Finding a suitable property for gite and events business.

Hi Valerie,

We’re hoping to move to France next year to start a gite and events business, and once we’re able to travel (currently live in the UK) are hoping to start viewing some potential properties to purchase. We’ve already done some research into this but it would be great to check that our current understanding is correct:
1. Running a gite business from a residential property is always allowed but you would need to register it with your local mairie.
2. If you wanted to convert outbuildings into additional gites, you would need permission from the mairie for a change in usage of the buildings.
3. Running a business solely from gite rental is not generally considered sufficient income, so to be given a business visa it’s likely we would need to have other income streams planned.
4. As our business plan would depend on the property, we’d have to purchase the property before applying for a visa (and hope for the best at that point!)

There are some additional points that we’ve not been able to find much useful information on so far, so are hoping you can help or at least point us in the right direction.
5. We know that each commune has a PLU (most of which I’ve been able to find online for the properties we’ve been looking at) which shows the category the land is in, but as all the details are obviously in french I’ve been struggling a little to understand the restrictions on each category - do the restrictions apply solely to construction of additional buildings on the land, or also for the use of the land such as gites/events?
6. Would a local mairie engage with us to discuss our plans for a property before viewing, or would this have to be done as part of a sale process with the agreement of the vendor?
7. What restrictions are there on running events from a larger residential property, such as weddings? Does the mairie provide this permission, and what sort of things would be taken into account - disturbance to neighbours? Suitable facilities onsite? Parking?

Many thanks in advance.