les Davey de France

 Mrs Davey celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday, so we decided to investigate a curry house of good repute a short tram ride from our apartment. It was a foul day, with episodes of driving torrential rain, so we were glad to have a brief moment of respite in which to make a dash for the tram. The curry was good. The waiter asked us if we liked it hot, and we said we did. It’s the first time we’ve had a properly spicy curry in Bordeaux, I think. We will be back.

 The Birth Certificate was labelled "Passport" and was delivered by my friendly local DHL man.  I immediately scanned it with my phone and loaded it up to the ANTS driving licence website, together with the other certificate. And since then... the status of my request is "En cours d'analyse par le service instructeur". So I hope that that's all I'll need to do until the time when they ask me to send them my old licence and they send me my new one.

The ANTS website is quite well designed. You can log in via your id and password from the tax system, so I did that rather than create another id and password, and loaded up my documents.  Off went my request. Back came the bad news that further documents were needed - a Birth Certificate issued within the past three months, and the UK licence centre document that confirms your right to drive. Hmmm. My most recent Birth Certificate was issued in 2013. Meanwhile in the UK there are postal strikes. Oh well, nothing for it but to bite the bullet and order a new certificate. The UK documents office offered delivery by DHL. It cost a lot, but I decided to go for it anyway. Meanwhile I also obtained the other UK certificate that was needed. You could simply download it.

 A word that strikes terror into the heart. I have various tasks to accomplish this week. The first is to apply to exchange my driving licence. European citizens can use their driving licences in any country of Europe, but we recently ceased to be European citizens. We’ve all been told to continue to use our UK driving licence until it expires or until we commit some driving offence. My photo card licence expires in February so it’s time to exchange it for a French one. This meant getting a passport photo done. I went to a booth that supplies the photo, transmits it to the préfecture, along with your signature and a special code that you can use in communication with the government. But could I get my signature to register on the screen? To ask the question is to answer it. So I hied me to a photographic emporium. A nice lady sat me on a wobbly stool, told me to look straight ahead and to relax, then to sign and gave me the code in return for 15 euro-credits. So that stage is done....

 I watched a news report about the proposed new law on immigration.  The problem is that France has gaps in the labour market, jobs that employers cannot fill, often in catering and care. Folk from other countries are willing to fill these jobs, but it is illegal to employ someone who doesn’t have the right to stay in the country and to work. Generally there are few inspectors and raids on places of work are few - though these sometimes did occur in previous administrations, police being sent to factory gates to check people’s papers.  The proposed law will give fast-track papers to immigrants who have found work in France to enable them to stay and to contribute to the economy.

 Last week we travelled to Teisendorf in Bavaria, near the Austrian border, for the Annual Retreat of the International Pastors of the International Christian Communities of Eurasia at a hotel/conference centre just a short walk from the railway station. In the past we have flown from Bordeaux to Paris, then Paris to Munich, then train to Teisendorf. Once we took the TGV to Paris, then flew to Munich, then took the train to Teisendorf. This year prices were such that we decided to go all the way by train. Our outward journey went : Bordeaux to Paris, Paris to Stuttgart, Stuttgart to Munich, Munich to Teisendorf. We had two small problems. One was that we decided to walk from Montparnasse to the Gare de l'Est. Big mistake. Don't do it. Take the Metro and spend an hour in a café instead. Then at Stuttgart we scuttled off to the correct platform to be told that we could not board our train, and that it had been cancelled. Five minutes later it pulled in at the adjoining platform, ...