We got a postcard on Friday from the mayor that said Meilleurs Voeux 2017 that we might otherwise recognize as Best Wishes for the new year. On the other side of the card that you see here is his greeting wishing us a happy new year and thanking us for our confidence in him and in our city. In all of the places that we’ve … Continue reading The mayor’s postcard
We love the game shows on the French TV stations. They happen to be broadcast during our happy hour(s) every evening. We watch with the subtitles on in French so we can comprehend some of the words that are spoken so quickly. Money Drop is a great show where money is placed on trap doors of the answers and the losing answers drop the money away back to the vault.
We think of this show every day as the planes line up to land at the local airport and they have to pass by the Cité and over the Bastide St. Louis. Yes there might be a bit of noise as they fly directly overhead but the planes are filled with tourists coming to the area to spend their vacation (and Euros) in the region. Each and every tourist dropping out of the sky helps our local economy and in turn helps keep the taxes lower for those of us living here on a permanent basis. As the region is known for the wine production and the two UNESCO world heritage sites there are not many large businesses as a tax base, although this is the world’s largest wine producing region and we are doing our part to keep the vintners in production. Continue reading “Money drop”
It may have taken three months, that felt like a year, but we have signed the final sales contract on a house in France. The first time I mentioned anything about house buying on the blog was in a post from May when we had been taking some pictures of courtyards. We both crave light, finding dismal days depressing, so a house built around an outdoor courtyard, with glass doors and windows opening each room to the sun was ideal. There are websites (listed at the end) that give complete details about the entire house buying process here, but the highlights of what we went through are below. Continue reading “En-tiley ours”
By now you have read In residence and got the cold hard facts of the visit to the OFII immigration office. There was a lot of fun going on during this visit that made the time fly by.
Each and every person that we encountered was doing their very best to make each person feel at ease with the process. Casual banter about where you were from and how they had been there, too. “Good to see you back again” to someone who must have had a problem with the first visit. This is not your typical government operation of any government that I’m familiar with. Continue reading “The medical exam”
It’s official, we’re legal residents of France for a year, at least, as of yesterday afternoon! The process all began back in January of this year when we went to the French consulate in Miami to request a visa. Americans can stay here for up to 90 days in any 6-month period with only a passport but for any longer than that you need a visa that’s valid for a year. But wait, even with that document issued in the US you still have to request a titre de sejour (residence permit) once you arrive.Then the wait begins. Continue reading “In residence”
Can you imagine the reaction that either Bill or I would get if we went into a store in the US and said, “Could I get a tampon, please?” After the puzzled look disappeared off of the clerk’s face, she or he would figure that our wives had sent us out in search of a vital product and we didn’t have a clue where to find it or what we were looking for. Guess what happened yesterday when we went to the post office in Carcassonne with the exact same question. Continue reading “A tampon, please”
It was with trepidation that we went to the post office in Carcassonne for the first time. We had to go there because we needed to mail an initial contact letter into the immigration office in Montpelier so that they could schedule us for a physical exam and an interview. I know, sounds like fun in France, doesn’t it? There seems to be a universal dislike of post office practices worldwide and when you couple that with the insurmountable bureaucracy we’d read existed here, you can understand our dread. But then as we approached the building with the familiar blue and yellow La Poste logo, right in front we saw something else: a garden, a flower garden with benches and a water feature all newly installed. In fact, this haven of greenery replaced a parking lot. What post office does that? Continue reading “Parking lot to paradise”
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