Sometimes life can get pretty mad. It feels like the past six weeks (or actually, three months) have been just that. We knew when we moved into the Saloon that it was on the market, so living here would just be a temporary stop gap but living here has also meant dealing with lots of viewings, some often at the last minute or (!) without any notice, and as such, the need to keep the place presentable for the agency. In the midst of these house viewings, we have also fully immersed ourselves into the hell that is french officialdom via applications for our french driving licences, and dealing with bailiff letters for unpaid speeding fines.
So, driving licences. This almost needs its own, whole post. There are websites and facebook groups solely created to help and support people through this process as it really is that complicated. Here goes. Obviously, we have British passports but after living in NZ for so long, we have kiwi driving licences. As part of your application, you need to prove you have no driving convictions so I applied to the NZ Transport Agency to get the official certificates. Once the had arrived in Pau, I paid €150 to have them officially translated into French, along with copies of our driving licences (everything needs translated). Armed with this stuff, five photos, evidence of living in NZ when we got our kiwi licences and evidence of our current residence in France, I went to the prefecture (regional council) offices with my french mate Sophie who was acting as my translator. The woman we got was absolutely hopeless. Her first act was to consult a big book to see if she was even allowed to process NZ licences. Yes. *Shakes head, murmuring "Thank God"*. Next she skeptically started sifting through our applications. Iain's was immediately returned as he wasn't there in person. Next, she looks at the official certificates from NZ and the official translations of the documents, snorts, and tells me that they're not acceptable as they do not explicitly state that I have no convictions. These are the certificates that I was told I needed to provide. *Anger rising*. She then looks at the evidence I have to prove I was in NZ when I got my licence, and shakes her head. "These need to be translated into French" she tells us. She then handed everything back to us and beckoned us away. Her parting comment being, you need to surrender your NZ driving licence when you make your application, and it will be a year before you get your french one. And don't expect it to be any earlier than this. It will be a year. I was ready to grab her by the head and hit it off her keyboard. I just can't get my head around this processing time. How many people are applying for french licences that they have such a ridiculous backlog, and what the hell are they doing with the applications? Sometimes I think the french need to reconsider this two hour lunch thing. They do, apparently, provide a permit so that you can continue to drive legally in France while your application is being processed but that would mean we wouldn't be able to hire a car when we return to Scotland for visits, or if we had any other international trips anywhere in the next 12 months. Absolute joke.
Later that week, we went back to the prefecture with the Section team manager who has experience of these things with other players and although the woman we got this time was much more helpful, she provided us with totally different information. She said the paperwork was acceptable but because we had British passports, we needed to send our applications to Nantes for processing. Again, she said it would be a year. Benji said that he thought we shouldn't send our actual licences though - that it seemed dangerous to give them up. And he's french!
You may think that having British driving licences would've made this whole process easier but thanks to Farage and the 17.4million idiots who voted for his dream of Brexit, the French authorities have actually suspended the transfer of all UK licences until further notice.
Last week we also received two letters demanding money. One was from a bailiff who claimed we hadn't paid both a speeding fine from January last year, and the matured fine for failure to pay the initial one. We had never received any such letters. It turns out that the club car that we get through Iain's work didn't have the correct address for us so wherever the fines were being sent, it certainly wasn't to us. Amazing how the bailiff found us though. So, dealing with this meant jumping though all sorts of hoops with getting people to make phone calls and write letters. The second letter was a follow up speeding fine letter for our own car. The first letter had never made it to our house either so we wanted to contest the increment. Again, this was palaver. It involved going on the government website to change our address (it took two days to get our user-code) and once this had come through, send a cheque for the initial fine to one office, and the send a letter challenging the fine to a different place. Honestly, sometimes this place is just so difficult to navigate. Even the french people find it mad.
In the middle of this we've also had to deal with both the washing machine packing in and having to lug it across the garden to take it back to the people we bought it from, the dyson battery completely dying so sorting out the procurement of a new one, and getting the car fixed as some arsehole come up our driveway, ripped the rear window wiper off the car and threw it over the gate into our garden.
The final aspect of this is that someone put an offer in on the house at the weekend and Melanie and Hughes have accepted it. The icing on the cake being that it was the only private viewing its had and it was actually us who showed them around. Compare this with Vincent, the agent, who did 25 and didn't get a single sniff of a buyer. Think I need to get some of the commission. Or at least, change careers. Anyway we're looking for a new house again and we've already been to a viewing this week. A few things are popping up but we are just desperate to stay in this area. Keep your fingers crossed.
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