Setting up a Cafe in France

Please advise your recommendations:

1. Planning to set up a take-away cafe in a popular tourist town in Southern France. The people who rented this store before us (friends of ours), made a success and have moved to larger premises in the same town. However, they are pressing for us to sign the rental contract and pay the year’s rent up front - this is not a problem, but just want to know if this payment can be included in the costs, even though this will be paid from my personal bank account (not in France) long before the company is set-up - same question concerning any other expenses made before the incorporation date?

2. My wife & I will be working in the cafe, and we foresee hiring one or two people under a CDD (8 months) - another friend of mine who has a cafe in Paris, will help us with the contracts - The town is busy April to November - Do you think this is OK?

3. I am Irish citizen, my wife non-EU but we have residency in another EU country where I was working previously, but we plan to move to France imminently - The people who had the store before us, have advised to set up as SASU, with a 60/40 split, which enabled the wife (40%) to claim social security payments during the four winter months when they were closed. However, there is a possibility (my wife & I only - no staff) will keep the cafe open during the winter, as there are still a number of visitors but we would have trading limited hours, so I was thinking 50/50 between me & my wife - but will be able to claim to the ACRE social charges exoneration?

4. We want to have health care, so should we start paying ourselves immediately after the business in formed, or wait until we are actually trading.

5. Our friend who has the cafe in Paris, advised to set up the company with a small amount of capital (€5,000) and make personal (director’s loans) to the company for the remainder of the set-up costs, so that these loans can be repaid from profit, prior to taxation - what are your thoughts on this strategy? (I originally was considering €30K capital)

6. The store is very small, in fact more like a kiosk, with nowhere inside for the customers, however, the previous business had a small number of tables & chairs outside. If we decide to also have seating, is there a requirement for a customer toilet? The previous people didn’t have one (there is a staff toilet)

7. Just reading some of your other answers - I already have HACCP certificate in English, so will just need to get this translated - but what about the “permis d’exploitation” - will I need this for a kiosk-type store selling take-away drinks & snacks? If yes, then it looks like this is “Game Over” before it has even started, because our French is not good enough to complete this course (the cafe was primarily targeting foreign tourists, and we have enough French to get by with customer interactions).

Many Thanks.