Country Life 22-Mar-2023

New tax Declaration d’Occupation UPDATES to property taxation legislation in France will see all local and overseas owners—including those with second homes and non-residents who are not typically required to submit a French tax return—having to confirm the occupancy of their assets under the new Government rules. Regardless of where in the world they reside, if they are a private owner or involved with a company that itself owns assets in France, they will have until June 30 to declare their interests or risk incurring fines for non-compliance. Home owners should fill out the Declaration d’Occupation form found at www.impots.gouv.fr and declare who is living in the property as of January 1, 2023. Over the past few years, France has been working towards phasing out its taxe d’habitation (occupancy tax) for all properties…

FROM the European Grand Tours of the 18th century to more modern pilgrimages, there is a long-standing tradition of literary ideas flourishing far from home. Ian Fleming wrote several James Bond novels from his Jamaican island retreat; Gerald Durrell’s childhood memories of his four years on Corfu sparked his career as a writer; and George Orwell’s time spent living firstly in Paris, then fighting in the Spanish Civil War subsequently found its way into both his non-fiction writing and, more obliquely, his novels. There are even authors who were unable to write about their home countries until they had left them—James Joyce being the most famous example. His best-known work, Ulysses, chronicles a day in the life of Leopold Bloom as he wanders around Dublin, but Joyce penned the book…

ON a spring day in 1920, Joan Miró found his way to Pablo Picasso’s studio on the Rue de la Boétie, in Paris. For this much-anticipated first meeting, the young Catalan artist came armed with a cake, at the behest of Picasso’s mother, who was an old family friend. It would appear both artist and gift were well received, as Picasso soon took the fellow Spaniard under his wing, introducing him to the city’s avant-garde circles and even buying one of his self-portraits. During this period, the pair of would-be titans were experimenting with entirely new ways of seeing the world. Unbridled by any particular style or medium, they interrogated the principles of Surrealism, abstraction and the power of the unconscious. As Picasso married neo-Classical sensibilities with Cubist theories, Miró…

THE composer picks out a melody on the piano. It’s stirring—and sweetly sultry. ‘What do you think?’ he calls over his shoulder to the music journalist. ‘Awful,’ says the critic. Giuseppe Verdi smiles, scribbling the excerpt onto the manuscript. ‘Excellent—if you hate it, that means the people will love it!’ This much-quoted exchange—whether real or imagined—casts Verdi as the people’s composer, a role ascribed to him due to the widespread popularity of his music, which was created against a backdrop of political repression in pre- and post-Unification Italy. It isn’t only Italians who love his music—Verdi’s operas have become some of the most staged works in the repertory; barely a season goes past without the likes of Rigoletto, Aida or La Traviata appearing at the Royal Opera House (ROH) in…

IN recent decades, the French farmer has regarded his British counterpart in much the same way a puritan looks upon mud-wrestling. It was not always so. For a large part of the 19th century, the agricultural community of France was gripped by rampant Anglophilia. Inspired by that Georgian agricultural wonder the Ketton Ox, French landowners imported bulls from Co Durham and brought over the famous rams bred by Robert Bakewell at Dishley in Leicestershire to impregnate their flocks. British livestock was bigger, grew faster and ate less. The French had nothing to match it. Not then, anyway. The situation was changed by two decades of disaster. Over a 15-year period, beginning in about 1863, the phylloxera blight would destroy 40% of French vines and, in 1870, the Franco-Prussian War overthrew the…

Santorini, €4.85 million (£4.27m) Located in the picturesque hilltop village of Pyrgos Kalisti, the Harpa estate comprises an elegant private villa and a perfectly formed boutique hotel. With only four bedroom suites, each with private terraces, the hotel would easily convert into a private residence. The charming stone-fronted villa features a master-bedroom suite, a fully equipped kitchen and a generous open-plan living/dining space. Outside, the heated pool and shaded dining area offer sweeping views across the charming countryside and out to sea. Sotheby’s International Realty (00 302 10 968 1070; www.sothebysrealty.gr) Kea, €1.2 million (£1.05m) Boasting panoramic views of the Aegean, this hilltop villa occupies a commanding position on the charming island of Kea, the nearest inhabited Cycladic island to Athens. Built in traditional style from local stone and kitted out with all…