les Davey de France

 Our new Carte de Séjour arrived this morning. They're mighty fine and say on them "Permanente" and expiry date of 21/1/2031. This is good news. Next week we'll help our daughter start applying for hers. She'll go on to ask for citizenship.

 With the onset of Brexit we applied for our ten-year carte de séjour and were given our provisional ones some time ago. They were provisional because the UK was still in the EU, we had not even entered the transition period. So we had EU member state cartes de séjour and knew that once Brexit was complete we would need to replace them. The government set up a website to apply fro the new cards and this went online in October 2019. I applied for Pat's card and for mine. Then the site was taken off-line again, but not before we had received our emails confirming our request for the new "third-country" cards. Then yesterday we received emails from the prefecture summoning us for a meeting on 20 January to take our fingerprints once more in order to produce our final permanent cartes de séjour. It will be good to get this finalised.

 There's a curfew at the moment which means that everyone must be indoors by 8pm. Covid regulations also restrict the number of folk you can have in your home to 6 (not counting children). So New Year's Eve found us on our own this year. It meant we could do things simply. We were on duty in the Christian bookshop from 2 till 4, so we had a big lunch of cauliflower cheese before heading off into the city. We wanted to call by Bradley's bookshop, the English language bookshop, on the way, and we spent a happy moment chatting with the guy who should really have been stocking the shelves, but hey. Then off to the bookshop through the pouring rain, dodging the many cyclists and the few cars.  Because we'd be along we decided we could skip eating an evening meal and instead go for snacks finger food, so I whipped up some hummus, Pat chopped carrots, peppers and cucumbers and we cracked open a bag of those vegetable crisps, too. We don't get TV but we do have a Netflix su...

"Since you left the United Kingdom fifteen years ago", began the email I received a few days ago. "If the law changes, then of course" So I can no longer vote in UK elections. Then today came a letter from the Town Hall, marked Urgent! What could it be? "Since you are no longer European you can no longer vote in the local elections". So henceforth it is officially NOT MY FAULT. I am disenfranchised. A serf. It's official.

not least is the danger of ranting. But one day into the election campaign I am already fed up of it.

So I have now received my convocation to the préfecture for the 12 December, at 14:35 at guichet 22. The is the same date and place as Pat, but ten minutes before. So yesterday I sppent a happy moment scanning and downloading various documents that we will need. Two passports (every page) Two birth certificates. One marriage certificate. Two years' worth of electricity bills for 2013 and 2014 Rent record for 2015 - 2018 Tax statements for 2013 to 2015 Proof of rights under health system. We'll need to provide an attestation each about the amount of time we have spent outside France during the last five years. And I think that's all. We've been told that the people who deal with this at the préfecture are very pleasant.

As yet unknown. But we're likely: 1) to have some difficult moments regarding our support. Financial support is given in pounds sterling and we are paid in euros. If the pound flourishes as predicted then things will be great. If the pound languishes as predicted, then things will be very tough. 2) to lose the right to drive - at present we don't have to exchange our UK licence for a French one, and I am reluctant to do that for the sake of ten years' service. If we get back to the old situation where you have to exchange your licence, then I'd rather just lose the right to drive here. 3) to need a carte de séjour. A residence permit. I am tempted to apply for one now. They last ten years, so if we apply for one now it could take us up to retirement. 4) to rethink retirement - at present we are heading back to the UK in ten years' time. However the UK may change a lot over the next few years. What will the NHS be like with all the new funding injected into...

What concerns me most about Brexit is not the immediate consequences of the loss of European funding for some of the poorest areas of Britain, or the instability of the markets, the end of the Erasmus programme, the UK being left without any aircraft carrier (we share one with the French), etc. What concerns me most is not so much what we have done, but what lies behind it. And I am concerned that in the generation that did not live through the horrors of the World War Two and the struggle against the extreme right, that we are drifting slowly further to the right. Oh well. It will be interesting.

Great providence of heaven– What wonders shine In its profound display Of God’s design: It guards the dust of earth, Commands the hosts above, Fulfils the mighty plan Of his great love The kingdoms of this world Lie in its hand; See how they rise or fall At its command Through sorrow and distress, Tempestuous storms that rage, God’s kingdom yet endures From age to age Its darkness dense is but A radiant light; Its oft-perplexing ways Are ordered right. Soon all its winding paths Will end, and then the tale Of wonder shall be told Beyond the veil. (Hymn by David Charles, 1762-1834; Translated from Welsh by Edmund Tudor Owen)