Foreign Perspectives

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I’m finally a legit businessman in that the KBIS finally turned up last week. We were in the accountant’s office at around the time the postwoman was sticking it through our letterbox. Anyway, by the time we got back home and found it, we’d just enough time to race to the bank and apply for the credit card machine (which, in theory, should be here in “15 days” ie a fortnight, but somehow I just can’t see it arriving that quickly).

Actually on the post front, we’re amazed at how awful the administration of some places is when you tell them you’ve moved… at the moment the competition for last place is neck and neck between the Woolwich (told at least twice that we’re here) and… the Civil Service. Sadly, pay section have realised that I’m not there anymore but personnel still seem to think I’m in Holywood.

The KBIS also lets you open an account at the local cash & carry (Makro would you believe?) so we headed off there the next day and did a bit of restocking (we were running really low on the shampoo for a start).

Managed to get “our” toilet operational at last! There’s loads of toilets in this place but the handiest one for our own use turned out not to work. Anyway, several weeks back one of the english immigrants (of which there are loads) said “why don’t you see about getting a new one”. So we raced off to the local DIY place (as always, these ideas come to you about 30 minutes before closing on a bank holiday weekend so it was quite a race). Naturally, we were short a few items in the “toilet kit” so a week or two passed by ’til we got the little hose extension and another while before we got the sealant and a bit more before we got the gun to put it in. But, that’s all in the past now and our toilet works!

Now that we’re on a roll, we’ve decided to have a go at erecting a wall in front to act as a sign. There’s been a fair number of folk who’ve been directed our way but never made it so we’ve moved the sign up the priority list somewhat. Short term, we’re thinking of getting some really, really big bits of plywood to put the sign on but we’re also running up a proper breezeblock wall over the next month or so. We’ve also got several non-operational toilets which we must sort out too…

At the moment there don’t seem to be any “proper” tourists arriving at Perpignan airport: any time we’ve been up just about everyone seems to be being picked up by some other english friends. Net effect is that our leaflet supply is lasting forever up at the airport.

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Hi folks,

It’s been relatively quiet in recent weeks so we’ve been using the time to try and get some French admin done.

We didn’t get too far with our first attempt at the mairie to get Wendy a residence permit. They called the prefecture who started talking visas. However, if you cast your mind back a ways you may recall that in the end I did manage to get a residence permit for Wendy via the European legislation. Sooo, we asked for that at the prefecture and they promptly sent us back to the mairie as the prefecture only does visas and you get residence permits from the mairie. Anyway, the mairie let us fill in all the forms this time. And then sent the form off to the prefecture. No, I don’t know why we couldn’t fill in the forms at the prefecture when we were there. Well, I suppose I do: it’s France.

We asked about school for James while we were there. Everyone says that kids can start at 2. Not in Maury, it’s 3 so he’s got off for another year (he was 2 on April 29th). It’s also about 5 miles up the road vs the nearest school in Estagel (different mairie so we were told we couldn’t go there or at minimum needed the Mayor’s permission to do so as he’d have to pay the Estagel mairie for James’ schooling). However, a few days later our neighbour, who’s a teacher) told us that as we live in a “mas” we can go to whatever school we like so James may well be starting this September. Actually, probably not as I think it’s probably better to let his english get established properly.

The “mas” issue is interesting. We also decided to get going on visiting the equivalent of the local tourist boards and getting ourselves listed. First stop was Estagel ‘cos it’s closest. They said “no dice” as we’re not in the Estagel area. We started wondering about the reason for the “mas” issue. Essentially it’s because, at least in our own case, Mas Camps is a place, not just a house. There’s another reason in the case of ourselves as I found out the other day: we are in the area of both Estagel and Maury. In fact, the “welcome to Estagel” sign is actually on the bit of my land over the road (the road marks the boundary between Maury and Estagel). Sooo, it’s off to Estagel to give them two options: 1) add me to their lists or 2) remove the sign.

Still haven’t got my “KBIS” (business registration) which means a trip to my (soon to be former, if he doesn’t get the finger out) accountant tomorrow.

Have to see about the drinks license again one of these days as we’ve been flogging it in the restaurant.

Oh, the restaurant… we decided to open it properly as from this Monday so we’ve been distributing leaflets round Estagel (hence earlier visit to their tourism office). The slight complication is that we didn’t want to overdo it so didn’t go overboard on the marketing. Anyway, that’s worked out OK as we had our first couple of customers this evening and didn’t totally make a mess of it. That’s our menu attached: sorry for the awful French - I’m really bad in French in two things: numbers and food!

The website hits are mounting up nicely and I’ve one of the top Pyrenees-Oriental websites (well above the official tourist board anyway) so we’ve been out and about taking pics for the regional guide part of the site (which gets about 50% of the total hits). For the sporty amongst you, that’s the first of the seasons bike races which, as you can see, goes right past our front door!

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Bonjour mes amis:

We are gradually becoming legitimate French residents….

Last week we thought we’d make an assault on the mairie. They seem to be responsible for just about everything in these parts so it seemed like a good place to start on our efforts to become “legit” French residents.

We failed in the school registration as James is just too young. Everywhere else in France he could start now ‘cos he’s two but in Maury it’s three. That’s probably a good thing as his English will be well established by then though I guess that it’ll make his first month or two a lot harder for him.

A big success was acheived in the bin department though. Not only have we a much bigger bin on the way but on the 26th they’re coming to collect the massive heap of junk that was left by the previous owner. Actually, we have a much smaller pile now as the neighbours asked if we didn’t mind them taking some of it. Wendy reckons we could have sold it in one of the flea markets.

Health-wise we’ve hit a brick wall at the moment. It seems that to register for the equivalent of a national health number you first need to register for work. That’s in the works but so far I’ve not received my “KBIS” (dunno what that stands for but apparently every French business has one). Wendy had her “20 week scan” this afternoon so that’s another ‚€60 on the bill (I suspect that we’ll need to claim all the bills to date via the E111). The scan was a much, much more thorough one than James had at the Ulster Hospital. They check everything that can be checked and since junior wouldn’t play ball and turn over, we’ve to go back in a few weeks time so that the doctor can check the rest.

Bit of success too on the bank account front. Apparently the chequebook and card for the business account are in the branch waiting for me to pick them up.

Next challenge is to get Wendy a bank account for which we’ve an appointment at the bank tomorrow morning.

And after that, it’s off to the Prefecture (county council equivalent, sort of) who think that Wendy needs a visa. Remember all the work that went into getting her a European Resident Permit from the Home Office? Well, we’re about to embark on the same task over here. If anything it should be a whole lot easier as French law equates “living together” as being equivalent to being married in a number of respects, notably for immigration laws. Anyway, I will be looking up the relevant laws to quote to them so it should be an interesting meeting.

Also for this week is an IKEA trip. We have given up on trying to get “proper” pillows in Spain (they do cutdown French ones) and locally so we’re off to Toulouse where we’re also hoping to get some garden furniture for the lunches that Wendy’s intending to start soon.

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