So you want to Freelance in France?

Want to be freelance journalist in France? Unless your papa is redacteur en chef of le Monde, forget it. The freelance n’existe pas.

Le pigiste, the usual translation for freelancer, is a very different beast, one who, and you need to sit down to read this, has the social security charges pertaining to the earnings of each ’pige’ PAID BY THE EMPLOYER! And if you can persuade them to do that for you on the Daily Extortion, it’s not a freelance journalist that you should become but a freelance God.

There are some ways round this. You could call yourself something other than a journalist - a mug, for example. Or set up your own company and become a chef d’enterprise.

These and the other equally bureaucratic solutions to this very Gallic conundrum are available to members in our popular Sécu Guide. But despite the brilliance of writing and research in the guide, the system (if a dog’s dinner can be called ’a system’) remains largely incomprehensible. Bon courage.