Laura
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Posts posted by Laura
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I will soon be getting PACSed and have recently started the process by taking a trip down to our nearest Tribunal d'Instance... and I have to say that the people working there seem to be absolutely clueless.Anybody thinking about getting PACSed, I advise you to read as much as you can about on the internet first before going along to initiate the process. Having done just that myself, I was glad I did. First of all, the receptionists gave us a "list of paperwork required" which later turned out to be out of date. Also, they had manually scribbled out the part which said you needed a "certificat de non pacte", as if it was no longer required or something. Unfortunately for me I trusted them on this (I thought, "well they wouldn't have scribbled it out for no reason"), especially as they made no mention of it when they recited verbally what was required. They just said we needed our "extraits d'acte de naissance", the convention written by ourselves, and for me a "certificat de coutume" was also required.No mention whatsoever that I would need my birth certificate translated into French! So I asked the question. Yes apparently they need to be translated. Well they could have said so rather than waiting for me to ask the question!No mention whatsoever that it had to be done by an official approved translator or how I should go about locating one. So I asked the question and asked if they had the list of traducteurs assermentés (a good job I had read about that on the internet beforehand!). Oh surprise surprise, yes, they DID have a copy of the list - so why didn't they just give it to me rather than waiting for me to ask yet again?So then of course, I take care to get all my paperwork in order, my certificat de coutume from the British Embassy and an official translation of my birth certificate, my boyfriend goes along to the mairie for his extrait d'acte de naissance, we write a simple convention together and we think we're all set to go.Now I'm the kind of person that gets really excited about things like this, just like I get excited about Christmas and birthdays... for me, this is the last step before getting married... and I can't believe the day has finally come. So off we go, paperwork in hand, only to be then told by the Tribunal d'Instance that they can't PACS us because I didn't have my "certificat de non pacte". The disappointment was awful, and I was so annoyed that they had not mentioned that this document was necessary the first time, and even worse, had even crossed it out on their so-called list of documents required! I argued with every reasonable argument that I could come up with, explaining that at reception they said it was no longer required, but it didn't make any difference. It just wasn't going to be possible without this certificate.So I've sent my envelope off today to order the certificate from the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. What a hassle! The French administration certainly do seem to try and make people's lives as difficult as possible... or is it just plain incompetence?Anyway I'm just going to hope that everything goes as planned this time and that we'll be able to get PACSed before the dates on our extraits de naissance expire!So let this be a lesson, arm yourself with as much information as you can before tackling the French administrations, ready to correct them when they get something wrong in order to save you more trips to the Tribunal d'Instance than necessary!
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When I get married, I would like to use my husband's surname instead of my maiden name, as many women do. Had I still been a UK resident, I'd have changed it on my passport and all my documents in order to completely lose my maiden name.However, in France this is going to be complicated. It would be so much simpler if I was a French national with a carte d'identité with both surnames appearing on it, but how am I going to prove my identity with my passport if I introduce myself with my husband's surname and then present my ID which has only my maiden name on it?There are going to be times where I need to prove my identity with my maiden name (filling in official forms for the préfecture etc) and times where I'll need proof of my married name when I introduce myself as such. How does this work? All the married women out there - did you change your name on your passport or did you resort to taking a copy of your acte de mariage everywhere with you as well?
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Hi James,
I am the same age as you, 23, and moved out to France on my own a couple of years ago - the best decision I ever made! It has been an amazing experience so far, you simply never stop learning and discovering new things. Meeting the local people is one of my favourite things about living here, as they are the key to learning your new way of life. They've got so many interesting tales to tell about the local area, it really is worth spending time in your local bar/café and absorbing what's going on around you. If you're not comfortable with approaching strangers, you'll get approached sooner or later if you go there often enough. That's where the real adventure begins - once you start talking to one person, they will often introduce you to other people they know eventually.
I live in a tiny village in the Alps that nobody seems to have ever heard of, and to be honest that's just fine by me... I love being the only English person in the village! The locals seems to find it fascinating, as it's the sort of place where the natives have had their families there for generations and generations - although they get the occasional group of English tourists every now and then who come for their skiing holidays, they are not used to the idea of outsiders actually coming to their village to live permanently. That always provides a good starting topic of conversation when meeting someone new - tell them your story about how you ended up living there!
I suggest that from a social point of view, just make yourself "visible" - don't hide away in your apartment all the time. Go out, make yourself known to your neighbours, be seen to be making a social effort to fit in. It may take a while, but as the time passes you'll start to discover that your efforts were worth it. The rewards are great, there's so much out there to be gained by moving to another country!
Laura
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Ah, so it's not just us who've received 2 copies of The Connexion from nowhere then! Neither myself nor my boyfriend have subscribed to it, but strangely we got 2 free copies in the post addressed to my boyfriend who has been living here since he was 10 years old and who has never wanted to read anything in English... no idea how that happened. He's the kind of person who likes to think he's 100% French (and, to be fair, he does an extremely good job of it - you'd never know he hadn't spent his whole life in France) and was disgusted to find English reading material in his mailbox... I couldn't help but laugh when I saw his face, and was most grateful to take it off him for my own reading pleasure! I must admit though, although there are some interesting articles, it seems to address its readers as people who are incapable of dealing with everyday life in France without help - I would like to think that most Brits living in France are better integrated than what its editors seem to believe.
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Woo-hoo! 93.33% on the first test! Time to try the others...
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As if local accents weren't enough to contend with already, you've also got all the various "regionalisms" like the tendency here to stick the word "y" everywhere (for example it's perfectly acceptable to say "j'y mets sur la table" instead of "je le mets sur la table")... "quelle heure c'est?" instead of "quelle heure est-il"... "ça neige" instead of "il neige"... there's plenty more, I could go on forever!
As if that wasn't confusing enough for the non-native speaker, the locals also like to frequently mix in words of patois (franco-provençal, to be correct) in with their French sentences... and in some cases this means completely changing the meaning of an otherwise "standard" French word, for example "j'y fais d'abord" actually translates as "I'll do it straight away" in the Savoyard sense, whereas in standard French it would mean "I'll do it first". And then you've got those people who speak only in patois (yes, these people do still exist in small villages like mine, although they all understand French as well).
Add to that the fact that the local accent here is quite rough-sounding compared to other French accents - less musical and more syllables missed out - and you have a real challenge on your hands! I'm having fun learning the language though, even if the Alps probably isn't the easiest place to learn it... once you start to understand the origin of some of the local expressions you discover that there's a real sense of humour behind it all!
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[quote user="Dotty "]
SS73
I was under the impression that the Alps had snow already?????
Glad you have it now though
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Places at higher altitude (about 1600m upwards) have had just about enough snow to ski on during the past few weeks. I am based at 1350m and the only slopes we've been able to open (until today) are the few slopes which have snow cannons on them. But even so, it's been an absolute nightmare trying to maintain them as the snow produced by the cannons doesn't stay put if the ground temperature is too warm. Due to not being at work last week, I took the opportunity to go up the mountain to investigate the conditions a bit higher up, and it was literally a case of having to slalom between patches of grass - it really was that bad! Downright dangerous if you ask me - rocks and bare ground poking out all over the place. According to my colleagues who had the opportunity to work last week, we've already had lots of accidents reported on the pistes due to the conditions. I'm just relieved that the snow has finally arrived and everyone can ski safe and enjoy it.
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At LAST...!
As an inhabitant of the Alps myself, to say that I am relieved to finally see some snow would be an understatement! With the snow coming over nearly two months overdue, the season can finally begin. I work for the local lift pass company in my village, and have been unable to start work until very recently due to the weather conditions causing us to close most of the pistes. Finally, things are back the way they should be - it lifts one's spirits to look out the window and see it all white again - it's been far too long! [:)]
Should I change my surname on my passport?
in Getting Married in France
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