This weekend we welcomed our 40th guest (excluding family etc) to Le Portanel since we opened for business at the start of May and the bookings keep coming in which is great. It can ibe hard work, there is no doubt about that, but we have some quieter days and make sure we have our down time too and we certainly have no regrets so far…
This weekend we blocked the guest rooms off for Sunday night and invited some local friends around for a chilled afternoon of eating, drinking and a well-earned break. It was 32 degrees, so perfect for the pool and the BBQ, and it made me think about what a great community we have here. About 25 of us relaxing and enjoying our new home and garden less than a year after moving over here. I have been so lucky to have such brilliant local running group – that must be a topic for another post.
A lot of people have asked me about how I, a UK passport holder, got a visa to live in France post-Brexit. I suppose you could say I cheated a bit because I am married to a citizen of the European Union. With both of Tom’s parents being Irish, he applied for his Irish passport as soon as Brexit started to look like a reality. So, Tom can come and go pretty much as he pleases and being his spouse, I was able to come to France without a long stay visa and then request one within 90 days of arrival.
Once in France I made an appointment for a Carte de Séjour application meeting at the Préfecture de la Dordogne in Périgueux giving myself about a month to get my dossier together which included :
- An application form
- My passport
- My birth certificate and a French government approved translated copy
- Proof of our address in France
- My private health insurance
- Proof of my financial income
- Proof of my date of arrival in France
- Three recent passport photos
- Our marriage certificate and a French government approved translated copy
- Tom’s birth certificate and a French government approved translated copy
- Tom’s passport
… + an extra copy of all of the above
At the appointment in August, the government officer looked through my file, took my fingerprints and asked me a few questions. Then we signed a marriage declaration form and the officer prepared a temporary residence permit (six months) to keep with my passport while I waited for their decision and my Carte de Sèjour which would allow me to stay in France for five years.
In mid-October, I received an email from the préfecture telling me it was ready for collection, so I made an appointment to collect it the following week. This appointment was very short, just two minutes to verify my details and sign for my card. We’d already had an offer accepted on a house by that time, so it was just as well it went smoothly!
Temperatures are back in the 30s again this week and we are pretty full for the next couple of weeks so I think June will be a really good test of how we are doing in our new venture.