British Embassy Brexit meeting in Civray

Matthew Lodge, British Embassy Brexit meeting in Civray, December 2017 photo: Martin O'Neill

Yesterday evening I attended a local Brexit information meeting set up by the British Embassy, facilitated by Kathryn Dobson who produces the Living Magazine and felt strongly that events like this don’t just take place in big cities like Paris, Lyon and Nice. Matthew Lodge, the Embassy number two, along with a small team from consular services came to Civray, a rural town in the Vienne region, close to the Deux-Sèvres and Charente borders, an area in France where there are a lot of British residents. It was informative and I’m glad I was there, even if all our questions don’t have answers just yet.

Firstly I was impressed by the turn out, the theatre was almost full, and our presence reinforced our interest in knowledge about the changes ahead and helped put across our worries and fears for our future.  Matthew Lodge was engaging, pleasant and tried to be reassuring without fobbing us off, but he was also clear that following the referendum there is now an all-party determination to respect the result and to make the best of it. Brexit is happening and it will bring about change to everyone, especially those of us living in the EU.

There were some angry and upset people, but the questions that were put to Matthew were generally well thought out and answered clearly and to the best of his knowledge. One of the questions was from a local French Maire, who spoke excellent English, and had taken the time to come along in order to be better informed to help her British residents. She was seeking ways to reassure them that they still had a future to look forward to in France, a similar reassurance that I was looking for too.

This is not a detailed synopsis from the meeting, but the points I found worth noting.

The term ‘settled status’ was used quite a lot during the meeting and my understanding of this is that it applies to those of us who by the date of the UK’s exit from the EU are considered settled and resident in France ie our primary residence is here, we are in the ‘system’, we hold a Carte Vitale health card and French driving licence, we are either working here or at least submitting tax returns here (note - the current double taxation treaty between the UK and France should not be subject to change).

  

There is currently no requirement for UK citizens to apply for a Carte de Séjour (French residency permit), but we can do so if we wish. Matthew felt it could do those of us who are eligible no harm to apply as it will give us proof of 'settled status' and demonstrate how long we’ve been here should we need it in the future. He also advised the Embassy would be willing to intervene if our local Prefectures were reluctant to process our applications. He saw no need for us to apply for French citizenship, but understood that many might feel this was the way forward for them, especially our children who have grown up in France, as this will ensure their freedom of movement throughout the EU in the future. We are lucky that neither the French nor British governments have an issue with citizens holding dual nationality.

The rights that those with ‘settled status’ are entitled to, in terms of healthcare, pensions, and right to reside are likely to remain the same following the UK’s exit from the EU. This includes the right to continue to hold an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) medical assistance card for travel within the EU. However, for those of us with family members regularly visiting from the UK, there is no current provision for them to retain their EHIC status. I am also unclear as to what our right to receive emergency medical assistance in the UK will be.

UK residents moving to France after 29/3/19 will not have these same rights that we will have. If you are reading this and fancy giving the EU life a go, do it now to ensure you are settled before March 2019.

Matthew didn’t quite go so far as to tell us to learn French, but did point out that those applying for citizenship in the UK are expected to speak English. We are likely to find ourselves doing a lot more form filing in the future, so having more than a basic level of French is certainly going to help.

I still have questions concerning our rights to remain elected officials on local councils here in France, something the French were keen for us to do at the last elections in 2012, and I feel strongly that to lose our voice locally would be a shame. The next phase of talks will deal with trade issues, so answers to my many questions about running a business that crosses EU borders also can’t be given just yet. 

The Embassy are keen for those of us in France to follow them on social media (Twitter: UKinFrance and BritishinFrance and Facebook) to ensure we are kept as up to date as possible and are happy to receive questions concerning Brexit by email. Please email france.enquiries@fco.gov.uk putting ‘Brexit query’ in the subject line. You can also contact them via their website here and sign up for Voisins Voices here, a newsletter for the British community living in France.

The joint technical note on the comparison of EU-UK positions on citizens’ rights, something Matthew referred to last night, can be read in full here.

Information on requesting French carte de séjour can be found here and for applying for naturalisation see here. It was suggested the Embassy put together a guide to help us in applying for French naturalisation and carte de séjour, which they seemed keen to do.

If you were not at the meeting, I hope you find this helpful. You can also watch a short local news clip about the meeting in Civray, including interviews with local residents and Matthew Lodge, here.

You might also like to follow British in Europe to keep up to date on their work to ensure our continued rights following Brexit. You can find their website here and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Busy days, noisy nights and winter weather woes

Storm Ana

I was a little bleary-eyed this morning thanks to my new friend Ana. Actually, she’s not my friend at all, just the latest named storm to attack us from the west, blowing around all night, causing things to go bump, crash and the roof tiles to clatter around, which kept me awake. I was convinced daylight would reveal debris and disorder in the garden, but thankfully all was well if rather damp this morning.

It was also quite a busy weekend and the last thing I needed was a storm-damaged nights sleep, but at least I was able to take the executive decision not to drive Ed to school in the dark, when the gusts were being recorded at over 100km/h. We might not have enjoyed a lie-in, but we did have a sneaky lazy morning together.

The weather this last week has certainly been varied, from thick fog last Monday, when I spent the morning doing the Limoges airport run, to freezing fog on Wednesday, pouring rain on Friday, then blue skies and sunshine, but heavy frost on Saturday to gale force wind with more rain on Sunday and into Monday. I’m not enjoying this wild array of wintery weather one bit. Thankfully there has been a lot going on to take my mind off of the weather.

Cutting the tricolore

On Saturday morning, as a local councillor, I was invited to attend the opening of a local mediathéque (multi-media library). For a small, rural town a brand new library and multi-media centre, with meeting space for the town associations, is quite an achievement and while I overheard some saying the architect had used too much metalwork on the design, most of us agreed the mix of glass, local stone, wood (the town is home to a large wood yard) and metal (as the building was originally a ironmongers shop) was just right. One of the perks of being a councillor is the invites to local special ‘do’s’ like this, where I have observed the French ribbon-cutting tradition, and I love it. A line of dignitaries proudly stand behind a tricolore ribbon, which one of them cuts to officially open whatever it is we have gathered to celebrate, they then each take a small section of ribbon away with them, often tucking it in their top jacket pocket. Although I wasn’t a dignitary, our village Maire did cut me off my own piece of ribbon when I explained this was a very French thing to do.

The dignitaries and their speeches

The other tradition is for all the assembled dignitaries to say a few (or a lot) of words. Thankfully as we had an event in our village to attend, we only had time to listen to the eight-page speech from the town Maire and sadly had to leave before the other seven started their speeches!

The table setting for the village Christmas meal

Our afternoon was then spent entertaining our village elders, the over 70’s who are invited to a five-course Christmas meal each year. It was great fun, good company and we all enjoyed the foire gras with fig and onion chutney, the salmon served in a scallop shell, the duck, the cheese and the black forest themed dessert. As a councillor I’m honoured to be included, and rather glad that the serving and clearing of the tables is down to us as at least it ensures lots of exercise between courses.

The Christmas menu

I’m not sure if today’s laziness was down to a food hangover from the weekend or the lack of sleep last night, but with a busy week ahead of me, it was probably just what I needed.

This evening I attended a local Brexit information meeting set up by the British Embassy, which was informative even if all our questions don’t have answers just yet, but it's getting late now, so I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Tourteaux Baubeau Club Ambassadeurs 79

Tourteaux Baubeau, Lezay 79 fresh from the oven

Last week, on a cold and foggy morning (and we’ve had more than our fair share of those so far this winter) I set off on an adventure. I like adventures and this one ticked many boxes. It involved food, it was local and it was free. 

Here in the Deux-Sèvres department we have a kind of loyalty card scheme run by the tourist office called Club Ambassadeur 79. The scheme is free to join for residents of the Deux-Sèvres and as well as offering reduced price entry to local attractions they also organise group tours to local producers. I wrote briefly about this scheme when I signed up in 2014, (see here) but last week was the fist time I’d actually got around to using it. As my legs and I know from my cycle ride around the Deux-Sèvres, it is a long department and things that happen in the north are not really on my doorstep.

One of our local specialities is the Tourteau Fromager, a baked cheesecake I wrote about in 2013, (see here) which is traditionally served for celebrations like weddings, christenings and retirements. I was rather excited to see the Ambassadeurs were being offered a tour around the patisserie where they are made, Tourteaux Baubeau, near Lezay and I couldn’t put my name down quick enough.

Mini galette fresh from the oven

Our group, that was mostly made up of retired French couples (yes, I was the only non-French person there) arrived in the morning just as a batch of little galettes came out of the oven and just in time to watch the start of the day’s production of Tourteaux. It was cold and dull outside, but inside it was warm and with a welcoming smell of baking and the seven members of staff didn’t seem at all bothered with us getting in their way. Tasters were of course offered and enjoyed.

The Tourteaux making process

The Tourteau has a pastry base and is filled with a light and airy batter that contains fromage frais, which can be made with goat milk or cow. The first part of the process is separating the eggs, all 350 of them that are required to make just over 200 tourteaux. The actual number will vary as the volume of the beaten egg white varies depending on the external temperature. They have a pretty cool machine that separates the eggs, where the whites fall through the holes leaving the yolks to plop into the basin. Any rogue yolk has to be removed from the whites, which are beaten to soft peaks before being folded into the yolk, flour and sugar batter.

Hand mixing the egg whites into the batter

We were told at the beginning of the tour that the flour, eggs, fromage frais and butter all come from the local area and much of the process is still carried out by hand. They weren’t lying, but I’m not sure any of us were expecting to see the hand (or should I say arm) mixing in of the beaten eggs to the batter.

A delicious slice of tourteau fromager

Once the batter is spooned into the shells they are cooked at 300° for about 20 mins. The volume of egg white in the mix means they rise, but also that they brown very quickly hence the black top. The cooking process is watched very carefully, by shining a torch through the glass door of the oven, but as they looked black very quickly how they knew when they were cooked was a mystery to me. Once done, the oven was switched off and the door was opened allowing a cloud of smoke and smell of burning to escape, but the tourteaux stayed put for four minutes. It wasn’t quite the nice smell of baking we had arrived to, however, don’t be put off by their burned appearance as it hides a delicious, moist, light and airy cake within.

If you live in the Deux-Sèvres and would like more information on the Ambassadors scheme, click here.

This post has been linked to #AllAboutFrance over at the Lou Messugo blog. Click here to read more.

Book review of From Moulin Rouge to Gaudi's City by EJ Bauer

My review today is for From Moulin Rouge to Gaudi’s City by EJ Bauer, a travel memoir packed with ideas and experiences from Elizabeth’s first European visit to Paris, the south of France and Barcelona.

Paris had always been her dream and for many years Elizabeth thought it might just remain that, however events in life often change the way of our future paths. For Elizabeth, recovering from breast cancer led her to look differently on her future and saying ‘yes’ to a trip to Europe with her sister Louise and friend Bron was just the beginning.

Elizabeth takes us with them and I have to admit to experiencing more of Paris through the pages of this book than I have in real life and I live in France, only 400km from Paris. Our intrepid adventurers dined atop the Eiffel Tower, experienced the cabaret of the Moulin Rouge, took city walking tours, boat tours, a chateaux and wine tour in the Loire, a cycling tour to Giverny and Monet’s Garden, and so much more. It was exhausting! They then moved on to the south of France by train, where they hired a car and took in a different set of French experiences with every day packed to bursting, as their days in Paris had been. I take my hat off to them, especially as shingles were giving Elizabeth a bit of a hard time and Bron too had health issues.

I soon discovered their secret though; the magic elixir that kept them going, and it comes in a flute shaped glass, goes pop with you open the bottle and never failed to make me smile as I read of yet another bar stop where it was Champagne time once more.

Once the ladies had finished with France (for this visit anyway), Barcelona was their third and final destination. Here the weather was better than in Paris and their itinerary no less packed out. The only difference being the bars here served Cava and tapas to keep their energy levels up as they took in the sights and the shops.

This is an entertaining and enjoyable travel memoir that not only shows bags of enthusiasm for her destinations, but also the benefits of the careful and considered planning that obviously went into making this trip so special. It left me full of admiration for all they had achieved. Elizabeth's passion for travel is contagious so do be warned, this book will leave you wanting to pack for your own adventure. I know this trip was just the beginning for Elizabeth and I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of her travels in the future.

From Moulin Rouge to Gaudi’s City is available in ebook and paperback versions and links to Amazon can be found below.

Book review of French Collection by Vanessa Couchman

French Collection by Vanessa Couchman

My review today is for French Collection, the new short story collection from Vanessa Couchman.

I enjoy Vanessa’s writing and this latest collection didn’t disappoint, she sets a good scene and even in a short story I feel I am able to get to know the characters really well.

This collection of twelve short stories take us on a trip through the ages, from the years of the plague in the 17^th Century, to the years of the First and Second World Wars and on into the present day. We meet families in difficult times, experience life in France from travelling pedlars to soldiers in the trenches, to the arty scene in Paris and more. They are all very different tales, some have twists and surprises, others are full of ghosts and memories, but all are thoroughly enjoyable snippets of life in France.

This book would be the perfect accompaniment to your morning coffee break, great to dip in and out of and far less calorific than a biscuit. It also includes a sneak preview of her new novel set in Corsica and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

If you missed Vanessa’s guest post about how France influences her fiction writing, you can read it here. You can also read my France et Moi interview with her here and my review of her first novel, The House at Zaronza here.

You can visit Vanessa's website here and she also writes a great blog, which you can read here and do follow her on Facebook and Twitter too.

All of Vanessa’s books are available in ebook and paperback version, links to Amazon can be found below.

Guest post by Vanessa Couchman

French Collection by Vanessa Couchman

To celebrate the release of French Collection I am welcoming author Vanessa Couchman to share a guest post with us today. I have followed Vanessa's blog for many years, read some of her short stories published in a couple of anthologies, thoroughly enjoyed her first novel The House at Zaronza and was lucky enough to have met her at the Charroux Literary Festival this summer. You can imagine I was quite excited when I heard she would be publishing French Collection, twelve short stories set in France, and that she was happy to offer me a review copy. Thank you Vanessa, over to you:

Many thanks for inviting me to French Village Diaries today, Jacqui.

Why France Provides Inspiration for Fiction

Twenty years ago, my husband and I bought an 18^th-century farmhouse in southwest France and moved here to live. It’s been a big adventure. Above all, I have learned far more about the history, culture and customs of this entrancing country.

In 1997, I was a freelance management consultant and copywriter. My work involved a lot of writing, but I had no idea that I would move on to writing fiction. Living in France has played a large part in that.

When we moved here, I knew very little about this part of France. We had been here on holiday and enjoyed the climate, the food, the perched hilltop villages and the glorious countryside. I had a vague idea that the Hundred Years War had been fought around here, but beyond that my knowledge of the rich historical heritage was woefully thin.

 

Najac

Moving here was a voyage of discovery. At first, it was an extended holiday and we visited all the touristy places, such as the stunning villages of Najac, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and Bruniquel. They have fascinating and often turbulent histories. Gradually, I learned that le petit patrimoine – wayside crosses, shepherd’s huts, tiny chapels buried in the woods – also harbours stories that are poignant, romantic or tragic.

An isolated cross with intricate carvings was a futile attempt to ward off the phylloxera bug that devastated the French vineyards in the 19^th century. A pigeonnier (dovecot) became a prison for a girl who fell pregnant outside wedlock and brought shame on her family. A stone plaque in a peaceful spot is a memorial to maquisards who were shot by the Germans during World War II.   

However, it’s not just France’s history that makes it such a happy hunting ground for authors. The colour and vibrancy of produce in a market, the taste, texture and scent of bread and patisserie, the fragrant steam rising from a bowl of moules marinières – all these have worked on my writing grey cells as well as my taste buds.

French art and architecture also offer rich seams of inspiration. For example, the Mona Lisa was evacuated from the Louvre to an abbey near us during World War II. That’s a story just begging to be written: it’s on my to-do list. Artists such as Degas and Toulouse Lautrec provide a tantalising glimpse into the Parisian demi-monde, while the soaring cathedrals and opulent châteaux are fitting settings for stories.   

It’s no surprise that authors such as Joanne Harris, Peter May, Kate Mosse and Martin Walker, to name just a few, have chosen to set their stories in France.  

After eight years of writing fiction, I realised that I had used France as the backdrop for many of my short stories. So I have collected a dozen of them into a book. About two-thirds are historical, but they are all inspired by the essence of France. 

  

Vanessa Couchman

Vanessa Couchman is a British novelist and short story writer who has lived in southwest France since 1997. She has written two novels, The House at Zaronza (read my review here) and The Corsican Widow, and is working on a third. Her short stories have been placed in competitions and published in anthologies. French Collection, her collection of short stories set in France, is published today, 9th November.

Website: http://vanessacouchmanwriter.com

French life blog, Life on La Lune: http://vanessafrance.wordpress.com

French Collection: Twelve Short Stories is available in paperback and e-book formats from Amazon.

Join me back here tomorrow to read my review of French Collection and you can also read my France et Moi interview with Vanessa here.

Flower Delivery in France Hipper.com

Raina by Hipper.com

New to France, Hipper.com, are an online flower delivery service, who aim to safely deliver reasonably priced bouquets of flowers direct to your door, with no extra delivery cost. They kindly offered to send me the bouquet of my choice, delivered on the day of my choice, in exchange for this blog post.

Would the delivery driver find our village, on the allotted day? Would the flowers have survived their journey? Would the bouquet look like the website picture I’d chosen? These were all questions I was keen to find out and here are my honest answers:

Hipper.com safe packaging

Deliveries here can be rather hit and miss, due to our slightly remote village location, but I’m pleased to report Hipper.com scored a big hit. Their online tracking service wasn’t very detailed, all I could glean was that my order was being processed and would be delivered between 8h00 and 20h00. I was up early and prepared for a long day of waiting, however, by 10h30 it had arrived. Top marks for you delivery driver Hipper; on more than one occasion I’ve waited in vain for three days for a delivery scheduled ‘today’.

Safely nestled inside

It was quite exciting having a huge box to open and I’m pleased to report the flowers inside were carefully packaged and double wrapped in cellophane, to ensure the water pocket kept the stems moist and flowers fresh in transit. Two flower heads fell off as I lifted it from the wrapping, but once it was in the vase you’d never notice.

My Raina bouquet

I’m no flower arranger, so I was delighted to see that once I’d unwrapped them, snipped off the base of the stem (as my Mum taught me) and put them in the vase, they relaxed into shape perfectly. All I needed to do was to add water and the plant food sachet they arrived with, and enjoy.

Hipper.com website

I think you will agree from my photos that the comparison of the picture I’d selected from the website, with the bouquet I received is almost identical in every way and I certainly wasn’t disappointed with the service.

I chose Raina, for it’s seasonal autumnal colour, and delivered to your door for 24.99€ (or £19.99 from their UK site), I think represents good value for money.

If you ever need/would like to send flowers to France just click here Hipper.com to see their full selection. For future reference you can also find them on the sidebar of the blog by clicking on Flower Delivery in France.