Setting up new business - what category?

Valerie

I have, with my husband, rebuilt a ruined house on the Cotentin during various school holidays since 2000.

Since 2015 my husband has been a registered artisan micro-entrepreneur part-time in France and part time employed in the UK, you helped him establish this via BGE in Cherbourg (he says thank you very much indeed).

I had a full time job in the UK until March this year, when I took early retirement and my professional pension. My husband has also this year taken his UK professional pension. We are both 60.

We have always spent less than 183 days in France and my husband has paid income tax in France as a non-resident. He continues to work part time on-line for a UK based university and part-time as artisan in France.

We are in the process of moving to our French home permanently and have sold our UK house - completion of the sale in September. We will be permanently resident here from mid-september.

I want to establish two businesses.

I am an artist and have produced a collection of cards and prints of my work. I want to start trading these as soon as possible. I understand that there are specific categories of how I present myself i.e. as an artist, or as a trader in greetings cards & prints, or as a producer of greetings cards,  which impact on how, what and seemingly, even whether I can set my business up.

I also intend to use part of our house as a gite from spring/summer 2021. I am a qualified teacher and specialised in early years and special needs education professionally. One of my ideas in the longer term, is to set up the gite up as a family holiday home, particularly for parents with children with special needs. In the short term just as a seasonal gite.

I am looking to be micro entrepreneur for either activity.

I need some advice regarding:

1. What I am allowed to set myself up as - what are the qualification requirements – for myself as an artist or as a trader?
2. Will I need to undertake the same week-long course my husband did in 2015?
3. Is this on-line, or, do I have to attend a specific venue?
4. How can I book a course?
5. Do I need to do this first or are there other formalities which I need to attend to first?
6. Do the BGE still provide a free support service? – I have B1/B2 level French.

Thanks in advance.