Jane and I recently returned from our "reconnaissance mission" from France. Our goal was to make a decision on a village for our year in France and hob-knob with the local government.
It was wonderful to be in France but it was a lot of work and we covered a lot of territory. Ultimately we failed at our mission. We couldn't nail down a village. The apartment agencies weren't interested in showing us things because we weren't real clients yet...too soon to be looking for a property to rent in March. So...we decided on a new approach. We're renting for the first month in a gite where we have stayed before. We'll use this month to look at properties to rent for the next month. With this approach we'll know exactly what we are getting when we make our decision.
We did meet with the local prefecture to talk about visas, etc. Not surprisingly, the information was less than perfect. She was thrilled that we could speak French so she didn't have to explain in English. However she turned out to be poorly informed (I should have been suspicious when she kept going to the back office to ask questions of her supervisor). Upon further research we have discovered that the paperwork is even easier than we thought. Nothing more than a marriage certificate and passports! All of our translating was for naught!
We spent a few days in Paris and the rest in our beloved Provence. We had a great dinner with an old friend who lives in the suburbs of Paris. He offered to help us with our car purchase when we hit France in March. Very cool.
