Alexis Goldberg of the FranceBuyingGuide.com helps readers with their questions about buying and living in France.

If you need a question answering, email france@overseasguidescompany.com

Shortly, my husband and I will be retiring to the south of France. As I am sure you’ll understand, receiving good healthcare is top of our list of priorities. Please can you tell me about the process of signing up to the French healthcare system and what standard of care we can expect to receive?

Thank you very much for your email regarding healthcare in France. First things first, as a British national, you will not have any problem taking up residency in France and once you have done so you will be able to affiliate to the French health system.

The medical facilities in France are first class. There is no waiting, top treatment and most of the hospitals here are modern and up to the minute in terms of equipment and medical care. Once you are resident in France you need to go to your local CPAM office (there are offices in most towns) with your ID, proof of residence, marriage certificate and an S1 form from the Department of Work and Pensions. You will also need a RIB, which you will get when you set up a bank account – this allows you to set up a direct debit. The S1 form is the way that the UK tells France that you are now affiliating to their system.

Following this, you will then be issued with a “carte vitale” which you must take with you whenever you visit the doctor, pharmacy or hospital. The way the system works is that you pay for the treatment (a regular doctor’s appointment is around €23) and medication and then you will be reimbursed for 70 per cent of this by the State via your carte vitale. The remaining 30 per cent is down to you but most people take out top up insurance or “mutuelle” to cover this. The system works well.

I cannot stress highly enough how good the system is here. Once you have your carte vitale you can be confident that you will be well treated. The French have a reputation for being hypochondriacs and as a result, doctors are extremely thorough!

Regarding the cost of the top up insurance, this varies greatly and depends on many factors such as age, medical history, where you are, the extent of the benefit, whether you have a joint policy or not etc. There are many insurers all over France but we would recommend looking at one of the following: Exclusive Healthcare, AXA or Groupama who are all large companies.

It is almost impossible to give a figure for the cost as there are so many variables but most French people take out this top up insurance and it is not a horrendous sum.

For details of properties for sale in France visit the French listings on Rightmove Overseas. One way to save money when buying in France, or moving there, is to use a currency exchange specialist when transferring your pounds into euros. For more information on this, visit the Currency Zone or contact Smart Currency Exchange.

To understand the full step-by-step process to buying a property in France, collect The Overseas Guides Company’s ‘France Property Buying Guide’