But where to go They leave in recognition

Spring of 1997. The founder of Air Liberté, Lofti Belhassine, and his wife plan to leave Montparnasse to escape the hustle and bustle of Parisian life and a tax rate that deprives them of 93 of their income. But where to go They leave in recognition. Three days in Geneva, three in London, and three others in Brussels. French language, good schools, proximity to Paris: capital of Europe wins top hand. Twelve years later, they would regret nothing. Quite the contrary. Seated in the large dining room of their hotel of 1,500 square meters, located two steps from a pond in an opulent area of Brussels, they welcome every day to live here. Should we talk about exile or resort Like them, many French installed in Belgium left France for tax reasons. But there are few, if the wealth tax was removed tomorrow, returning surely to the country. The Belgium, in their eyes, is not a tax haven. It is a short paradise.

French "traumatized" by the tax authorities

Of course, they have come to live in a Kingdom without EWB, without securities capital gains tax, which taxes that symbolically rental income, and takes no right of mutation on securities donations provided that it does not dies within three years. Which allows the "quadra" or "quinqua" having made a fortune to make the shares of their company to a Belgian holding company, for resale then beyond the 19 tax charged in France. Or in the 60s to organize their estate peace of mind. Of course, the tax rules are more flexible in France, here where company vehicles are so taxed that an Audi A4 cost to his driver barely 1,000 euros in tax per year. Where the restaurant are deductible by the companies to 70. Where the pattern can tap into the company cash to fund his country home pool, provided that it reimbursed the prior order of the accounts. Where tax controls, especially, are performed in a much less threatening. "The French who arrive here are traumatized by the tax authorities, explains Bruno Moussoux, fiscal Council of State." At such point that there is something to consider if we tax, we do not have tendency to become fiscanalystes. "Summarize the Belgium to its single taxation would be the caricature. And reduce the causes of a move to a mere exercise of financial optimization would be a little short.

"How much you have to buy a dwelling", would one day asked a real estate agent to a member of the Taittinger family came to settle in Brussels. "Between 6 and 8 million euros", said all GB one. "But it is much too, you will not find." Or then furnished with paintings of master hung on the walls! "Belgian humor Not only. Prices have nothing to do with those of Paris. The offer also. Per metre square, inaccessible within 8,000 or 10,000 euros in the 7th, the 8eou the 16earrondissement of our capital, does not exceed 3,000 or 4,000 euros in Ixelles or Uccle, two of the more expensive neighbourhoods of Brussels, with one as the other 10 French. Indeed, the interiors are so vast that person here, speaks in square metres. We like or don't like. That's all.

And there is what love! In the capital where the town houses are more numerous than the buildings, "The French who arrive looking for rather houses with garden", explains Jean de Kerchove, Director of the real estate agency the Lion, which installs still one or two French per month, against four or five before the crisis. Available budget "Often, 1 to 3 million euros."Much of what acquire this luxurious apartment of 300 square meters, on sale for not more than 1.5 million euros, or even this House of 600 square meters livable avenue Molière, to cede to EUR 3.5 million. With swimming pool covered at the bottom of the garden, it goes without saying.

Easy to move, to Park

Avenue Molière: one of the few "streets to French" Brussels. With the if beautifully treed avenue Lepoutre or, in a few hundred metres from there, the very "bobo" the Châtelain place, they are all located in Ixelles. Here, restaurants to fashion and nearby businesses to live without a car, as in Paris. Place Brugmann, Candide is one of few libraries of Brussels where "The world" is available the same day. 40 Copies leave in the afternoon, plus thirty "Figaro" daily. More eccentric, but more green and especially closer to the European school and the lycée français, the quarters Fort Jaco, Errera or Prince of Orange, at Uccle.

Here, life is also fresh in a town in province, the benefits of a more capital. Easy to park his car, in any case in day - especially if you have a garage at the foot of your hotel! Easy to move despite of transit often destitute both the city, ten times less populated than Paris with only 1 million inhabitants, remained on a human scale. Easy to return to Paris, specifically, because of Ixelles, Brussels-Midi station is only a quarter of an hour of car, and from there to Paris-Nord in only an hour twenty of Thalys - with a departure every half hour. Easy to take advantage of the forest of Soignes, bordering the South of the city, when it is not large parks, more than in Paris, to breathe. "It is as if it had moved the 6th arrondissement of Paris at Rambouillet," summarizes Lofti Belhassine. Cherry on the cake, the sea on one side, the Ardennes, are less than one hour by car.

Welcoming Belgians

Relations with the Belgians, are easy. No need to make an appointment for weeks in advance to meet someone. People are accessible, available, in a friendly Word. Even if it wins. "It still took me two years to feel integrated", recognizes the novelist Anne-Marie Mitterrand, niece of former President and sister-in-law of the current Minister. "I had the first six months a small shot of blues", confesses the wife of an another tax exile who made time to be a circle of friends. "The French, in any case, are not folded on themselves." "They mingle with the Belgians, and they enjoy the cosmopolitan side of Brussels," says Yves de Jonghe of Ardoye, an alderman in charge of culture in the communal house of Ixelles.

There are many restaurants where the French are, as the Canterbury, on the ponds of Ixelles, the Toucan, at the crossing of avenue Lepoutre and the chaussée de Waterloo, Lola, les Sablons, or even the very trend Callens Café at the end of the avenue Louise. The operas at the Theatre de la Monnaie, where it crosses still someone we know. But, of vernissages in dinners, the French became quickly befriended the local bourgeoisie. They pay their contribution to charitable works. Are trade and maintain relations of good neighbourliness with politicians. They become members of the circle of Lorraine or the Gallic circle to speak business. In short, they integrate. Single flat: they are pumped up first place real estate. A Belgian who wanted to sell his mansion prior to the recent French presidential thus seen adviser: "Wait for the outcome of the elections, if the left returns to power, it will take at least 20!"

Sumptuous feasts

It leaves many, were also invited. "We have never less than three or four cocktail parties or dinners per week", says ex-commissaire-priseur Jacques Tajan, who renounced to withdraw in the Southwest on the Adour near Bayonne, to settle within 15 kilometres south of the Grand-Place, in the common Dutch Rhode-Saint-Genèse. Sometimes, it does not hesitate to see great. "We organize celebrations of 300 people for budgets of 150,000 to 200,000 euros, says Patrice Ryelandt, leader of Eventives, a company of event-driven private customer 10 French. But I know that the French organized celebrations in Brussels to budgets exceeding EUR 500 000. "When Anne-Marie Mitterrand took Belgian nationality, it does reproduce the new Passport on the 500 cartons of invitation. And when the Embassy of France in Belgium organises its garden, July 14, 2006 and 2007, Liberty TV, the company that Lofti Belhassine has created here, which sponsors!

Of course, the cultural life is not as dense as Paris. But no matter. As there is largely what make. "There are more than 1,000 exhibitions per year in Brussels, said Jacques Tajan." Not to mention the Royal Museums of fine arts of Belgium, where you can go every day for ten years is discovering each time something new. "Some abuse weekends in Bruges, an hour from Brussels by car. Unless returning to Paris, of course.