You may be interested to know that I'm now in Paris - you can find my new blog here, if you're interested. It won't be as often updated at this one used to be (hollow though that rings at the end...) but there will be a different set of pictures every now and then, at least!
Read more...As if you hadn't already noticed that... I'm moving back to the UK soon, so the next few days are likely to be busy with packing, planning, flat-hunting and preparing for a new job.
In addition, our bathroom is being gutted and retiled to fix a sealing problem - apparently they didn't do it right the first time. So, house will be filled with builders, dust and tiles. In addition to me trying to pack around them.
Posting is likely, therefore, to be intermittent at best.
Though we all know my dedication to packing and things related, so you may see me here much more often as I procrastinate heavily. But I think if I spend too much time looking at this blog and all the amazing things I've seen and done while I've been here, I might just cry at the thought of leaving - I'm not exactly looking forward to the move as it is...
Many thanks to Pierce and the lovely people at Business Degree Online, who have featured this blog as one of their Top 50 Expat blogs. In a continuing effort to put off building my new website, I'm going to spend the next few days looking at the other people featured - I suggest you abandon this erratic mess and do likewise ;-)
Thanks again Pierce, I hope you carry on reading!
Hello Telegraph readers! If I'd known you were coming, I'd have written something more interesting than rambling about my book - something with more pictures, at least; I can't guarantee they'd actually be interesting...
Anyone who doesn't regularly read the Telegraph should look at this article which describes me as "charmingly erratic" - which might be one of the more polite things anyone's had to say about me. Thank you, Telegraph article writer!
One step closer to fame and fortune, you mark my words...
I'm one step closer to getting a proper secu sociale number - the one they sent me previously was a temporary one, but I can apparently still use this to claim back my healthcare costs. I now need to send the RSI a copy of my full birth certificate and a certified translation, and they'll start the process of allocating me a proper one. They didn't, of course, tell me this until I went in there this morning to query my odd secu number. But they did tell me in the end, so success! We've got to get the birth certificates translated for the wedding, anyway, so it's not even an extra cost.
I haven't, though, seen anything that sets out how the autoentrepreneur and social security system work for foreigners. So I thought I might write down for future reference and Google indexing the steps I've gone through. (Please do comment if your path differs, it would be interesting to see how much this varies by location in France!)
This assumes you are an EU citizen living in France, that you're not otherwise covered by a secu sociale system and that you're not otherwise employed.
1. Register as an auto-entrepreneur at http://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/. From the date you register, you are entitled to full social security cover (and are also liable for social security contributions, depending on your income.)
2. Wait a while. The RSI should send you a Certificat d'Inscription au Repertoire des Entreprises et des Etablissements (SIRENE) . This will have your SIRET number on it, which is proof that you are a properly registered company for places that require such proof. It took them about a week to send me mine, I was pleasantly surprised.
3. Wait some more time. Eventually, they will send you a request for information on how much you've earnt, and thus how much you owe in social security contributions. This letter should contain your numero de securite sociale. Congratulations! However, note that this number is probably filled with 000s. This indicates that the number is only temporary. To get a permanent one, you apparently have to send a copy of your full birth certificate, plus a copy of a certified translation to your local RSI offices. They will forward these to INSEE in Nantes for you, who will allocate you a permenant secu sociale number that remains with you until you die. (Or possibly until you leave France. Who knows?)
4. You should, at this point, also receive a letter from the mutuelle that you chose as part of the auto-entrepreneur sign-up process. This will have a numero de immatriculation on it, which should match the temporary social security number you have been given. It is to these people that you will send any feuilles de soins you are issued (along with a RIB, so they can repay you), until they give you a carte vitale. You also send them the completed declaration de choix de medecin traitant. The mutuelle you chose during the sign-up process is not (necessarily) the same as the mutuelle you have for your normal health insurance (which is optional). For auo-entrepreneurs, the RSI has sub-contracted, essentially, the admin work for processing healthcare repayments to a series of mutuelles - you choose one you'd like to work with, and they replace the CPAM for auto-entrepreneurs.
Simple, really, isn't it? Of course, it's taken 5 months to get to this point. And god only knows how long it will take to get the reimbursements and the proper social security number. But at least I have clear instructions and contact addresses, and the direct phone number of a very helpful RSI employee, who is clearly new and thus hasn't become utterly jaded and hating-of-humanity yet. I give her a week, but I'm glad I caught her early on!
I've heard lots of perfectly plausible reasons for people wanting to move to France. None of them is the correct one, though. The real reason to move to France is so that you can sit on your balcony, in the sunshine, with your orange tree smelling sweetly behind you, eating fresh tarte aux pommes from the baker up the road.
The very kind Keith at ATasteOfGarlic.com somehow found my blog and wrote about it. (How did you find me in the first place, Keith?)
ATasteofGarlic is a series of reviews of french expat blogs, worth reading for itself, but you should definitely check out the other expat blogs, too, for a picture of France more generally than just my little corner of it!
This blog will be a record of our move to Nice and my day-to-day life while I'm here. Intended primarily for my friends and family to see what I'm up to (and to inspire feelings of awesome jealousy, because I'm nice like that) I hope this will also be useful for anyone considering a similar move - when I looked, I couldn't find anything that really helped to explain what it would be like; hopefully this will help!
We moved over yesterday - 35 kilos over our weight allowance (not recommended; really quite an expensive way of doing things...) and then had to contend with an evacuation at Gatwick airport, because the fire alarm had been set off. Fire engines all very exciting, and at least it wasn't raining, but it was a bit of a pain with all our stuff. Having waited almost for ever for some family who couldn't be bothered to turn up on time, we finally took off, beginning our big adventure!
Until we find a flat, we're living in a hotel near the beach in the centre of Nice. It happens to have free wi-fi, so that's where this post is coming from. We booked this for a week, assuming we could find somewhere suitable to move into before that time was up - it looks like we might have already found something this morning! (http://riviera.angloinfo.com has lots of good information about moving to the Cote d'Azur, including listings from private landlords looking to rent their properties. (Moving before September can make it tricky to find somewhere - many people do holiday lets from June to August, charging vast amounts for them, and don't want to do long-term lets until September.)
Lunch beckons, so I will continue this later - the European Petanque Championships should not be forgotten!
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