It's not that closed. The truth is, anyone can be a notary if he is rich enough. Financing to buy oneself in is regulated and ultimately provided by Caisse des Depots, which requires a 30% down payment. Actually, it is possible to find small provincial Etudes that you can buy for 300k€ (and probably much less pretty soon), so a down payment of 100 k€. But these require that you actually do some work yourself (yuk) to stay in the black. Whereas a nice spot Rue des Pyramides is like a 30% coupon bond guaranteed like state (10% net after tax and amortization), on offer to any bourgeois who can put a million euro down. The shop will be big enough to run itself.

Pierre