An unexpected journey

I’d just woken up, and my mind was whirring with thoughts of what we needed to get done today. ‘Let’s start by finishing off the kitchen, then move into the salle à manger’ I thought. The dresser and everything on it was probably the biggest job there, all the windows and curtains would also take some time to wash and clean.

Brian started to stir, and asked if I was ready for tea, ‘Ooh yes please I said’, thinking that I’ll share the plan over a cuppa. As he brought my tea in, he showed me an email that he’d received from Ameli (the French health organisation) advising that he hadn’t submitted the documents they had asked for to prove he was living in France. This was frustrating, because we’d sent them all by recorded delivery over a month ago. The email also said that if they didn’t receive them they would close his health account. In fact, he would have to return his carte vitale, which had taken us three years to get! Trying to stay calm, “don’t worry” I exclaimed, “We’ll sort it all out when we get up”.

I could tell he was really concerned, and that we needed to get on it straight away. We bounced out of bed, quickly dressed, and went downstairs to see what we needed to do. I retrieved the file from the cupboard and checked what we’d previously sent. I didn’t understand it at all, what we’d sent all looked right. “We’ll ring the English speaking help desk, and see what they say”. However, that wasn’t very successful. The recorded message advised us that “We are exceptionally closed today”. I have to say that this happens a lot. We nearly always check when things are open, because everywhere seems to keep its own timings, but even after we check we’ll get somewhere and there will be a sign saying ‘Exceptionally closed’. “Come on”, I said enthusiastically, “We’ll ring the French helpline, we can do it”. After several attempts, we got through the vetting process by selecting the right numbers to choose. But then another recorded message “We are exceptionally closed”. Even I was now getting frustrated. “Okay, I know, we’ll write a letter explaining what we’ve done, and resend everything again”. So we spent the next hour refreshing the documents and writing a detailed letter on our situation. It was now lunchtime, so I suggested we’d go and post it after lunch. Most post offices close for lunch in France, so there was no point in rushing out.

Brian made us some tea whilst I prepared the envelope. “Hun, I have a change of plan” I said, “Let’s hand deliver it, I have checked, they are open until 16h30. We’ll drive to Troyes”. Despite being worried that the office would also be ‘exceptionally closed’ he was so upset by the whole thing that he agreed we should go. I just wasn’t prepared to leave it over the weekend and not to have spoken to anyone, it would have been awful.

A quick shower and change, and by 13h30 we were on the road to Troyes. We arrived at their offices about 45 minutes later and were relieved to see that they were open. I then instigated the next part of my plan. Because we were unable to ring through we didn’t then have an appointment, and the new rules are by appointment only. So, before getting out of the car, I wrote on the front of the envelope, ‘par main’ (by hand) and ‘urgente’ in big blue letters. Okay, not a great plan, but one that was to prove surprisingly effective. I said to Brian, who had his doubts, “Let’s just be confident”. We strode up to the security guard, “Bonjour” I said with a big smile. “Bonjour monsieur dame” came his friendly response. I explained in my best French that we needed to deliver a letter, to this department. He suggested we put it in the letter box outside. “Oh no, it’s urgent” I continued in French. I showed him the front of the envelope with the underlined copy. “Okay, wait here” he said, and whizzed off. Believe me, I was as surprised as you are. Soon a lady approached, “Can I help you?”. Brian stepped in and started to explain in French. He got a little flustered, and couldn’t find the right words, and it looked like we might be in bother, but then the security guard came back and said someone was coming who spoke really good English. This was going better than expected, now we seemed to have an English speaker to share our story with. When the man arrived, we explained the situation, showed him the letter we had written, added how stressed we were for good measure and gave him the documents. “Wait here please, I will go and check”. When he returned he said “The email you received was sent in error, we have received all your previous documents and everything is good, nothing is cancelled. But to be certain I will also add the new documents to the system”. “Thank you so much” we said together, and then said our goodbyes.

We left feeling relieved and happy. Okay, the day was not as we’d planned it, and in one way the trip to Troyes was unnecessary, but we’d resolved an issue that could have been worrying us both all weekend and beyond. French bureaucracy and paperwork can be very challenging, but in some ways it makes any successes a lot more satisfying, and this one was very satisfying.

We were now in desperate need of a coffee!