FIRST IMPRESSIONS

We are on our way back from the UK and have rented a gîte near Honfleur for a few days.

The journey was typically gruelling on the UK side.  We were up at 4.30am to pack up and set off at 6.00 and by then the motorways were already busy, at least fifty percent of the traffic being lorries or vans in a hurry to get to work on a Monday morning.  After five hours of relentlessly hard driving we arrived at the tunnel to find the car park packed.  This has led us to another observation about the non benefits of Brexit.

At both terminals, i.e. Calais and Folkestone, there have been massive changes to the infrastructure.  Not the rolling stock, which is the same as when the tunnel first opened thirty years ago, but to the car parking and buildings.  This is to provide for all the checking and stamping of passports, the biometrics (fingerprints and photos) necessary since Brexit.  No wonder our tickets cost three times as much as before; the money for all this has to come from somewhere.  Pre Brexit (PB) we could buy a frequent travellers ticket, paid for in advance it provided ten crossings at around £50 each, so a round trip for £100.  It now costs a minimum of £300 per round trip, depending on the time of travel.

And yet, although the terminal was rammed with people both ways, the trains were leaving less than full, because even with all this new infrastructure and effort that’s gone into shuffling carfuls of passengers around, the customs officers were not fast enough to get people through and onto the trains on time.  Timings were all over the place and basically any car that was ready was being waved through into the endless queue for passport control.

All so pointless, too, thanks to Brexit and the electorate’s paranoia about foreigners. 

Anyway, first impressions of the gîte are that it’s one of the best we have ever had.  Nicely furnished, comfortable and with a perfect private enclosed garden for Hugo.  We’re looking forward to exploring Honfleur itself later today.  

THE CATCHER AND THE EARRINGS

Well the tooth is gone.  Our UK dentist is marvellous.  His name is Michael and he's a very grounded, no nonsense kind of person and after a degree of fairly dramatic pushing, shoving and waggling, which seemed to last for ages but was probably only a few seconds, the tooth was out.

"Eee I am good" he exclaimed as he waved it in front of me.  I was pleased about that, as it meant that it had come out in one piece without the need for any digging, which had been my worry.  "Little bugger!" I said, looking at the bloody molar. (Literally.)

"You can faint now!" he said, with a cheeky grin.  He explained that many people get so worked up about having a tooth out that they faint once it's all over.  I can understand that, it's a pretty brutal business.  That's when it occurred to me why there were two dental nurses in the room instead of the usual one.  The taller one was probably there to act as catcher.  

Luckily I'm not the fainting type.  Anyway, I had to stay vertical in order to drive home.  I was back home only half an hour after leaving for the appointment.  Marvellous.

He gave me a leaflet about aftercare and some instructions saying that the socket would heal perfectly well.  "Things go wrong when people mess with it" he said.

However, I did feel a bit fragile and needed some paracetamol once the local anaesthetic had worn off.  Sitting outside in the shade at teatime I was glad for a visit from our robin who kept me company.

When we first moved to our second French house, when it was mainly a second home, I took my vast collection of beads there.  They rarely got used because we were there in summer when there were other things to do.  So we moved them back to the UK where I would happily tinker away with them over the dull winter months.

Now of course we spend the winters in France and my beads are still in the UK.  Having lugged them across the Channel twice, there and back again, and with the complexities of Brexit, I don't feel inclined to take them to France again but I do miss them.  Feeling rather battered and bruised yesterday afternoon I decided it was a good time to tackle one of the sorting jobs that's been on my mind for ages.  When we are only in the UK for a short time I often do little repair and alteration jobs and it inevitably involves rummaging through boxes without the time to tidy things up afterwards.  Hence a box full of random bits and pieces that needed sorting.  I tipped them all out onto the dining table and sorted them.  It was very satisfying in a mindless way that took my mind off the morning's drama.

And so I have been able to do some alterations to a friend's earrings.  She has three pairs that were a gift from someone and she loves them but the ear hooks make her ears sore.  She obviously has an allergy to nickel or whatever metal they are made of.  My idea was to change the gold coloured mounts for sterling silver ear hooks in such a way as to create the same length of drop or dangle.  That way she can still wear them without getting sore ears.  Playing with my beads again has been great fun.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing it.

WELL THAT’S IT FOR ANOTHER YEAR….THANK GOODNESS.

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.  

ANOTHER SUNSET

 

As the sun sets on another day in the middle of France we think about our future.

The SMS from the Préfecture inviting us to go and collect our cartes de séjour has still not arrived after almost six weeks.

We think it's unlikely that they are not ready, that they have not actually been manufactured yet.  Our 2024 cards were ready within two weeks but the message to collect them was sent to the wrong number.  We finally collected them after they had been sitting at the Préfecture for eleven months.  Our 2025 cards were ready within two weeks and we collected them promptly.  We think it's likely that this year's cards are ready but the text has not been sent to the right number, if at all, or the text has gone missing into the ether, as they sometimes do.

An SMS seems a very insecure and unreliable method to use for such an important thing as residence cards, even more so that there is no procedure to follow up uncollected cards.  With text messages there is no indication whether a message has been read.  So, we have sent an email to the Préfecture asking, very tactfully, in "would your dog like my breakfast" tones, if they are ready and if an SMS could be resent.   We are advised that when contacting the Préfecture it's important to imply that any fault is ours, not theirs!  Email is the only avenue of contact and you can't get into the Préfecture without showing the SMS on your phone to the security guard on the door.  We expect to get some kind of reply in a couple of weeks but are not hopeful that it will be helpful.

Lately, we have been thinking about our future in France.  The house we have here would be difficult to manage if there was just one of us, or if one of us needs help and care.  We have come to the conclusion that, like many of our friends, we will have to either downsize to something more manageable in our old age, or return to the UK, where we already have a small house perfect for an old couple or, importantly, an old person on their own.

Lately, several of our friends have put their French homes up for sale to return to the UK.  Mostly it's the need to be near to family as they get older.  For one it's the hassle of managing an old property by themselves as a widow.  

For us there is another dimension, a direct result of Brexit, that we do not have the right to live here and have to go through this palaver (and expense) of re-applying for residence cards every year.  After we have had five one-year residence cards we should get a ten-year card.  That would be in 2028.  Which means that by the time we would have to renew that we would be well into our eighties and that could easily be one thing too much to cope with.  

The health service in France is excellent, better than in the UK, but living out in the sticks if there was just one of us would be very hard.  Not to mention that sooner or later we would almost certainly not be able to drive.

The thought of giving up our place in France and returning full time to the UK has filled me with dread but we would have to do it while we are still physically and mentally capable of doing it.  We don't want to find ourselves in the position of being forced to do it at a time when we are unable to cope.  So, we have come up with an alternative plan.  We are going to sell this house and look for a small holiday home.  We would become UK residents again but having a small house in France, somewhere in the same general area, that we could use for holidays or a month or so at a time.  Back to where we started.  Once we felt unable to make the journey we could sell that, or leave it to family, or just walk away from it.

We love this place, love this house and the life here and don't want to give it up, but have to have a plan for the future while we still have options and can cope with a move.  We are conscious that we shouldn’t leave it until it’s too late. 

SPRING IS SPRUNG AND GOOD NEWS

During my busy week in the UK where the weather was cold, grey and wet, Spring arrived chez nous in France.  Whilst I was dodging heavy rain showers to do various errands, Nick was beavering away with the bathroom modifications and taking his breaks outside in 20°C sunshine.  Winter just suddenly ended.

Once back in France I was able to enjoy it all myself, eating lunch outdoors and sitting out in the evenings until the bats had come out to play and to hear the owls, foxes and other nightlife.

The bathroom is coming along.  Demolition of the previous wall, rebuilding of the new wall and the new floor have been completed.  The plumbing was held up by having to do a tour of numerous DIY shops to find the right bits.  Only once the old sink and loo were removed was it clear exactly what bits were needed.  The old loo had been glued to the floor and not screwed down, an interesting DIY approach but not entirely unexpected in this house!  The plumbing part is now done, leaving tiling, woodwork, finishing off and decorating to be done.  

One of the challenges of life in rural France is that although there are plenty of DIY shops around, they are all at least a half hour drive away and they close for two hours minimum at lunchtime.  Hence timing is everything.  The compensation is that it can usually involve lunch somewhere, waiting for the shop to open or on the way home!  

It took us a whole day to find the few tiles that we needed for a splash back for the sink.  A tour of all the local shops ended in disappointment, as none of them actually had anything we liked in stock.  Eventually we went to the posh tile shop in Tours and after a rummage through their "fin de serie carrelage" (discontinued tiles) came away with a box of the perfect tiles at a bargain price.

 

Since my return I've been on dog walking, cooking and housework duty.  The walking has been a joy in the gorgeous spring weather.

In "other news" we were thrilled and relieved to hear from the Préfecture two days ago that our applications to renew our cartes de séjour have been approved.  It seems that this year everything has gone through pretty seamlessly and more or less on time.  With the email came our "decision favourable", the document we can print off and use for travel until we get the actual cards.  (This is the document we used to travel for a whole year in 2024 because we didn’t get the text message summoning us to collect the actual cards.)  This year we should have them only a couple of weeks after the current ones expire, which is today!

We expect to get the text in a week or so, to make the trip to the Tours, queue up at the Préfecture, pay our 450€ and then, with the precious cards safely in our wallets, enjoy a celebratory lunch somewhere.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

February may well be the shortest month in the year but in many ways it often seems like the longest.  The weather this February has been just as bad, if not worse than last year and we are more than ready for some sunshine.

However, the entertainment machine doesn't stop just because the weather is awful and although February was not quite as busy as January we certainly had some fun.

On 14th February, St. Valentine's Day, we hosted a ladies night.

Finding somewhere to eat on Valentine's Day where you are not surrounded by tables for two with couples gazing dreamily into each other's eyes, subdued lighting so that you can't see what you're eating (never mind read the menu), flowers on the table that bring on your allergies and cringeworthy soppy music, can be tricky if not impossible.  Not to mention the silly prices.

So, we invited some of our single friends round for an evening of friendship, food and fun.  We did a retro 1970's  menu and a quiz (with prizes) on the subject of Valentine, love, hearts and roses.  It was great fun and could easily become an annual event.

Only a few days later we went to a Chinese New Year event.  It's the year of the horse and dressing up was (as usual) encouraged.

Nick dressed up as a jockey.  All we needed was a pair of long johns to complete the outfit.

I dressed up as a stable hand.  All props model's own (although Nick's best green wellies).

We are however, somewhat on tenterhooks.  This time last year we were fast becoming nervous wrecks as our applications to renew our cartes de séjour went pear shaped.  You can read all about that here.

We applied much earlier this time, fourteen weeks before expiry date in fact.  The very earliest you can apply is sixteen weeks before the cards expire - which is in two weeks from now.

Yesterday, twelve weeks after we applied, we received our "prolongations".  These are the documents that extend the period of the visas by three months - three months that the Prefecture gives itself to consider the application.  The good thing about the document is that it restores our right to live in France and, importantly, to return to France after a visit back home to England, for three months beyond the period of the visa.  (Something we never had to even think about when Britain was in the EU.)

You have to wonder why bother to apply almost four months before if nothing is going to be done until they have almost expired anyway!

The prolongations came with, as anticipated, some questions.  This time they were straightforward, easy to answer and carried no threat of refusal.  However, in the coming three months there's time for all that but we're trying to be positive.

To celebrate the step forward we went for lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Le George in Loches.  The "menu du jour" there is always delicious, only a couple of euros more than the mediocre menus served at a number of other places, and the ambience and service are excellent.

We were conscious that this is where we were last year when the phone call came from the lady at France Services telling us we had to sort the problem out quickly or we could be deported.

This year, we do feel somehow more relaxed.  Fingers crossed that this time it goes smoothly, that we get our "décision favourable" and cards sooner, and that we don't have quite so many sleepless nights worrying about what we would do if the Prefecture said "non".

(They have no grounds on which to say "non" but the computer programme dealing with applications last year thought otherwise.  Let’s hope they have fixed that.)

A TABLE EXTENSION

Two tables end to end to seat ten people.

When we bought our first house in France it was a tiny place but perfect as a second home or "holiday home".  We struggled to find furniture for it in France and soon realised that we could end up spending much of our actual holidays trying to furnish it. 

Over our first winter of owning the little house we collected furniture for it in the UK, sofas from Ikea, flatpack bedroom furniture and a lovely oak dining set in the January sales including a four seat table that would extend to six.  We hired a van and transported the lot across the channel at Easter 2008, picking up extra beds for the second bedroom and cramming them into the van on the way through France.

After a few years we downsized in the UK in order to upsize in France. The new UK house was much smaller and very little of our existing furniture would physically fit into it so we brought it all to France.  This included our dining table, sideboard and four chairs, meaning that we now have two dining sets in France.  

"Casual dining" in the kitchen.

The old UK table works well in the kitchen where Nick refers to it as "casual dining" and the oak set from the little house lives in the dining end of our living room where it serves as "formal dining" and comfortably seats six.  It’s a solution that has worked well for years and we really like it.  

As our circle of friends has grown we have been entertained by people who have the ability to throw large dinner parties or lunches where they could seat eight, ten or even more people.  We're not talking posh château dining, but people who have the room to fit in a big old table, or multiple small tables, and a random collection of chairs.  

After a while I began to wonder if we could do larger gatherings ourselves.  Our dining table seats six comfortably and we found that by putting the kitchen table at the end of it we could seat ten.  The only problem was that to get the kitchen table into the dining room we had to heave it out of the house through the kitchen door and back in through the middle door as it would not physically fit through the door between the two rooms!

It was heavy work, adding a lot of time to the hosting of any dinner party and in fact we missed having the kitchen table into the kitchen for food prep so we had to come up with another solution.  

One extension to seat an extra two people.

When we bought this house the large bedroom was also being used as an office.  There was a desk made from a couple of lengths of fairly sturdy kitchen worktop which we saved when we dismantled the office.  Having a huge barn enables us to save a mountain of stuff that might come in handy later!

Two extensions to seat an extra four people.

Nick created two extensions, one for each end of our oak table, using sections of the old office worktop, each supported by three tubular legs from Ikea.  They fit onto the table using clamps which can't be seen when the extensions are not in use.  With one extension the table seats eight with ample elbow room.  With two extensions we can seat ten.  If only the room itself was bigger we could add a third and seat another two!  

The worktop is not pretty and obviously I need a long tablecloth to hide all the joins but it works really well.  Luckily we already had enough chairs!  

Sets of matching or at least reasonably similar dinnerware are often on sale at local brocantes or vide greniers and we have accumulated a fair stash of it over the years.  The original set of six plates we bought from Ikea in 2008 has been boosted by acquiring extras from brocantes and fortunately we also have plenty of room in the barn to store it all!  We rarely pay more than two or three euros for a set of plates, bowls or whatever, the bonus being that we now have enough to afford to break a few!  Luckily mismatched crockery and glassware are still very much "in vogue".

The table in the foreground (there is a step down into the "dining room") is a side table that normally lives at the far end of the room and we bring it forward when we have a big dinner party.  It's perfect for serving dishes and plates.  It was a UK charity shop purchase a few years ago (pre Brexit when it we could bring such things freely).  I remember thinking it would probably come in handy at some point and with a coat of paint and a lick of varnish it's just the job!