Landing in France
Helipat
I have a heli-surface (and a permit) in France (Var)
I thought the limit was 200 /year
I fully agree with your notifying suggestion that may be 'politically' the best. But I would still suggest to make a friendly telephone, or have some related party ask/lobby a bit with the mayor. Also in many villages/small towns the gendarmerie is not always up to speed with air-law, and they could come making time consuming PV's and arguing about fire risk etc.
A lot depends on the local situation : somethimes they allow you to land on the municipal parking (amasing), sometimes half of the authorities track you at airports by phone to verify why you made a landing in the open (emergence stop because of VMC in fact under flight plan and notified to Flight info) : it all comes down to 'neighbour' acceptance...
Things also change : For instance the island of Porquerolle in 2002 : clearance by the navy (was ok, but could take 2-4 hrs), in 2003 : clearance by the prefecture maritime (they asked for what week and started laughing if they heared it was for in a few hours), in 2004 : minimal procedure : just fax all administrative data (licences, insurances etc..) to the hotel.
delta3