Panda à Paris: June 2009

Saturday, June 27, 2009

French Consulate

Friday, Maggie and I joined the "normal" morning commute downtown en route to the French Consulate, where we positioned ourselves right in front of the lobby's security desk and prepared to spearhead the 9 AM rush of visa-applicants. New arrivals to the "line" couldn't understand why they had been forced to sign up for an "appointment" if everyone apparently signed up for the same time. (Oh, French bureaucracy!) Maggie and I knew better - that's why we arrived plenty early.

At 8:50, the security officers allowed us to start a new line, this one directly outside the consulate, which was on the 7th floor. The consulate door opened only a few minutes late (inside the consulate they were right on time, since the last person to arrive had turned their analog clock back a few minutes, to make it seem as if they hadn't arrived late) and I was first up at the Visa window.

I was grateful to have a young, American intern on the other side of the window. She was much less brusque and much more accomodating than most French bureaucrats I've encountered. Still, there were misunderstandings: no where on the long-stay visa application does it ask you to describe what kind of visa you want. I wanted a "general non-professional" long-stay visa; I didn't know that this is also called a "visitor's" visa. So I was asked whether I was a student, a chercheur (researcher), or visitor, and I hesitated, and we eventually figured it out.

Another funny miscommunication between website, applicant, and employee involved the number of copies required. The website says originals plus two copies; that's what I brought. The girl at the desk only wanted one copy, and sometimes none at all. So wasteful.

Finally, it turns out I needed a "letter of intent" describing what I'd be doing during my stay in France, which makes perfect sense. However, nowhere on the website was I instructed to write such a letter. I ended up having to scrawl something out while Maggie was getitng her visa, and they may need me to submit more documentation in the near future. Hopefully not.

Maggie's process went more smoothly, and the girl at the desk helped me out by grouping our applications together so that my passport would be shipped back to us in the same Fedex envelope as Maggie's. (Here's hoping my (potential) rejection doesn't prevent Maggie from getting her visa, too.)

In conclusion, I'm glad we started preparing a long time ago, and I wish the French Consulate would redo their website so their instructions are completely unambiguous. And I wish the French Consulate employees would then read the website. Thank you.

Chez Panda

WE'RE SO EXCITED!

We found an apartment! For the 9 months we will be living in Paris, you'll be able to find us on Rue de Belleville:

View Belleville in a larger map

Located in the 19th arrondisement, Belleville is close enough to the center of Paris to be convenient but not too close to be out of our price range. [Speaking of the center of Paris, did you hear about the guy who bought a parking spot for $654,000!?]

You can read about Belleville online (this podcast and blog in particular), but the short story is that it's a diverse neighborhood composed of many different immigrant groups (more Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese in the eastern part ("our" part), more North Africans and Arabs in the western part (a few blocks away)). There are tons of great supermarkets with super cheap Asian food, and on the nearby Rue Rebeval are many up-and-coming gourmet restaurants. Many people seem to point out that the area isn't your typical, "picture-perfect" Parisian quartier, but I'm more inclined to see it as a preview of what the future holds (for Paris and elsewhere). And in any case, there are plenty of fine, local boulangeries and patisseries, which is all we really care about.

As for our apartment, it's a recently refurbished one-bedroom with its own private courtyard garden and parking space. Go ahead, check it out!

The red, leather loveseat converts into a single bed, and we'll probably pick up an air mattress so we can host more than one person at a time. We hope you'll come visit!

Friday, June 19, 2009

A Year in the Merde

or, A shameless plug for a funny book.

I got Maggie a copy of Stephen Clarke's A Year in the Merde (2004), a pseudo-autobiographical novel about his time in France, to celebrate our year of colocation. She read it, and now I'm reading it. It's pretty funny, especially the transcriptions of heavily French-accented English. The title refers to the protagonist's unfortunate habit of stepping in every pile of dog poo he comes near (a result of Parisians' unfortunate habit of not picking up after their dogs), as well as an idiomatic French expression meaning "to be in the thick of things."

I highly recommend the book, and I'll probably refer to it again in future blogs - especially once I, too, fall victim to the bane of Parisian streets . . .

Visas, Part Louis

When Maggie first posted about visa requirements, I didn't yet know which visa I'd apply for. Unlike Maggie, I'm technically not a student - I'm not signed up for classes at a French university, and I'm not even informally affiliated with one. (If I were affiliated, or could convince a French prof to make pretend, I might be eligible for the "Visa for professors and researchers holders of a 'protocole d'acceuil,'" but I think I'm happier as an independent, unaffiliated researcher.) I'm definitely not working (ha!), so that's out.

The only thing left is "General long-stay visa for non-professional purpose." This seems to be intended for retirees, the independently wealthy, basically anyone who comes to France without anything to do but somehow manages to pay for it. So, grad students on fellowship.

I wish this were my visa . . .

Requirements:

Three Photographs
Two long-stay application forms
One Passport
And a par-tridge in a pear tree - just kidding. Seriously now:
A proof of US resident status (not sure if this applies to me, but my MA driver's license should suffice)
Financial guarantee such as: a letter from my bank stating that I have "sufficient means" of support to live in France (how much is "sufficient?" I could live in the streets for nothing...) plus your last or three last (!!?!??) bank statements, plus a note stating that I don't plan to engage in any activities that require a work permit
Proof of medical insurance (discussed below)
Proof that I'm not a hardened criminal ("certificate of non-criminal record," which I attained at the Somerville Police headquarters this morning!)
Deed of my apartment/house in France

Uh, hold up. Deed? I think they mean lease. Right, guys? Guys??? Also, what if I don't know where I'm living yet? On the long-stay application, there's a spot to put your place of residence in France, "if known" - so clearly they don't expect everyone to know already.

Unlike Maggie's short-and-sweet student visa (3 days to process), my long-stay visa for drinking two cups of coffee and three glasses of wine per day takes around two months to process. Maggie and I both scheduled our visa appointments for June 26th. We leave August 31st. Cutting it close? Yes and no. Wish me luck.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Airfare Purchased

Put it on your calendars, because it's official now: we leave August 31st, at 6:40 pm, from Boston's Logan International Airport.

We arrive at Paris-Charles de Gaulle on September 1st, at 7:35 am, at which point we will take a cab to our apartment (exact location TBA) and pass out.

(For those of you planning on traveling with a pet - we found that American Airlines charges the lowest rates for carrying-on or checking an animal ($100 and $150 respectively). USAirways doesn't allow pets on international flights. (Booo, hisss!) Delta charges $550 to check a pet. United, I can't remember, but it's more expensive than American. Luckily, we'll be flying American.)

Final Fellowship Tally

Heard officially from my last fellowship on Saturday (well, Maggie heard, since I'm in South Jersey for a few weeks). Here's the final results breakdown from the five fellowships I applied for:

Bourse Chateaubriand - Got it. Declined it in favor of . . .
Kennedy, Sheldon, Lurcy (all Harvard fellowships, one application) - . . . the Lurcy!
Fulbright - ~~Alternate~~ nevermind, I guess I'm a Fulbright Fellow. (WOOO!)

Now I have to fly to France on an American carrier, get a physical, and submit reports about my progress. Oh, bureaucracy - but I'm not really complaining.

[Insert great big smile here.]