1st February. The 2025 6 Nations rugby tournament opened with a bang last night as Wales were put to the sword 43-0 by a rampant France. All I'll say is that the result was not unexpected as Wales are rebuilding. France are going to take some stopping this year.
Update on new driving licence: it appears that a replacement should be issued within 2 weeks.
Here's one to get your heart started on a cold February morning.. It starts off raunchily - before morphing into a spaghetti western soundtrack:
29th January. Just back from a visit to an outpost of the Town Hall across the river known as France Services to request a new driving license. Prior to Covid, routine administrative requests were handled by the Sub-Prefecture.. where the large waiting room was probably ideal for the transmission of bugs. As can be seen from the above link, many of these functions have now been transferred from the Sub-Prefecture to this new office.
My request was handled with great efficiency (and friendliness) and once my identity had been cross-checked, the request was launched into the great administrative system that runs France. In a sign of the times, not a single paper form had to be completed.. the whole process being carried out online. All that was needed was access to my Ameli account, my identity card, a recent bill showing my name and address, my old driving license.. plus two color photos. It seems that I will receive a provisional acknowledgement of my request in a week or two and this will enable me to take to the road again. Phew!
28th January 2025. Back with you again.. We made it through Christmas, the New Year, the 'Burning of the Clavie'* and Burns Suppers (remember'd) - and here we are again with acres of white space in front of me gleaming in the gloaming - all ready to be filled in.
This next story will come as no surprise to some of you - but here goes. Back in 2016, I changed my UK driving license for its French equivalent and I tucked the new card straight into my wallet - assuming (uh-oh) that it would run for 10 years. In 2019, I was granted French citizenship (there is a link). Over the last few days we've been test driving various cars as the time has come to replace our MINI Countryman. Before the test drive, I handed over a number of documents to the salesman for him to check - one of which was my French drivers' license. This was followed by an audible sucking of teeth as he read out its expiry date.. 2021. It appears that I've been blithely driving around here for 4+ years without a valid licence. I think I'd only been given a 5 year license (instead of the usual 10 years) because I was a foreigner.
Long story short - I think it will be April before I'll have a replacement license in my hands. This is going to take some managing.
* No help for you here with this - you'll have to find this one out for yourselves.
