Monday, July 17, 2006

One of the reasons many Brits leave France is the beaucracy - we have had two classic examples over recent weeks.



The first involved our medical bills. When you visit a doctor or are hospitalised you pay and are reimbursed 70 percent. We visited the Centre Medical who deal with this. They claimed to have never seen the E106 form (the document giving us reciprocal health care) They took our bills and copies of various documents. A month or two passed and a letter arrived to each of us requesting birth certificates ( they had already taken copies). We sent them again. We heard nothing ! We phoned to be told they needed translated copies sent to another dept! I enquire which bit of ‘a boy born 8th June 1962’ they needed translating! and why they could not send their copy to be translated – not their job of course. I refused to do this and with our French teacher, go to the office to try and sort it. We arrive to find its closed – GREVE it states on the door – on strike !

Not to be defeated we return a week later and protest, the assistant agrees and appears to sort matters. A month later my carte Medical arrives – I’m in the system at last ! Although as yet have no refund…

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