....so this morning I went into the Mayors office, before I had a chance to procrastinate and change my mind, something which I am becoming very good at. In fact, if there was a degree in procrastination, I would have a first class honours.
Anyway, so I go in and am greeted by the usual lady behind the desk to whom I smile at with my bestest grin, and whom I greet with the biggest 'Bonjour Madame' I can possibly muster up (considering I only got about 4 hours sleep last night). "Could I possibly, maybe, perhaps make an appointment to see Monsieur le Maire"? I utter, trying to sound scary and confident. "Of course you can", she replies "How about Saturday at 9.30am"? At which point I looked like this......(but without the green dress).
"That would be great", I say, trying not to look completely horrified and like I am really looking forward to it. I then just *mention* that it is concerning our letter of a month ago (I stop myself saying that we are still awaiting a reply), at which point she say "Ah oui, La Chabanaise" and then points at a blue folder on the desk.....I guess that is where the letter has been hiding all this time.....naughty blue folder......
I guess I could be done for neglect, as it has been over two months since I have updated this blog, and I can't possibly remember everything that has happened in that time, so I guess this post is going to be somewhat......muddled.......confused......downright boring....and well, non-too enlightening.
So here we are, June is upon us and finally we have been bought some beautiful weather and hot temperatures. Most of April & May were a washout (quite literally) in terms of beautiful spring weather - in fact we nearly went to Monsieur François Hollande and asked for a bloody refund, because I certainly didn't expect to be donning my thick woolly jumper, wellie boots and waterproof jacket quite so frequently as I have had to. And we certainly didn't expect to be having to light the fire on an evening to keep us warm - one of the drawbacks of living in a stone house I guess. But I am grateful for those thick stone walls today, as temperatures outside have peaked at 33 degrees celsius and the house at least offers us some respite when needed!
So here we are......still here, still living in la jolie France. I would love to be able to tell you we are so much further ahead than the last time I wrote a post, but alas I fear I am about to shatter your illusions. We knew when we moved here that things were not going to be easy, France being very well known for its paperwork, bureaucracy and general 'slowness'. In fact, if I hadn't studied Spanish at Uni, I would have thought it was the French who invented the word 'mañana'........though in French that would be translated as 'dans quelques mois......peut être'. Take for example the ongoing saga of our healthcare - it has been some months now since we finally managed to get everything that the local social security office needed in order to obtain that little card called 'la carte vitale' - basically a piece of plastic that means you don't have to pay for your gp/dentist appts, medicines etc.....well at least not 70% of the cost. Since submitting all our paperwork all those months ago, we have had several *teasing* letters from the social security office, telling us that they were nearly at the point of being able to give us this wonderful card.....that soon we would be able to take advantage of the wonderful French NHS system, that we would be truly welcomed into French society. And then Saturday two new envelopes dropped into our letter box - could this be it, could this maybe be our cartes vitales? Ah no, it would appear not, but they had sent us another letter! And in it the most hilarious sentence I have heard in a long long time, it read - 'Pour obtenir la carte vitale, c'est simple'! Simples apparently! So simple, it only takes three friggin' months! All they need now is for us to furnish them with a couple of beautiful photos and a copies of our passports........and whatsmore....they have given US a deadline. Fifteen days or we have to start the whole process all over again! Oh là là! Anyway, I am sure we will get there in the end......maybe....oh look, my legs dropped off.
Anyway, aside from healthcare things are progressing....lentement, extremely lentement. Architect plans for the gites are just about there and should be submitted to planning in the next couple of weeks. We are hoping it will be a pretty straightforward 'yes' from the planning department, but this is France, so you never know! Campsite-wise things are a little more complicated. We have had meetings / phone calls / emails with various bods over the weeks, trying to understand the complexities and regulations in terms of registering as a smallholding, and thus being able to open a camping à la ferme. Once things were a little clearer in our heads we wrote a letter to Monsieur le Maire (the Mayor) asking if we could meet with him to dicuss our plans in more details, particularly in terms on the permissions required to make progress. That letter was sent some three weeks ago, and we still haven't received a reply. If I was still in England I probably would have rung up by now, demanding to know why my letter hadn't been answered yet, and telling them customer service was not one of their strong points. But this isn't England, this is France, and being relative newbies to the way things are done here (slowly!) we have been hesitant to go in to such situations all guns blazing. We are trying to be respectful of French etiquette, manners, timescales etc - in some ways I guess you could say we are being your typical reserved over-polite 'Brits', but then when your future relies on something so heavily, you will do all you can to not jeopardise your chances. Hence the reason we have waited patiently up until now....but tomorrow is Monday, so I think now is the time to go into the Mairie in person and ask for 'that' meeting. It is a scary prospect, but we need to bite the bullet now - time is moving on........
Other than trying to plan our future business (and next meals!), we have been busy doing various activities around the land. Mark finished erecting the polytunnel and it is now full to the brim of tomatoes, peppers, chillies and melons. The vegetable plot has been a little disappointing - the incessant rain and relatively cool spring has spoiled some of the crops we initially planted - or rather the slugs had a nice meal at our expense! So plans for relative self-sufficiency may not be entirely successful this year, although we will keep trying! We have some new feathery additions to the land, in the form of some hens and a cockerel - initially we had seven hens and a cockerel, but since one hen has died and one disappeared into the woods and never came back. Very sad indeed but its a price you sometimes pay to have free-ranging happy chickens. Here are a couple of pictures of the lovely things.
Wildlife wise, well I guess you could say I am in seventh heaven. Surrounded by the most beautiful displays of wildflowers every day - ones that in England I would probably have had to go searching for. Here are just a few
OK, more than a few, but still! Its very hard to know which ones not to include!
We also have lots of birds nesting. The blue tit family came and went mid-May, and we now have a family of swallows in the basement.......here they are....
We also have three families of Redstarts around the place, so La Chabanaise is currently a busy place for the bird population. Added to that we daily hear the Golden Oriole singing - Mark has been lucky enough to see it. I am still waiting (im) patiently. :)
Anyway, I am thinking I have probably bought you all up-to-date as best I can. I am sure there are lots of other important things I have missed out, but no doubt if they come to me over the next few days, I will let you know...in between making elderflower champagne, elderflower cordial, strawberry sorbet, mint sorbet......and having a nap on the terrace....
Just a short post me thinks as am feeling somewhat knackered.......and Masterchef is on soon. :o)
I know many people will think that I have absolutely no reason to be knackered, because let's face it, I don't have to get up early every morning or have a nine to five job But rest assured that as lovely and exciting it can be moving to a new country, it can also be quite stressful and tiring at times. Doing seemingly simple things can be quite onerous and difficult, and quite honestly would often test the patience of a saint. And anyone that knows me, knows that I am no saint. :o)
French paperwork and bureaucracy has been a big feature in our life over the past week. To start off we had an email from our car insurance company asking for an extra €100 as we had failed to tell them Mark had made a claim on his insurance nearly three years ago. This isn't entirely true - what actually happened was that we had a winscreen chip repaired. This doesn't count against your no claims bonus in England, but according to this woman at the insurance agency over here, it does. After a bit of research, and after speaking to my friend who also lives in France, it would appear this is not entirely true. This really got my back up and started to stress me out big time - it is hard enough coming over to a foreign country to start with, but to then have people try and take advantage of your new residency status, and your nationality, really takes the piss. And the stubborn part of me just couldn't let this pass by - probably not wise in some senses, as I think the stress it caused was probably not worth it! But I did tackle it head on and after many tears and tantrums we actually have ended up with a much cheaper (albeit identical) policy for much less money. Result!
We have also been dabbling in the healthcare system again - or rather trying to get ourselves covered after two previous unsuccessful trips to the local social security office. This time we went armed with translations of our birth certificates, and every other possible document you could think of (including recent shopping receipt, instructions to the hand blender, and a post-it note with curtain measurements). And we had success! Or rather, the gentleman took them off us, and said they would write to us in the next month to tell us what they think. Is that good or bad? I guess we will find out soon enough.
My car has also now been officially initiated into French society, and now sports a treble nationality. First of all it had its French MOT, which it passed with flying tricolore colours, despite having to have three parts of the test twice because the mechanic messed up the paperwork - but the good news is I did learn a new phrase while witnessing his frustration - "Quelle journée de merde". I am hoping to not have to use this one too often. After passing his test, we then had to make the journey to the tax office in Brive, where I had to obtain a 'certificat fiscale' - basically a bit of paper saying that I had paid for the car in England. After this we then had to drive to Tulle to the Préfecture where we paid just over €200 for the French equivalent of a tax disc, and a registration number. The good news is, we won't have to pay this again. Hurrah! So now all that is left to do is to get some brand spanking new number plates made up. Looks like that is what I will be doing tomorrow.
On a more exciting note we have received some initial architectural plans for converting the old farmhouse into gites, so at last things seem to be moving on that front. We also need to make an appt to see the Chamber of Agriculture to discuss campsite regulations and how we go about getting things started - I sense an awful lot of red tape ahead of us but I guess we knew that!
The weather here has been somewhat changeable over the past week - some sunshine and warmth, but also a fair bit of rain. But the good news is the plants are growing, and we have even managed to get some seed potatoes in the ground. Weather is due to get even better in next few days with high of 24 degrees celsius forecast for Sunday. Needless to say we are looking forward to that. Mark has been busy preparing the raised beds for the polytunnel and has even been seen wielding his chainsaw at poor unsuspecting trees.......he really is in his element.
As for Bobby and Ember - well they continue to plod along and take each days as it comes. When it rains they sleep, when the sun shines they like to go exploring and spending time with us at the vegetable plot. The life of a cat is never dull I don't think!
And anyway, thats the news from here. Longer post than I expected, and rather boring, but then if I had left it any longer, you would have had an even longer, more boring post to read. Think yourself lucky and look at some pretty pictures to make yourself feel better.
Wow, it has been a while. Sorry about that. Problem is I can't possibly recall the last 10 days in any detail, so in summary this is what happened.....
1) I decided to stab myself in the hand one Saturday evening, and ended up experiencing the joy that is French A & E. Five hours later, and I came out with three stitches and lots of bandages, and then a prescription for more plasters, bandages, paracetemol and antiseptic spray. The French don't like doing things by half.
2) Bobby the cat caught his first lizard - and it wasn't a small one. We managed to rescue it though, and here is a picture of it a few days later, none the worse for wear, just missing a small bit of tail.....
3) We had a week of really lovely weather, which even enabled tea and pain au chocolat on the terrace. :o) I knew there was a reason we moved here. I even managed to put a few rows of seed potatoes in the ground.
4) The chicken house was moved into its final position.....just need to decide on the material for its roof and build an enclosure, just for when we are not there. Would love them to free range all the time, but with foxes and pine martens regular visitors to the land, it really is not possible. So when we are not there, they will have a large run to roam in.
5) Carpenter Henderson has built a couple of coldframes out of scraps of wood that we had lieing around. So now we can grow lots more seeds!
6) We have lots of wildflowers appearing at La Chabanaise, here are just a few of them.
Cowslip
cuckoo flower
forget-me-not
purple toothwort
7) We had an afternoon out to visit another English couple - Maria and Brian, who live just across the valley. Was nice to not have to worry about my grammar and pronunciation (not that Mark ever understands my cockney anyway).
8) We had a meeting with some men from the Conseil Regional, to discuss the bit of land we are interested in, and whether it would be possible to create an access road to our land. After lots of hand waving, and expressions that only the French can do, it was decided that it just wasn't a viable option due to the slope of the land. Ah well, back to the drawing board.
9) Have finally got round to creating some youtube videos of the wildlife that we have on our land. First video uploaded last week, of a female roe deer. Lots more to come.
10) I had my second French haircut - a tad more successful than the last one, although here you pay extra for conditioner - €5!!!! Next time I will take my own bottle.
11) I have decided to try and eat less meat. I don't want to say I will become vegetarian, because at the moment I am not sure I can do it. But I will see how I get on. The older I get, the more I have an issue with eating meat - it does upset me really. Anyway, I am experimenting at the moment, and had my first tofu curry tonight - it wasn't bad at all. On verra!
12) Today we had our second visit to the social security office, to try and sort out healthcare. First time round I forgot our bank details, so today I went armed with them and all the other documents they insisted on. Needless to say they pulled another one out the bag and are now insisting on translations of our birth certificates. I decided to challenge the guy on this, as the previous lady we had seen had said it wasn't necessary. At which point he threw his hands in the air and exclaimed 'ah, putain'! I will leave it up to you whether you decide to translate that. :o) Anyway, after disappearing out the back for a few minutes he returned and said they would translate them for us, but it would probably take a long time - I took that as meaning we would be better off getting it done ourselves, so will have to go back for a third time.
Anyway, that has been the last ten days. To finish, here are a few french gestures you will need to master before coming to visit us - it is a pre-requisite for getting into the country now:
1) « Alors là / Bof »
The "Gallic shrug" gesture has a number of meanings:
It's not my fault
I don't know
I doubt it can be done
I don't really agree
Raise your shoulders; hold up your hands, palms out; stick out your lower
lip; raise your eyebrows; and say "Moi, je n'y peux rien," "Moi,
je n'en sais rien," "Alors là," or simply "Bof !"
2) French pout
The French pout is a classic French facial gesture which expresses
discontent, disdain, disgust... just about any negative emotion beginning
with "dis."
To faire la moue, push your lips out and bring them back in, kind of
like a quick pucker up to a kiss. A bored expression on the face is a common
accompaniment.
3) « Barrons-nous »
To say "Let's get the hell out of here," hold your hands out, palms
down, and smack one hand down onto the other. Also known as « On se tire ».
4) « Verre dans le nez »
To indicate that someone is drunk, the French say "Il a un verre dans le
nez" or "Il a un coup dans le nez."
Make a loose fist, hold it up in front of your nose, and twist your hand (as
you would rev a motorcycle) while tilting your head the other way.
Too tired to write a lot today. What started off as promising sort of day, with beautiful spring sunshine and a feeling of optimism, ended up with a bit of disappointment, confusion and a few tears on my part.
Today was our appointment with the gentleman at the MSA - Mutualité Sociale Agricole. Spent the morning trying to come up with a list of questions to ask, in French, about the status of Cotisant Solidaire - the profession we were under the impression would allow us to start the campsite (albeit in a bit of an unconventional way). I think we both felt as prepared as we were going to, and set off to Meyssac in the sunshine hoping the afternoon would be straightforward and just a bit of a formality.
Our appointment was at 14h00 and we arrived in plenty of time. The office was nothing like what we expected - infact it resembled nothing more than a square building with not a lot going for it. Inside was not much more exciting, a very sparse waiting area with a small table and ancient copies of Paris Match magazine. The meeting started with some very nice pleasantries but then things just went downhill. First of all I was asked for proof that I did indeed own the land we were speaking about - in the form of the official deeds from the solicitor who put through the sale of the property. I didn't have them with me. Then we got on to the subject of 'cotisant solidaire' and it became clear, very quickly, that by registering as this profession I would be entitled to no healthcare cover whatsoever, which is all very well at the moment, but maybe not in future years - none of us, after all, know what awaits us round the corner. We were already aware that healthcare was going to be a bit of an issue with this profession, but I think at this moment the complexity of the whole French system really started to hit home. And at that point I just started to feel overwhelmed and my brain frazzled, and once that happens, I knew what would come next - ah yes, the waterworks came on and I made a complete and utter prat of myself. Poor Monsieur Feix didn't quite know what to do, I don't think, and just kept trying to make light of the situation and tell me there was no need to cry. At that point, bless his heart, he took the list of questions I had prepared, and went through them one by one and wrote answers to them. He was very sweet, and I did at least manage to regain some composure.
We came away not quite sure what had happened, what it all meant, and how we were going to proceed, but needless to say it has left me feeling pretty knackered and deflated. At times like this I realise just how alone were really are here now, with only each other for support. I guess that has to be enough for now, at least until we meet some new people, and make new friends. Its hard though, and while I do not regret coming over here at all, I do find it hard to accept how some things have changed more than I thought they would. That makes me sad.
But anyway, the day did kind of end up on a positive note. For despite being defeated by the MSA, I risked putting myself through more distress by attempting Macaroons again - and this time they worked (although I don't have a picture, sorry!). I didn't follow Lorraine Pascale's recipe this time - but please don't tell her that because she may decided not to be my twitter friend anymore. And I need all the friend I can get right now!
Anyway, this has been a depressing post, so here are some of the nice things of the day. Because there are always positives, you just have to look for them.
Just a quick post. I have been getting a lot of 'silent' phone calls as of late, so today I did an experiment as I had a feeling that it was me saying 'hello' rather than 'allo' that was causing the problem, and causing people to hang up on me. So when the phone rang this morning, I brushed myself off and in my best guttural french accent I bellowed 'ALLO' down the phone. Bingo, the person at the other end actually spoke to me!
So there you go, bet you're REALLY glad you read this post today huh?
Here I am again, absolutely shattered today to be honest - think my sinuses are playing me up again, either that or someone attached an invisible vice to my head in the night and has been tightening the screws with joy throughout the day.
Anyway, apparently it is Wednesday today. The weeks certainly seem to go quick at the moment. Monday we didn't achieve alot really as weather was shite again. Mark continued work on the hen house (he really is building one I promise) and I did a bit of painting. I also plucked up the courage to drop into the local Marie to ask about the bit of land that is for sale, and to try and find out what the position was in terms of building consent. Anyway, it would appear the land is what they call 'constructible' - in other words you can build on it if you want. So I then had a little chat with the nice lady (who actually came out from behind the desk with a picture of the bit of land) and discussed our predicament in terms of needing to know whether we would be able to maybe buy just a slice of it, and make a small track to our own land. She came up with some very good advice, and suggested I contacted the Conseil Général about it - because while building a road/track might not be a problem, the siting of it would (in other words there may be issues in terms of whereabouts it is built because of sharp bends etc). So I came out with someone else to contact - not ideal, but I felt a little bit more confident in the fact that I had managed to have a reasonably technical conversation in French - not perfect French by any means, but better than what it has been of late. Monday evening I emailed the Conseil Général, and surprise surprise I am still waiting for their response. It is quite frustrating in a way, because there are things we need to get on with, but little things like this just seem to hold everything up........
Tuesday we didn't do a lot at all. Bobby cat was unwell with diarrohea, so we stayed at home - I am a very protective mother when it comes to my furry children. So to keep myself busy I painted the downstairs cloakroom - and I am not sure if I like it. But not much I can do about it, so am trying to think of ways to make it look better. Please be forthcoming with suggestions - I guess I just didn't want everywhere to look to modern, yet the cloakroom now is. How can I make it more vintage looking for not much money? Was thinking of buying a stencilling sponge and doing a paint effect of some kind. Or some stencilling itself. Hmmmm, I so wish I had an artistic streak - but it wasn't something I was blessed with unfortunately. Anyway, the good news is, Bobby is better now - my guess is he had probably been eating something he shouldn't have been eating, like a mouse head, or a bird wing, a squirrel leg. I shall spare you further details.
Which brings us to today......ah yes, that is Wednesday as I have already confirmed. Today we decided to get round to declaring ourselves to the French equivalent of the NHS. As our forms had finally arrived from the DWP, telling us that we could have up to two years healthcare courtesy of Mr Cameron, I had already spent a good hour the previous day getting all our bits and pieces together for the trip to the Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie in Tulle. I had scanned every personal document I could think of, and even made copies. I had folded everything nicely and done separate piles for Mark and I. I felt quite smug at my organisational skills and confident that the trip to Tulle would be a piece of piss. So at 10.15am we left sunny La Chabanaise, documents all folded, ironed and enveloped, the kitchen sink strapped firmly to the roof bars of the car and drove the 35km to Tulle. Its a nice little town - not as big as Brive, despite being the Departmental capital of the Corrèze.
However, finding the office was difficult - we intially tried to park the car and find it on foot, but one steep hill later, and after Jane (the satnav lady) got well and truly confused and kept repeating herself to the point where she sounded like a broken record (turn left, then turn left, turn left, then turn left, turn left, then turn left), we reverted to plan A and got back in the car. Eventually we found it, and Jane forgave us - it would appear she doesn't like steep hills either. Anyway, the visit to CPAM was brief.....and not entirely successful. The lady we saw was very nice. I thought she was going to insist on translations of our birth certificates, but after I made an extremely funny joke about Mark's age (in French) she said they would do as they were. She even refused the copies I had made of them, and did them herself! But then came the bombshell - it would appear there was one important piece of information that I had forgotten (yes I know, I'm bloody perfect, how could I forget something!). I had failed to produce our 'Relevé d'identité bancaire'. *Cue Eastenders drum*. A 'Relevé d'identité bancaire', in my humble opinion, is a rather useless document. It is basically just a piece of paper with your bank details on - you can't just write your details down, oh no, you have to have the 'official' piece of paper from the bank. This is what one looks like:
I should have known better, there's no two ways about it. I failed. I should know by now that the French love their bits of paper. So we left the CPAM, no better off - just with the photocopies which the nice lady did. So we have to go back again..... (&(*^&^)*&(*^&()^*
To console ourselves we went and got some lunch - just a sandwich, a drink and a cookie. Try saying 'cookie' with a French accent. Sounds stupid doesn't it? But I did it anyway. I dread the day I have to go to Macdonalds and ask for a Double Cheeseburger.
This afternoon I had bitter sweet time in the kitchen. You'd think I would have learnt my lesson from the Lemon Meringue experience, bit no, I'm a glutton for punishment, and decided to attempt macaroons. Which meant more stiff peak experiments! But this time people, I was successful and this picture is the proof!
However things then went downhill and my macaroons just didn't get the right consistency, and as a result there is now a yellow sticky mess in the kitchen bin. It was a recipe by Lorraine Pascale that I followed, so I decided to send her a cheeky little tweet. And she replied! So I have no excuse to fail next time.
The cooking extravaganza did not stop there. I decided to make mango chutney and I now have four jars of the stuff - am hoping it will be a bit cheaper than buying the stuff. I then baked a Bakewell Tart, and it worked out. So despite the disastrous start to the day, things ended well. And tomorrow, things can only get better.
