Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

LIVING IN FRANCE

Mortgages, drinking and Nice: 6 essential articles for life in France

The strict rules on getting a mortgage in France, passport changes that may affect second home-owners, making your French second home your main one, public drinking laws, language tips from the boss, and secret locations in Nice. These are The Local’s must-reads this week.

Published: 14 April 2024 07:47 CEST
A customer buys bread from a bakery in France
A customer buys bread from one of the smallest bakeries in the world, in La Rochelle. (Photo by XAVIER LEOTY / AFP)

France has fairly strict rules for those seeking a mortgage, including tight limits on minimum income and maximum loan length – here’s how it works.

French property: How to get a mortgage in France

No doubt, you have already heard about the EU’s new Entry and Exit System (EES) which is due to come into effect later in 2024 – if you have questions about it, send them to us and we’ll do our best to find the answers.

Tell us: What are your questions about the EES passport control system?

It’s not uncommon for second-home owners to decide that they want to move to France full time and make their life here – but what are the admin steps that you need to take to make this happen?

Explained: How to convert a French second home into your main residence

Public drinking is relatively common in France – you’ll see people sipping wine and beer in public parks and on the banks of rivers – but even so, you might wonder what is technically allowed by the law.

What are the rules for drinking in public in France?

From the pointlessness of ‘je voudrais’ to the absolute requirement of ‘bonjour’ – and a sneaky future tense hack – our editor Emma Pearson explains crucial differences between school French and actual, real, proper, street French…

6 things I wish my French teachers had told me

Nice, on the French Riviera, is one of France’s most-visited cities, but there’s a lot more to it than the beach and the Promenade des Anglais. Author and Nice resident Jeanne Oliver shares some of her favourite off-the-beaten-track spots.

French Riviera: 10 hidden gems in Nice that tourists miss

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

LIVING IN FRANCE

What are anti-mosquito apps and are they worth using in France?

Anti-mosquito smartphone apps are something of a summer hit in France – but how sound is the science behind them?

Published: 27 June 2024 15:28 CEST
What are anti-mosquito apps and are they worth using in France?

Summer in France is mosquito season. The insistent high-pitched biting pests can be a huge frustration on sultry evenings, and are a major source of revenue for pharmacists and supermarkets selling repellents, creams and insecticide sprays, to those unfortunates who provide a tasty snack for the itch-inducing insects.

Recently, efforts to prevent mosquito attacks have moved into the app sphere. A number of smartphone applications are available that claim to repel mosquitoes by emitting low-frequency sounds from the phone’s speaker. 

READ ALSO: How to prevent the spread of tiger mosquitoes in France

The idea isn’t new. And it is based on actual science. France’s Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm) said that the apps are intended to, “imitate the sound waves produced by the wing beats of … dragonflies. Female mosquitoes, which bite humans, would be repelled by this sound”.

So far, so good. The theory seems sound enough. 

READ ALSO: ‘Put a drop of detergent in the water’ – How to deal with mosquitoes in France?

But there’s a problem. 

“The [sound]waves that could possibly be heard by female mosquitoes are too powerful to be reproduced by a smartphone,” Inserm went on to say.

Possibly to cover themselves, the Anti-moustique insecticide app, available on the App Store, states in its own description: “It has not been scientifically proven that low-frequency sounds can help repel mosquitoes. For this reason, this app should be considered a joke app”.

READ ALSO Life in France: 5 plants that (allegedly) repel mosquitoes

According to Inserm, experts advise against this type of app, “at best because they are useless, at worst because they can provide a false sense of protection”, leading users to neglect other – rather more effective – approaches to protecting themselves from bites.

Anti-mosquito advice

When it comes to repelling the horrible little bastards, the French government does have some official advice.

The main thing is to have as little stagnant water around as possible – since this is where mosquitoes breed.

This includes regularly emptying vases, flower pots, as well as watering cans and pots. If you want to collect rainwater, you could cover water butts with mosquito nets or fabric to keep the mosquitoes from getting inside.

To protect yourself, try to wear long, loose and light-coloured clothing, and use a good quality insect repellent. You might also consider wearing a mosquito net head gear.

A plethora of products exist on the market, from machines that also produce the mosquito repelling noise to scented candles or smoke coils, most of these have at at least some effect, but are unlikely to keep the mossies away entirely.

SHOW COMMENTS