only in France…
… could washing your car at home be illegal!
Several months ago I wanted to wash the Land Rover for the first time after moving to France. I was slightly surprised to find that Vincent’s parents didn’t have sponge/shampoo/wash leather etc. but this was explained by the fact that they never wash their car(!) so I just bought the necessary items and washed it on their driveway (as it wasn’t practical to do it chez nous, us being city-apartment-dwellers without parking). I did comment at the time that you don’t often see French people washing their cars at home, and that they all go to a station lavage which seem to be everywhere, but we didn’t think any more about it…
Well, it turns out that one reason may be because it appears to be illegal to wash your car at home – see here and here!
Now personally I’ve almost never used car washes in the past, in the UK, because
- they’re rubbish
- nowadays they have to recycle the water, so in Winter you end up washing the car with a concentrated salt solution
but perhaps I shall have to change my ways – at least for the Landy; there’s no way the Caterham is going anywhere near a pressure hose!
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healthcare arranged
Armed with my new attestation with my permanent Social Security Number, we returned to the mutuelle and signed up for my complémentaire today. It wasn’t even necessary to fill in a questionnaire as mutuelles don’t (indeed, aren’t allowed to) take account of medical history when setting their premiums – unlike the commercial providers of complémentaires.
So I just had to fill in a form with my details and hand over a cheque for the first month’s premium along with a RIB (bank details form) so that they can send reimbursements directly to my account. For the ongoing premiums once can choose between payments every 1/3/6/12 months, either by prélevement (like Direct Debit) or by cheque.
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Tags: complémentaire, healthcare, mutuelle
this world has gone mad
I just wanted some bags to use in the freezer…
Filed under “humour” but perhaps I need a “stupidity” category?!
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à demain… part 2
Spoke to the man at the CPAM… apparently what it says on my attestation is quite normal, it’s just there to inform hospitals that my cover is outside of their default budget, and I definitely have the usual cover for doctor, pharmacy etc.
And he has my permanent social security number, and is sending a new attestation showing it!
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Tags: CPAM, healthcare
My first solo
Today was a bit of a first for me – dealing with an administration on my own! Usually Vincent comes with me and, if I’m honest, does most of the work – my understanding of French is now pretty good, but I’m still poor at speaking it myself.
We’re in the process of re-registering my second car in France, and I had to go to the local tax HQ (Hôtel des Impôts) to get a certificate showing that it’s free of VAT liability (un Quitus Fiscal); since I’ve been through the process before – when we re-registered the Land Rover – I thought I could probably manage on my own. So I headed off on the bus – the parking situation in Amiens is such that if I’d taken the van, I wouldn’t have been able to park anywhere near home when I returned – and within 10 minutes of arriving I was back outside, Quitus in hand and with no language problems or confusion to report. Result!
Now we just have to get the car accepted by La DRIRE, the administration which handles approval of vehicles, as it isn’t a mass-production model and so doesn’t have European Type Approval. More on this later…
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à demain
No call back from the CPAM this morning so we ‘phoned them after lunch… the one person who deals with us foreigners wasn’t there today, so we have to try again tomorrow…
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arranging healthcare
France has the best healthcare in the world – that’s official, as reported by the WHO. But this doesn’t come cheap and, unlike in the UK, part of the cost has to be covered by the patient. Once one is “in the system” then the state covers, typically, 75% of the cost and the rest is covered, conventionally, by a complémentaire or top-up insurance.
To be in the system, you generally need to be paying social security contributions (cotisations) on your income but there are specific provisions for EEC migrants: their own country covers their healthcare for a limited period (by issuing an E106 form) if they are of working age (like me) or indefinitely (by issuing an E121 form) if they are retired.
[There's currently a burning issue for many British residents in France who look likely to find themselves without healthcare in a few months' time, because France has clarified/adjusted its interpretation of European law on migrants, and declared that it will no longer provide healthcare for migrant inactifs, ie people of working age who are not working. This affects Brits who have taken early retirement and moved to France, because their E106 form has expired but they don't have an E121 form (because they are not retired in the UK, in the legal sense, having not reached state retirement age). Fortunately I'm not - yet - in this situation as I have an E106 form valid until January 2009, and anyway I very much hope to have an income and so will be paying contributions!]
We visited the CPAM (state health insurance agency) office in Amiens a few weeks ago to register me for a Carte Vitale – health insurance card – which is effectively asking for a social security number. The Carte itself takes a few weeks to arrive but in the meantime they sent a letter (attestation) with a temporary number, confirming that I’m now in the system. Armed with this we then went to arrange my top-up cover, choosing the same mutuelle as Vincent.
We expected this to be simple but hit a snag as my attestation from the CPAM only refers to covering the costs of hospitalisation – nothing about general doctor or pharmacy. The lady at the mutuelle said this isn’t normal, and that, unsurprisingly, they can’t give me a top-up insurance for something not covered by the state. Now our understanding – and what the chap at the CPAM said to us – is that I get the same healthcare as a French national so something is awry. We called the CPAM to query this last Friday but Thursday was a public holiday (All Saints Day, La Toussaint) and it looks like the relevant person had taken Friday off as well (very common in French administration, it’s called “making the bridge”) as we didn’t get a call back. Fingers crossed for something today…
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Tags: complémentaire, CPAM, E106, E121, healthcare, mutuelle
a minor dilemma
Now that I’ve decided to start this online journal of my experiences of coming to live in France, I have to deal with the fact that I’ve actually been here some time already! Well, rather than try to catch up, writing a complete (and, probably, boring) account of what’s happened already, I think I’ll just dive in and let the backstory develop as I go along…
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