This is the tasty starter we had at a restaurant called “At’able” in Chinon.
Oeufs en cocotte.
This was the delicious dessert.
A version of isles flotante.
With our lunch we had a glass of red wine, a Saumur Champigny.
It came from a vineyard called “Château Yvonne” in Parnay.
In honour of our cat Yvonne we felt compelled to fine the vineyard.
The wine was quite pricey so we only bought three bottles to be saved for special occasions. She's a classy cat and she's worth it.
After a month of showery weather the sun has finally returned.
At a local producers’ market in Barrou we got some nice local veg.
And so, off we went to the Préfecture in Tours for our appointments to collect our cartes de séjour. What a shambles that was.
We arrived in good time not expecting a queue now that people are collecting by appointment. How wrong we were. There was a disorganised rabble of people without appointments, hassling the security guard who was giving them short shrift. We waved our printed appointment letters at him but he waved us to the back of the queue. Time was ticking by and we didn't want to miss our slot and risk coming away empty handed.
Being in a crowd of frustrated and confused people all shouting at once was intimidating and uncomfortable. It felt like being in a third world country. At a suitable opportunity Nick took his chance, stepped forward and slipped in front of a tall man who was gesticulating angrily. He shoved our letters under the nose of the guard who glanced at them and passed us on to his colleague who was hiding round the corner. He demanded to see our passports, crossed our names off his list and gruffly told us to deposit all our belongings on a scanner. After that we were in!
There was no queue at the kiosk dealing with the issue of the cards which was staffed by two pleasant young women. The cards were ready and waiting for us, our fingerprints were checked, our timbres fiscal scanned and away we went. We fought our way back out through the crowd at the door and emerged into the street in glorious sunshine two minutes before our appointment time was due.
I couldn't help wondering if these two ladies had any idea of the mayhem going on at the front of the building.
We now have this year's cards, three months after the old ones expired and six months before we have to start the process all over again. We have to do this twice more before we get a ten year visa and some respite from having to go through this. This is the third time and each one has been chaotic. It would be easy to give up and throw in the towel. A few photos of good times helps to remind us why we put ourselves through this aggravation, year after year.
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To explain to anyone who might not understand the process:
When the UK was in the EU British people had the right to live, work and study in France or any EU country without having to get a visa. Brexit took all of that away.
British people who were already living in France before the Brexit deadline could get a ten year carte de séjour (CDS) at any time. Others were able to get a five year "withdrawal agreement" CDS at the last minute, months before the UK left the EU, and although they have a right to stay in France under the WA, assuming they meet certain conditions, those cards are now expiring, and the Préfectures are overwhelmed with extra work. We were not one of those people and applied post Brexit. We have to apply every year for five years, at a cost of 225€ each, and go through this chaotic and stressful process until we qualify for a ten year CDS. (We have friends whose WA CDS expired months ago, who have had no response to their renewal applications, no reply to their emails and there are no appointments available on the Préfecture website to be able to discuss their status with a real person.)
Préfectures are like UK local councils, each one is different and administers the process of immigration in their own way. Some do it much better than others and ours is especially shambolic. The lack of information (combined with the amount of misinformation from other organisations) the inability to engage with them, and being treated like a second class person is ridiculous, immensely stressful and not becoming of a civilised country. If it hadn't been for a completely chance conversation with someone who knew that the process had been changed, we would still be waiting for a text message that was never going to arrive, waiting for a reply to our emails telling us what to do, getting more and more anxious as the weeks went by. There's no wonder people are frustrated and angry.
