

If anybody had said fishwives still exist in modern-day Portugal, I would have scoffed. But they do. Clad in thick woolen socks, head-scarves, bunched skirts, and pinafores, more than a few old ladies in Nazare seem determined to keep some of their traditional ways intact.

With a glorious sandy beach (the Atlantic coast has dozens), Nazare is both a summer resort of apartments, and a proper fishing town of narrow alleys and old houses. You’ll see small fish like sardines and horse mackerel getting gutted right on the beach, then hung out to dry on racks. Much to my disappointment, only a couple of fishwives were still at work when I arrived mid-morning. If visiting on a day-trip, get here as early as possible.

Hole-in-the-wall eateries
If you enjoy sardines, follow your nose into the backstreets. I can’t give you the name—the place I tried had no name—but numerous hole-in-the-wall eateries offer four plump sardines for 5 euro ($6.50) and a half bottle of white wine for a very reasonable 3.30 euro ($4.30). The sardines are grilled outside as you’re watching.

I much prefer Nazare to Figueira da Foz. Certainly in late March, it seems far more alive. But a warning: I’m told you can’t move here for bodies on the beach during August...and also that it’s almost impossible to find a parking space.

Savvy travelers park on the cliffs at the Sitio sanctuary and then take the funicular back down to Nazare. From the Sitio, the views along the coast are reputedly awesome. But before I could get up there to see for myself, I was waylaid by a real estate agent....

Subterfuge
Now, here’s where I need to admit to subterfuge. Except for in Leiria, this trip has been marked by realtors who don’t speak English; offices where the English speaker is missing; agents who aren’t prepared to show properties to a nuisance writer. I’ve had this problem in Portugal before—and also found the perfect way to resolve it.

Although I don’t enjoy acting underhand, I’ve transformed myself into a prospective buyer. Imatico advertises that they speak English on their door, so that’s the agency I try. Even though I explain I’m not a big-money client, the attitude here couldn’t be more cordial.

To test their mettle, I explain that, although I’m prepared to go a bit higher, I’m looking for an apartment with a sea view for under 100,000 euro ($130,000). Agent Ana Rodrigues explained how that's now difficult to find in this area. However, she took me to check out Sao Martinho do Porto, a few miles south of Nazare. Almost enclosed in a cove, it has a shell-shaped beach and some fairly reasonable property buys...

For example: Apartamentos Turisticos overlooking Sao Martinho do Porto’s bay. This complex has its own reception, gym, indoor swimming pool, and café/restaurant. One-bedroom apartments (42 to 58 square meters) are from $144,000 to $190,000. The best value lies in the countryside. The agency currently lists a restored two-bedroom house near Tomar for $176,000. And if you're happy with teeny-weeny, a 56-square-meter cottage at Familicao (8 miles from Nazare) is $106,000.

P.S. Read more about Steenie’s travels in Portugal in the July issue of International Living magazine.

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Sampling the cucina of Le Marché

by John Szabo, master sommelier

Some of the most dramatic seaside scenery of the Adriatic can be found on the Riviera del Conero, the section of coastline beneath the limestone peak of Monte Conero south of Ancona. With all the charm of Tuscany or Umbria, this is also where you want to go to find la cucina tipica.

Inquire with the locals about their sagra, a festival dedicated to the town’s culinary specialty. During these feast days, townspeople and accidental tourists come together for several days to revel on dishes prepared not in restaurants but in home kitchens. Some of the specialties you are likely to encounter include olive ascolani (spectacularly tasty, deep-fried, meat-stuffed olives), coniglio in porchetta (rabbit cooked with fennel), suckling pig, stuffed pigeons, tender young lamb, mountain-cured ham ( prosciutto di caregna) to rival the very best from parma, and formaggio di fossa, a strong-flavored cheese aged in underground caves.

More meat…and fish
If your travels fall outside of the local sagra, you are still in luck as most restaurants are relatively inexpensive and simple but of more than reliable quality. The vast majority draw strictly on local and seasonal ingredients, and even the haute restaurants aim to prepare dishes just like nonna used to make rather than fuss about with elaborate, over-wrought creations.

Though the Marchigiani statistically eat more meat than any other Italians, there is an abundance of seafood and shellfish delivered straight from fishing ports up and down the coast. The preparations are usually simple but delicious. Fish and shellfish are often served raw with a drizzle of superb local extra-virgin olive oil, a drop or two of lemon, and aromatized with fresh local herbs. Ask for a plate of this pesce crudo and expect quality that would make many sushi chef envious. Just be sure to avoid August, however, as most of the fishermen take their holidays then as does the rest of Italy.

Eat like a local:

• Giacchetta, Via Portonovo 171,60020 Ancona; tel. 071-801384/8. This restaurant at the foot of the imposing Monte Conero is one of the most highly regarded seafood specialists on a coast known for fine Adriatic fish and shellfish. The catch of the day arrives at the beach a couple of dozen yards or so from the restaurant's main entrance, and is on your table usually before your aperitif is finished.

• Hosteria San Floriano,Via F. Conti 2,Jesi (AN); tel. 0731.53028. If your tastes run more toward inland fare, don't miss San Floriano's signature "coniglio in porchetta”—succulent suckling pig rolled around tender rabbit and finely aromatized with local herbs. A table downstairs in the cellar almost demands consumption of a well chilled bottle of the local Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi.

Sleep like a monk:

• San Domenico, Piazza Rinascimento, 3- 61029 Urbino (PU)—a 14th-century monastery.

…or a farmer:

• Fosso del Lupo, Via Monte Tomba 10 (Scotaneto), 61029 Urbino—farmhouse accommodation in Urbino.

…or a duke:

• Il Casale,Via Casale Superiore 146, 63030 Colli del Tronto; tel. 0736.814720; e-mail: info@hotelcasale.it. A stunning hotel on an unspoiled hillside in the southern part of Le Marche. The rooms are spacious and well appointed, each with a balcony overlooking the fountain in the central courtyard or out onto the vine and olive tree-covered hills beyond.

P.S. Follow the old Roman Via Salaria, or “Salty Way” inland from the former salt fields on the Adriatic coast, which leads all the way to Rome. So important was this commodity to the Romans that legionnaires were often paid in salt, and hence gave us our English word “salary.”