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| The wind getting up with us on Sunday morning |
We came back from Essen last Thursday and the journey was as uneventful as it had been on the way there just over a week previously. Other than in the centre of Essen, there were very few cars on the roads; the traffic on the motorways of Germany, Belgium and France consisted by and large of goods vehicles. It shouldn’t have been surprising really because, as in England and Scotland, only essential journeys are allowed in those countries. We had all the necessary documentation to travel through the different lockdown procedures in the three countries but weren’t stopped once. In fact, we only saw one police car during both trips and that was in a layby near Spa in Belgium and the policemen were more interested in eating their lunch than looking out for rogue vehicles or lockdown-busters.
On the afternoon before we left to return to the boat, we
noticed a plaque on the building next to our Airbnb. The building is a bar, although of course under
the current circumstances it is now closed, but the plaque explained that it
was once a gay nightclub called the Essener Eldorado until 1936 when it was
closed down by the Gestapo. It was
interesting as it showed that until that time, those venues had been tolerated.
It took about six hours to get back to Châlons and we would
like to say that Buddy was pleased to see us when we arrived at the port. He was clearly torn as he was happy to be
back with us but knew that it marked the end of his holiday with Paul & Sue
which meant the end of all the treats they gave him. Karen went straight out to get food in for
the week while I took Buddy out for a walk.
Soon after I’d set off Karen rang me to check I had my attestation. Having been away for a week or so I’d
forgotten the French rules that meant I had to complete a form for the daily
hour’s excursion. Fortunately, they're
now available for completion on mobile phones, so I was able to fill one in and
continue the walk. It was just as well
Karen called me because police were stopping people in the park to check their
attestations, a couple of lads were also stopped as they had their masks around
their necks.
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| Back home in Châlons-en-Champagne |
While travelling back we decided that we should apply for French residency before we go to the UK for the new year break. The EU withdrawal agreement has a provision that allows people, who apply for residency before the end of the year, to have until October 2021 to complete the process. Even if we end up not being granted residency it means we’ll legally be allowed to stay in France for longer than the 90 days allowed for non-residents next year.
The first stage of the application process is now on-line
including all the submission of accompanying paperwork, of which there is reams
as the French love their bureaucracy. No
doubt there will be a back and forth process by email as they decide that further items
of documentation are required, but once they are happy, we will then be invited
to the local prefecture to complete the process. At least, until then we now
both have a permit that states we have applied for a
residence permit under the UK's withdrawal agreement from the European Union
and that we retain all our rights under the agreement until the application
for a residence permit is processed by the prefecture.
On Monday we popped into
town to pick up some fruit and veg and it was quite sad to see all the bars and
restaurants in the squares were closed down again and their outside tables and
chairs stacked away. Although a few more
outlets are allowed to be open compared with the original confinement the
streets were still just as quiet.
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| Place de la République |
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| Place du Maréchal Foch |
Other than a few shoppers scurrying around the only other person we came across was a street artist. As you probably know from many of our blog entries, street artists are actively encouraged in the town, consequently many items of street furniture are decorated such as manhole covers and street and traffic signs. This guy was in the middle of creating a large, coloured tree on the cobblestones by a fountain in one of the squares. Standing next to him was another guy who looked like a press reporter judging by the size of his camera.
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| Spray can artist with a photographer in the middle of his extensive creation |
With the lovely sunny weather continuing we’re still seeing the odd butterfly on our daily walks, mainly the hibernators such as red admirals but we did catch sight of a late large white one day.
When we arrived back from Germany, we each had one item of
post waiting for us, our S1 forms had arrived from HMRC. This meant we could get on with the
application process to register them at the local health institute and obtain certificates
enabling us to receive healthcare within the French state system. Unlike, applying for residency under the EU
withdrawal agreement, this process was not online. To make it worse, far more personal documentation was
required, some of which is somewhere back in the UK. At least we now know what is required but
will have to wait until we go back to the UK before we can complete the
process.
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| Missed the sunrise on Wednesday morning |
We’ve now booked a tunnel crossing for Saturday and
will be going straight into two weeks of self-isolation. As an example of how daft the English rules are, we
are allowed to go into a supermarket on our journey home even though
we’re going into self-isolation and home deliveries are allowed. By the
time the two weeks are up we’ll know what the new lockdown rules are and
whether or not we’ll be allowed to catch up with the family.
One of the several tasks
we had to do before leaving on Saturday was to get Buddy to the vet. The current travel regulations mean that a
vet has to certify both that he is in good health and also that he has had the
necessary tapeworm treatment. This is
something we’ve had to do every time we’ve gone back to the UK and at least the
vet we use in Châlons knows us and Buddy.
Well, she knows me and Buddy really, as since Covid has been on the
scene only one person is allowed in the surgery at a time and that has always
been me. I was a bit stressed about
going on Wednesday as I was also getting a French passport for Buddy because
the current UK pet passports will not be valid for entry to France from 31st December
this year.
The reason I was a bit stressed was because my veterinary French is very basic, and I knew the vet’s English wasn’t much better. As it turned out I needn’t have worried and Julie understood our requirements and was happy to issue a French passport and enter the necessary information in both passports until the UK one becomes obsolete.
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| Buddy’s shiny new passport |
One of Karen’s tasks was to get some of her walnut haul cracked and jarred. Most of the walnuts have been drying long enough so every so often she has a cracking session. I have to be careful and keep out of the way as broken bits of shell sometimes come flying through the air.
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| Just a few of the jars prepared so far |
I’m not sure when I’ll
post the next blog entry but suspect it’ll be a while as once we’re in the UK on
Saturday we’ll be in self-isolation for two weeks so there won’t be an awful
lot to write home about!
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