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!

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.

Filed under “humour” but perhaps I need a “stupidity” category?!

And he has my permanent social security number, and is sending a new attestation showing it!

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…

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…