Well, here we are in France! Our flight over was
long and tiring as they always are, and then we were delayed in Istanbul for
almost an hour, but we arrived finally, and were delighted to see the smiling
face of our host who had come to collect us.
I have a few notes in my diary about our few hours
wait in Istanbul, such as ……….I inadvertently
locked my phone and had to send frantic messages home to get a special
code sent to me to unlock it again.
And …….we watched in amusement as a toddler ran the
wrong way along a moving walkway, only to be returned to his starting point as
soon as he stopped for breath. It kept him amused for ages.
And ……..the snow was falling over the airport as we
waited; drifting down in lazy swathes but melting as it touched the ground.
We wandered through the shops but everything was far
too expensive. Neels, however, decide to buy an ice-cream in a cup from a young
man all dressed in traditional Turkish costume and was later sorry to have done
so. The ice-cream was a strange sticky mixture and very sweet, but quite nice
but the price left a somewhat sour taste in his mouth – it cost almost R80!
It wasn’t long before we were back at our host’s
house near Peyrusse Vieille, where our little car was standing waiting for our
return. Although we were delighted to see our hostess again, we couldn’t wait
to fall into bed, and had a wonderful sleep in the cosiest of beds.
The following day we had shaken off our travel
weariness and were ready to be sociable. Our first engagement was to have lunch
with my cousin who lives not far away. She is a wonderful cook and treated us
to a delicious meal, interspersed with much chat about family and friends. It
was a most pleasant day.
The next day, Thursday, was an important one. This
was the day that we had set aside to go to Auch to apply for renewal of our
residence permits. Last year we had been told that if we came again this year,
they would in all likelihood renew our permits for five years, so we were eager
to find out what would happen. Everything went very smoothly as, by now, we
know the procedure and had all the documents, copies of documents and copies of
copies that they require. When she had been through it all and seemed
satisfied, Neels asked her rather tentatively if there was a chance of a longer
renewal than just the one year. ‘Oh yes,” she replied, “Would you like ten
years?”. Wow! Ten years! We could hardly believe it and then common sense
kicked in and we asked what the different permits would cost. It turned out
that to renew for ten years would cost just about double the cost for one year,
so it is really a no brainer, But, of course there is a snag. There is always a
snag when things sound too good to be true. Our address in France is the one of
the house we usually stay in, but this year we are not there, so strictly
speaking, it isn’t our address. But to be accepted as an applicant for a
ten-year residency permit we need to be validated by the Mayor of the local
Commune (Municipality). Ooops!! So we spent the rest of the day driving all
over the countryside trying to find the Mayor’s secretary, who works in more
than one village each week. We know her quite well and as she speaks excellent
English, she is the best person to advise us on how to get around this glitch.
So we have had no option but to stay on in Peyrusse Vieille until after Monday
afternoon when she is in office again. Awkward for our hosts and ourselves, but
our hosts are being extremely kind and generous about the whole affair.
We are also required to provide a letter, in French,
requesting that our permits be extended for ten years, so it was off to my
cousin again yesterday to ask her to write an appropriate letter as she is
fluent in French. We ended up staying for a light lunch with her and lots more
chat.
All this running around and expending nervous energy
decreed that we have a day of rest, so on Saturday while our hosts went off to
town to do numerous chores, we stayed
home close to the fire. The weather, up to this point had been flawless with
brilliant blue skies and no wind, but we had had good views of the
Pyrenees in all their snow-clad splendour, so we knew some ‘weather’ was on the
way. The locals always say that if you can see the mountains clearly, it will
rain within the next five days, and they are often correct.
Sunday was once again brilliantly sunny and windless
but hardly warm! We had invited our hosts to lunch at a restaurant of their
choice, and the one they chose was one built to resemble a boat, on the edge of
the lake at Marciac. Thank goodness we had booked, as it was choc-a-block when
we arrived at 12.30. All the tables are ‘window tables’ and waiting for service
was a pleasure, as we could look out of the huge windows, across the lake and
to the view beyond. Although, I have to just add that we hardly had to wait at
all in spite of the crowd. The set menu consisted of a soup, starter, main
course and dessert, with choices in each case except for the soup. It was all
delicious and beautifully cooked. We rolled off the boat completely stuffed!
Although we love our hosts dearly and enjoy being
with them, I shall be pleased to move on to our next stop as the house we are
currently in, is a bit isolated and down in a hollow, so does not have Internet
or cell phone coverage. If we lived here, in this house, it wouldn’t worry me
too much, and we would eventually ‘make a plan’, but right now, in our
situation, I would really like to know if all our bits of technology had made
the transition from South Africa to France successfully. If you finally receive
this, you will know that the answer is ‘Yes’.
