Posted 11:38 AM by Paul
An American in France

My old friend Ray from New Orleans has just e-mailed from his retreat in the Pyrenes in a mixture of delight and despair. Delight because he is enjoying his semi-retirement in the historic town of St. Jean Pied de Port at the beginning of the pilgrims' route to Santiago de Compostella. Despair because he is learning how difficult it can be to get anything done in rural France.

First, he has spent hundreds of dollars trying to get proper authorisation to import his US registered German made car into France and drive it legally. Months later he seems to be no nearer collecting the necessary paperwork. The problem revolves around his yellow indicators. Apparently they should be clear. Then the paperwork for his application for Carte de Sejour or long term visa looks like a UN treaty. His description of his difficulty in getting some minor renovation work done on his house made me laugh out loud.

" Paul - I don't need to tell about attempting to arrange a rendezvous with
workmen. They have holiday in August and September and then take the whole month of October to shoot birds, and then complain they are overbooked.

I do like my young dare devil electrocution (err, I mean electrician), if he is not very good. Every time he is here, he gets shocked, screams, falls off the ladder,
shakes for a bit, and then talks to himself for a time. But he considers
shutting off the electricity to be a sign of weakness. "

And then there are money worries as the dollar continues it's precipitous decline

>"And on top of all that, when we bought the house it took .87 cents U.S. to
>buy one Euro. Today with commission, it costs about $ 1.34 U.S. Correct, we
>have lost 45% of our purchasing power. A dinner that once cost us sixty dollars
>is now over a hundred. "

A whole generation of young Americans will be hitting Europe this summer and they will feel decidedly poor. There is a bizarre notion still abroad in US campuses, that it is possible to work for 6 months doing McJobs in Ohio to finance the next 6 months living in some of the most expensive countries on Earth. It doesn't work like that anymore. It's only the top 15% Americans who are making any serious cash at all and the average middle American earns no more than the average Western European and usually works longer hours. This will come as a shock to many Young Americans on there first visit to Europe. At home they are being told that they are the most powerful nation on Earth and that they are shaping the destiny of the world, which is true. But this will not feel so great if a cup of coffee in a roadside café breaks the bank and you have to return home to Ohio two months early because of the price of sanwiches.

My advice to Ray (who wisely saved money from his years as a very successful lawyer) was to write a book for the American market along the lines of "A Year in Provence" . Ray is a good writer and he could pen a piece of work which simultaneously confirmed Americans' worst suspicions of the French but makes them want to buy a country retreat in La Belle France because of the great food and beautiful countryside. The readers will also believe they would manage better than the author in negotiating the vagaries of French life.

The French bureaucratic system is exasperating. It seems to be based on the philosophy of two people.

1. Andre Breton - the father of Surrealism
2. Edith Cresson ( Freench for watercress) The first female French Prime Minister.

Shortly before being hauled up for fraud of European Union funds (she managed to employ her dentist as the EU's top public health offical despite a lack of experience and qualifications) Edith coined the memorable phrase " We should not allow the importation of Japanese skis as they are not compatible with French snow". Economists call this attitude non- tariff trade barriers and the French vie with the Japanese for the gold medal position in its creative use.

Ray's sin was not to buy local. His neighbours think that people in Bordeaux are big city foreign types and "up to no good". Mention Paris in South West France and they spit in disgust. Germany is Pluto.

However, despite all the hassle of the French system 60% of English people cite a house in France as their dream retirement scenario. I think they are imaging that the French have all moved to London.

Part of me is repelled by the heroic inefficiency of French bureaucracy but part of me quite admires their attitude to life. Off shooting for the whole of October? How well balanced of them. No wonder they have a lower incidence of heart disease than the British and the Americans. Experts have been predicting the collapse of the French economy for the last 20 years and it still has not happened, so they must be doing something right even if they do it very very slowly.

Meanwhile Ray ( he is a Democrat who froths at the mouth at the mention of George Bush) is happy to be out of the States for a while and is spending New Year across the border in Pamplona - which must be a joy.