Pensions in France

The French have a reputation for being over bureaucratic.  I wonder why?
Because I worked for a year in France and now have a UK pension, I have filled in the paperwork to see if I can have a French pension, albeit a tiny one. Yesterday I got a reply...... not only do I have a form to fill in with my bank details but it must be signed by the bank manager.  This is going to be tricky because it's a French bank account and we are not going to France till after the paperwork deadline.  I shall have to send a bank statement and hope that's enough.
Plus they have asked which 'base' I come under.  I haven't a clue and can't work it out from  my payslip so I shall have to send a payslip in and hope they can work it out.  My daughter in France wasn't sure about this at all.
And....typically French this.....I have to get a signed document from the town hall to prove who I am.  I have no idea what the town hall staff will make of it but the French do so love an official stamp!
So that's tomorrow taken care of as I try to ensure I have covered all bases and sent as much paper as I think they'll need.

Later:
The town hall staff sent me to 'election' and strangely enough that was the correct department.  The lady who dealt with me had a thick file of similar attestations, some French, some German and some Italian.  She told me she preferred the forms from Italy because they were so simple and clear to fill in.  Now who'd have thought that?  She makes photocopies for her file and for me and returns the original, now correctly filled in. 

One week later:
I am just about ready to send off my pension stuff when a whole lot more arrives.  I have very little idea what it's about so I may have to go and get help from the Frenchman who lives up the road.  Some is about my children but since their ages go from 40 to 31 years I hope I don't have to fill in all of that lot.

Friday
I have just been to see our friendly neighbourhood Frenchman who looked over the papers and attempted to tell me what is needed.  Alas, they do want copies of my children's birth certificates and since one is in France, one in Hong Kong and a third in Dublin for Easter it's going to take some time to get copies.  I really don't understand why they need details of my adult children.

A week later still
Well, the daughter in France emailed her certificate.  Eldest son is still away.  Younger daughter finally 'got' on the phone and she announces I lost hers years ago.  Am puzzled by this since she has a passport and surely she needed a certificate for that?  Still I'm just her Mum and so take the blame!

Monday
Ring Lincoln register office for copies of younger 2 children's certificates.  In order to get them asap it costs me £46 but they should be here tomorrow.  Remaining son is back from Hong Kong so leave message on his phone for urgent copy of said certificate.

NB Must make sure I keep all copies.....we'll have to do this all again for D's pension in France.

Tuesday    the birth certificates have arrived.  leave another message on son's voicemail.









 

LA BELLE SAISON

Just finished a super book, full of food, weather, hard work, love, loss, heart ache, wine..... ........just about everything which makes me want to live in France. Granted I couldn't cope with living in the south...too hot by far and the mistral!  No way.

But books such as La Belle Saison by Patricia Atkinson, 

the Peter Mayle books about Provence 

or the Carol Drinkwater Olive Farm Trilogy certainly whet the appetite for French rural life.  What could be better than working from dawn till dusk on your olive farm or vineyard only to have a hail storm wreck everything?  No, seriously folks, it's not all bad.  The compensations of good fellowship with equally hard-working neighbours, who will support you through the bad times and celebrate with your good times cannot be measured.  And the food, the wine, the cheese!!!!

French rural life  encompasses hunting...la chasse...mushroom hunting (no good to me I hate mushrooms), fishing, collecting fruit and all the domestic goddess activities of bottling and preserving; growing your own naturellment, for organic fruit and vegetables; the local wines and cheeses; local celebrations to enjoy.  Brilliant!


We have a house in rural France, not isolated but in a 'hameau' tacked on to a hamlet so small it doesn't even boast a boulangerie or tabac.  That necessitates having a car so, as we get older, we'll have to make decisions about where to move ..... we'll need to move into town so we can have access to local services, doctor, pharmacie, supermarket, entertainment etc. but where?


Sometimes we wander around Vichy and dream.  I wonder what it costs to live in the Old Town?  I would love that.

All this stays on hold until my parents die....what a sobering thought.  My Mother  asked me the other day when we were going to retire and I could hardly say, 'When you're dead!' so I told her the bishop wanted us to stay till D is 70 and, you never know, that might be when we can go.


So, until then, I must make do with my books.  I'm looking for the first book Patricia Atkinson wrote, so back to dreaming.


Images from Amazon so look inside function probably won't work.

10 reasons not to move to France

10 REASONS NOT TO MOVE TO FRANCE

1          I don't speak French well enough.

2          I get mixed up with the money.  Will my pension, which is in sterling, get devalued in euros?

 3         Our house is in rural France and there isn't a bus service so we need a car even to get to the boulangerie and I don't drive.

4         When we get decrepit and really old we'll have to decide whether to move into town in France or come back to UK.  The latter will be very expensive.

5          There are no decent takeaways, only pizza places and they can be very, very expensive.  

6          There is only one Indian restaurant that we have found and it's DREADFUL.  Food not very good, service appalling.  One visit was more than enough. 

7         Tradesmen can be expensive and difficult.  (There will be a later post in full detail.)

8         The banks won't let you go into the red.  This can be tricky!

9         It can be difficult to get some English type foodstuffs eg Marmite, red lentils etc.  It's easy in the Pas de Calais area because there's a Tesco and a Sainsburys but if you live, as we do, in a totally French area then it's much more difficult.

10       I miss Cheddar cheese and double Gloucester.