A knowing friend who's done it
The move is only the beginning. Pimpernel provides the tools, the honest guides and the plain-English know-how for every stage of British life in France — from the first "should we?" to your tenth year in the village. Nothing to sell you.
Pimpernel isn't just for the move — it's for the whole of British life in France. Start where you actually are.
Curious
Weighing it up? Get the honest reality first — what France really costs, what it takes, and whether it's genuinely for you — before you commit to anything.
Read the honest overview →Committed
Decided? We'll walk you through the whole relocation in the right order — visa, home, healthcare, the lot. Six clear steps, and no paperwork missed.
See the six steps →Settled
The part most guides forget: the admin that never stops, the rules that keep changing, and a knowing friend for all of it — years after you arrived.
Into the Library →What Pimpernel actually is
The move is one part of it. Underneath sits a living reference for the whole practical side of British life in France — kept current, told straight, and yours to return to for years.
The Library
Every corner of French life, explained plainly — the big set-pieces and the small everyday puzzles alike:
Buying property in FranceYour first French tax returnEmergency numbers: who to callThe letter decoder: what that envelope wants Browse the Library →What's changed
French rules and figures change constantly, and the ones that matter rarely make the English-language news. We track what actually affects Britons — plainly:
Residency & citizenship fees up for 2026The carte Vitale goes app-basedNew health contribution for non-workers See what's changed →Free tools
No two situations are the same. Our free interactive walkthroughs map your move to your exact circumstances, not a generic checklist:
Which visa do you need?Buying property, mapped to youGetting into the health systemWhat level of French? Try a walkthrough →Community
Thousands of Britons have walked this exact road, and many are a few steps further down it than you. A place to compare notes, ask the daft questions, and hear how it actually went for someone else.
Find your feet with others →A few to start with
Two dozen honest guides and counting — here are a few, freshly shuffled each visit.
Free tools
Each asks a few questions about your situation and builds you something tailored — your whole arrival plan, your visa, your purchase, a French letter, the tax on an inheritance. Free to use, grounded in our guides, with a human on call for anything that matters.
Start here
Six questions and we build you a sequenced, phased plan for your whole move — tailored to you, every step linked to a full guide.
Build my plan — free →Ask Pimpernel · preview
An assistant that answers only from our vetted guides — with sources, an honest confidence rating, and a human to check anything that matters.
Ask Pimpernel — free →The letter writer
Cancel a contract, give notice, contest a bill — the right layout and formules de politesse, a plain-English summary, and a human to check it before you send.
Write my letter — free →Property
The steps, documents and deadlines for buying a French home — tailored to how you're buying.
Start the walkthrough — free →Visas & residency
Find the long-stay visa that fits your move — visitor, remote worker, family or work.
Start the walkthrough — free →Healthcare
Work out your route in — the S1 for pensioners, your payroll if you work, or PUMA.
Start the walkthrough — free →Language
A2, B1 or B2 — the level the law asks of you depends on what you're applying for.
Start the walkthrough — free →Money
Pick a relationship and an amount and see the allowance, the rate and the tax due under the 2026 rules — including the 60% trap.
Open the calculator — free →Money
Moving pounds to euros? See what a high-street bank costs you versus a specialist — the gap hides in the rate, not the fee.
Open the calculator — free →Reference
Every French admin term — PLU, apostille, RIB, timbre fiscal — decoded, and clickable across every guide.
Open the glossary — free →New to this? Start here
If you're relocating, it happens in a certain order — and doing it out of sequence is what costs people time and money. Here's the whole thing as six steps you can follow from the top, each opening its own tools and guides.
1Deciding→
Before anything else: is this actually the life you want, and can you make it work? We lay out the honest cost of living, the trade-offs nobody mentions, and a map of the whole road ahead — so you go in clear-eyed, not starry-eyed.
Where to start
2Your right to be here→
You can't build a life on a 90-day tourist stamp. This is where you sort the visa that lets you stay, the residence card that follows, and the level of French the system will expect of you — the foundation everything else stands on.
Free tools & guides
3Finding your home→
Rent first or buy straight away? Either way, a French roof comes with French rules — the notaire, the binding compromis, the fees nobody warns you about, and the housing help you might be owed. Here's how to get it right the first time.
Free tools & guides
4Making the move→
The unglamorous logistics that make or break the first month: getting the car over, switching the lights on, finding a phone signal, and covering yourself against the things that go wrong. Small tasks, but the order and the paperwork matter.
Guides
5Settling in→
Now you plug into the systems that make France feel like home: the health service, the dentist, the local school — and the emergency numbers you hope never to need but should know cold. This is where a house becomes a life.
Free tools & guides
6Money & admin→
The move ends; the admin doesn't. Your first tax return, your pension, the bank, and the steady trickle of official letters that never quite stops. Get these rhythms down and French life stops being a series of nasty surprises.
Guides
Pimpernel Pro
Everything you can read here will always be free. Pro is for when you want the move handled for you — your own dated plan, reminders before every deadline that bites, and the wizards tuned to your exact situation. One quiet place that keeps the whole thing on track.
Get early access to Pro →The newsletter
Practical guidance, the regulatory changes that actually affect you, and the occasional thing nobody tells you until it's too late. No spam, nothing to sell.
The guides stay free, always. We'll only use your details to send the newsletter — unsubscribe anytime.