Adventures in administration, la suite…

Because when you are dealing with French administration there is always a suite.

Disclaimer:  This is going to be another long, horrible rant against French bureaucracy, displaying far less control than my last post.  Read on with care.*

So after speaking to someone with URSSAF on the phone on Tuesday who guaranteed me that everything was fine with my file and told me that I should have my SIRET in about two weeks (and I know she looked up my file because she was able to give me information from it that I hadn’t told her), imagine my surprise when on Wednesday morning I found a letter in the mail from URSSAF.  I secretly hoped that it would be my SIRET, or at the very least a document assuring me that they had received my file and they were working on it, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it would in fact be bad news.  And boy was I right.

URSSAF had decided that the activity that I declared, what I was specifically told to write by the second conseillère after she herself had spoken to URSSAF, was not an activity according to l’INSEE.  So I needed to contact them by email to provide more information on my activity, and preferably the INSEE code for my activity.  Back to square one.  Not to mention, instead of writing this letter on June 28, posting it on July 1, and having it arrive in my mailbox on July 3, complete with a hand-written note informing me that I could provide them the information by email, why didn’t they just  A.) pick up the phone and call the number I had provided in my file or  B.) send me an email at the email address in my file on June 28, which would have made the entire thing go faster.

But anyway, I’m past that conundrum.  Since I didn’t see the letter until yesterday evening, I emailed them first thing this morning, telling them exactly what I have told all of the other people I have spoken to.  I provided a detailed list of all the different activities I perform, in order of importance, starting with customer service (which is apparently just not an activity according to INSEE), and I asked them for their advice in determining exactly what activity I should declare seeing as I had no idea, and apparently no one I’ve spoken to, with any organization including URSSAF, can really tell me.

Surprisingly I got a response back this morning giving me three different options of activities that might apply to my case (none of which have anything to do with what I really do which is primarily bilingual customer service).  One of the options was an activité commerciale, one was an activité artisanale and one was an activité liberale.  Of course, being three entirely different groups of activities, they each have slightly different formalities that are needed (artisanale being the worst) and different tax rates for your cotisations sociales.  Naturally, I was tempted to pick the cheapest (liberale), but as I really didn’t think it fit my case, I felt guilty doing that and feared that somehow that would just cause me more problems down the road.  The commerciale choice scared me for potential legal reasons, so I resigned myself to artisanale and the additional paperwork necessary.  Though, as a sidebar, can I just ask how bilingual customer service by phone and email, billing, bilingual mailings, financial documents and transactions, translation/interpretation, preparing reports, filing, collections and various other business and administrative tasks can possibly fit into activité artisanale which is normally for bakers, pastry chefs, plumbers, electricians, designers, etc!?!?! But, apparently, according to the dreaded website lautoentrepreneur.fr, it does.  The logic seems to escape me though.

 

Pour faire fructifier votre talent (to grow your talent), what a lie...more like to kill your talent!  Not to mention that the little auto-entrepreneur guy looks like a...

So, once I had settled on the dreaded activité artisanale I looked back at the email which instructed me to redo my déclaration en ligne and instead of sending it in online, to save it and email it to the person with URSSAF along with my ID, which would save me time in the processing of my file.  Wait, what!?!?! I have to REDO my déclaration!?!  Because you can’t just take all the information off of my original form and enter it into your system and then put in the correct activity?  Not to mention, what have you done with the photocopies of my ID that I sent in with my file?  I resigned myself to having to fill out the form again, and, hoping that maybe they had since updated their site, that maybe I would be able to get past the part where I was getting stuck with my titre de séjour information.  Well, as it turns out I never even got that far because, now that I’m declaring an activité artisanale the website automatically redirected me to the website of the CFE, cfe-metiers.com (of course, because I originally sent my déclaration to the CFE who decided it wasn’t their problem and sent it on to URSSAF) to fill out the form on their website which automatically included the other formalities necessary for an activité artisanale (which is l’immatriculation au Répertoire des Métiers).** 

I filled everything out and saved it rather than sending it in, then emailed it back to the person at URSSAF who quickly responded saying that he couldn’t process it, and that, in order for URSSAF to process my file I had to fill out the online form on lautoentrepreneur.fr, validate it at the end and send it to him with the appropriate numbers.  Ummmm….ok, except that your website automatically redirected me to the other website to fill out the form.  And what does it matter.  It’s all the same damn information anyway!  Not to mention that, even if your website didn’t redirect me, it won’t let me get past the box for my titre de séjour information!  So I emailed him back asking if I should print out the same damn one-page paper form, fill it out by hand, scan it, and email it to him or if I should just send in the other form to the CFE on their website. No response yet. 

My fear with sending it in to the CFE is that I will start all over again with a one month wait for my SIRET, and at some point my company in the US is going to start to get really angry that this is taking so long and I don’t want to lose my job because these stupid organizations can’t figure their shit out and don’t even know how their own damn websites work.  If I send it by email to this guy with URSSAF, maybe, just maybe, since he said it would speed the whole process up, I won’t lose any more time and I will still be able to get my SIRET in about two more weeks (I know, wishful thinking Michele).

So, I’m back to square one and as far as I can figure they just threw my other déclaration away or something stupid which means that at this point I have no déclaration being processed anywhere and I’m no closer to goal than I was when I started a month and a half ago!  Ugh!!!  This country can be soooo incredibly frustrating sometimes!  It makes me wonder why I even bother to do anything legally here…I mean I could just travailler au black and make more money that way AND not have to put up with this hassle!

*I apologize for the anger and frustration displayed in this post.  I currently have no one to vent to as I have no friends in Bordeaux, Lionel just does the Gallic shrug and tells me to deal with it and all of my friends in the US are busy (it is the 4^th of July after all) or don’t understand.  I had to take my frustration out somewhere, and since this is MY blog, I figured I have every right to do it here, so I am sorry if any of you, my dear readers, are offended.

**It actually gets much more confusing and complicated than this because some sites say that an activité artisanale has to pay one amount in cotisations sociales and other sites give a different amount for this group so at this point I have no idea how much I will have to pay.  Also, some sites say I have to do l'immatriculation au répertoire des métiers for my particular activité artisanale while others say that I don't.  Not to mention that some sites say that for ANY activité artisanale they will have to verify your qualifications (i.e. diplomas in the relevant field or at least three years experience working in the relevant field, at which point I guess I'm screwed because I don't have a stupid BTS assistante administrative or any other diploma for my "field" and I also don't have three years experience in this "field").  So I have to admit that at this point I am lost, confused, angry, frustrated and fucking pissed and all I want to do is throw my hands up in the air, drink a bottle or two of wine and then go punch a few idiots in the face.

Adventures in administration

This morning I was thinking it was about time for a new post on my blog but I couldn’t decide exactly what I wanted to post about.  Plenty of possibilities came to mind – the progress of the renovations, our car, random pictures of Rasteau being cute (because who doesn’t love pictures of cute furry little animals), another post related to our trip to Angers, etc, etc, etc.  But I just couldn’t make up my mind.

But then, as always here in France, inspiration struck in the form of French bureaucracy.  And we all know how much I love French bureaucracy (and if you don’t, I’ve posted about my experiences with French administration a million times on this blog…far too many to keep track of or even link to at this point)!  In fact, probably my second favorite thing about being in the US (after friends and family of course) was being free from the bureaucratic nightmare that is French administration.

Well today I’ve had yet another run in with the extremely pleasant and delightful French bureaucratic system.  You see, since I arrived in mid-May, I’ve been struggling to declare myself as an auto-entrepreneur and set up my own micro-entreprise so that I can continue to work for my American company from France. Everything I had read about the process made it seem very simple, and dare I say, efficient. According to the website all I had to do was declare my activities online and it would be done.  I would receive my SIRET for my company in the mail shortly after (according to the two different conseillères I spoke to this would take 2-5 days).  Et voilà.  Easy right?

Well, naturally, knowing what I know about France, I seriously doubted it could ever be THAT easy.  I figured there would be one or two more hoops to jump through and a few more papers to provide than what was indicated.  But still, I told myself, they can’t make it that hard, right?  Isn’t it good for France to have companies being created, even if they are small ones?  And isn’t it better to have someone with a job as an entrepreneur than have them unemployed and adding to that already extremely high unemployment rate?

No, clearly to France it just doesn’t matter.  Why would they care if someone is legally set up to work, pay taxes, contribute meaningfully to society in any respectable amount of time?  And, of course, this is France, so clearly it is NEVER as easy as it sounds like it is going to be.  I lost my first week to trying to do it all myself.  Big mistake.  At the end of that week I admitted defeat and called up a conseillère at the Maisonde l’Emploi de Bordeaux who said she could assist me and answer any questions I might have.  But she wasn’t available until a week later, so there went another week.  I left my meeting with her feeling more confident, but not entirely sure that I had all the information I needed.  As she suggested, I called up a few organizations to get my final questions answered, and after paying 11 centimes a minute to speak to an extremely rude bitch with URSSAF, I ended up with just more questions.  What do they mean that my prinicipal activity isn’t actually an activity?  I’m pretty sure millions of people around the world do this activity as their job every day…but fine.  I decided to get a second opinion and called up the conseillère at my mairie whose job is to assist people creating companies.  She was able to squeeze me in just before lunch the following Friday, so another week lost.  But she was very nice and went out of her way to try to assist me going so far as to call URSSAF to help me get an answer to what “box” my activity fits in (the problem being that I actually do too many different kinds of activities for my job) and trying, unsuccessfully, to call la Préfecture to get answer to some questions we had pertaining to my visa/carte de séjour stuff.  Naturally, however, the Préfecture in Bordeaux no longer provides telephone assistance, but they don’t tell you that until you’ve gone through all the prompts to get to the service you want.  Since we still weren’t entirely sure what “box” my activity fit in, she finally just told me what she thought I should write when doing my déclaration, something nice and vague; to make them figure it out later.

I left this meeting feeling confident that I would finally be able to declare my activities and get the ball rolling on getting my company set up, so I headed home to get on the internet.  And that’s where I encountered the next problem, the stupid website wouldn’t let me get past the section where you enter your titre de séjour information.  It kept saying that it recognized that it had been issued in a different country and asking me to put the country in, but it wouldn’t accept it or give me another space to enter the country.  I tried everything and it wouldn’t work, so I just got really angry and gave up.  I ended up having to print out the form, fill it out by hand, and mail it in.  But of course the paper version and what I had seen of the internet version didn’t ask for all the same information and the paper version was only one short, poorly laid out page.  I ended up having to leave a few spots blank because Lionel and I couldn’t figure out what they could possibly be asking.  Anyway, I mailed it into the CFE de Bordeaux, as the conseillère at the mairie told me to do because we both agreed after speaking to URSSAF that my activities at least fit into the general box of “activités commerciales.”  Well, then imagine my surprise when I opened my mailbox the following week and saw a letter from the CFE telling me that my activities are not in fact commerciales, and therefore not their problem.  They kindly informed me that they forwarded my file on to URSSAF to be handled by them.  That was June 18.

Today, as I have every day since June 18, I checked the mailbox hoping against hope that I would have a letter from URSSAF, or better yet my SIRET.  However, rather than getting what I hoped for, I got a letter from the OFII (French immigration office) telling me to present myself at 8:30am on July 15 for my medical visit and "welcome meeting" in order to “validate” my titre de séjour temporaire which is my visa for the first year.  It also explained all the documents I need to bring and what different encounters I would have during my half day of immigration hell.  I knew I would have to do another medical visit, and I knew they would want me to sign a contrat d’accueil et d’intégration which also involves 2 days of seminars on life in France and civil education.  I also knew from previous experience in the Val de Marne that I could get out of signing the contract and the 2 days of seminars by showing that I had studied for at least one year at a French university.  So that was fine.  However, I was shocked that they now also require you, as a “new” immigrant,” to participate in a half day bilan de compétences professionnelles (basically a half day meeting to “help” you plan your professional life and prepare you to enter the job market).  Of course, for those that already have jobs, they can get out of this by showing proof of employment, i.e. job contract, paystubs. Great, except the only way to prove my employment is to have my company get set up and to officially have le statut auto-entrepreneur.

So I resigned myself to having to call URSSAF today to get an update on the status of my file.  And what do I find out?  That yes, they have received my file but no, it is not 2-5 days to get your SIRET, it takes them about a month to process your file and get you your number.  So I should expect to wait about another two weeks.  And no, there is nothing they can give me to provide to the OFII to prove that I have a file being processed.  So now, if I don’t get lucky enough to get my SIRET before July 15 I am going to have to fight with French immigration to avoid losing a half day of pay for a bilan de compétences professionnelles that serves me absolutely no purpose because I already have a job!

Not to mention how angry I am at URSSAF.  A month to process a one-page form!?!?!  And for people who are setting up their own micro-entreprise and who might just need that SIRET as soon as possible in order to be able to set themselves up and work and get paid!?!  Wouldn’t it be better to have the process go a little faster so that people don’t risk losing money or even losing the possibility of having work?  Isn’t the creation of any kind of company good for France?  Wouldn’t they want to smooth the process out a bit and speed it up?  Isn’t it better to have someone working as soon as possible rather than not?  There are some things that I guess I will just never understand in France.  But this whole process hasn’t been very encouraging and I’m really starting to get angry.  Why can’t anything ever just be easy here!?

So there you have it, things aren’t all sunshine and rainbows here at Michele’s Life en Franglais and even though I wasn’t happy living in the US, this kind of administrative crap here in France just reminds me why I was willing to leave in the first place!

There has, however, been some sunshine in Bordeaux recently, leading to this beautiful sunset:

And we've even had some rainbows too (unfortunately it was too big to get the whole thing in one shot): 

Home sweet home, presque

I am finally getting around to posting the few pictures of chez nous that I have. So far I haven't taken a lot of pictures of the house or the renovations but I promise that once we are done with all of the work I will post plenty of photos of the final product!

 The front of the house and our little French car (the same one we had in Paris).  She's almost 20 years old but still going strong!

 

 The yard.  We actually have about 2000 square meters of garden, but you don't see it all in this photo because at the back it goes down a hill and there is a big section that we lovingly refer to as the "wilderness" because no one ever tried to  "reclaim" it and it's overrun with bushes, tall grass, weeds and all of the tall trees in the photo.  Lionel is currently working on digging our potager to the side of the house and there is a disused little pond/water feature in the middle of the yard that I hope to restore one day.

 

 Lionel painting the ceiling in our future living room

 

 My very exciting recent furniture purchase...an armoire I found on Le bon coin for only 90 euros!  It's gigantic and leaves me room to grow and it's in great condition, made of wood (not particle board), and made in France!  I love it and I was very excited to get it on Monday now that the bedroom is mostly finished.

 

The state of the living room upon our arrival in France in May

Looking from the living room into the dining room when we first arrived

 The condition of the entryway and stairway upon arrival.  So far nothing has changed and we still have wall paper to remove, walls to sand and holes to fill before painting.

 The only decorative item in the house right now, flowers from our garden

  And just because I think it's cool to have lizards in our garden, here's one that was climbing on the wall the other morning.  I think he's the same one that lost part of his tail to Rasteau a couple of weeks ago.

On the road again

As soon as I got done with work on Friday we jumped in the car and drove the 350 kilometers to Angers where we spent the weekend visiting with my good friend Julie and celebrating her 30th birthday.  Julie just happens to be my only real female French friend and we met in Paris when she was one of my English students.  She has since quit her job in Paris and moved back to Angers where she is doing a formation to change careers so I didn't get to see her much before our move to the States and it was un vrai plaisir to get to spend the weekend with her.

Unfortunatley the weather wasn't willing to cooperate with our plan to celebrate her birthday with a barbeque out at her friends' house à la campagne between Angers and Nantes, but we tried to make the best of this horrible start to summer nonetheless.  We got in kinda late Friday night, but still headed into the center to enjoy what little we could of La fête de la musique.

view of some of the old houses in Angers while out in the center for La fête de la musique

Saturday we walked around the city and explored before heading to the store to pick up some food and drink for a Saturday evening birthday meal à la bonne franquette.  Then we were off into the country to spend the evening at her friends' house out in the middle of nowhere.  We had a great night despite the miserable weather and her friends' home is this beautiful old country house that they can trace back to the French Revolution.  Needless to say, they are en plein travaux, with far more work to do than we have, but it was very nice of them to let us stay there.  I wish I had taken some pictures of the house, but unfortunately I didn't think of it at the time.

 Chateau d'Angers

the Chateau d'Angers

the Chateau d'Angers

 Julie and I

 the Cathedrale d'Angers

 view over Angers

 le centre historique d'Angers

Originally on Sunday we had been hoping to explore the area a little more and maybe visit Saumur and the Abbaye de Fontevraud, but the weather was so bad we decided to just hang out with everyone for a while and then get on the road relatively early.  All in all it was a great weekend, but I am more than ready for summer to come to France!

Visits, friends and fun

I've had a very busy past week or so.  Besides, of course, working and working on the house, my friend Amy was in France for a two week vacation, and she spent the past week staying with us in Bordeaux and then she and I traveled up to Paris for the weekend.  She's still in Paris and flies back to the US tomorrow, but I had to come back last night to work. 

We had a wonderful visit together.  I hadn't seen her since our return to the US, when we stayed with her for a few days near Fort Lauderdale after our cruise and before heading up to Ohio.  She's from Florida and we originally met a few years ago in Paris, where she was studying at the time.  She showed up at a barbecue at our apartment on a first date with one of Lionel's friends.  We didn't even know he was bringing anyone, and imagine my surprise when he showed up with a fellow American!  Their relationship fizzled shortly after that, but Amy and I became fast friends.  She had to leave France because of visa issues just a few weeks before we did, and then a few months after her return to the US she moved to Australia for a year, so we hadn't seen each other in a year and a half, but we kept in contact.  I was thrilled to hear she was planning a trip to France to visit with friends and that she was planning it for after our return so we were able to have her visit us in Bordeaux.

We spent a lovely week enjoying good food and wine, relaxing, catching up and visiting some of the area and then we headed up to Paris on Friday to spend the weekend catching up with some more good friends and revisiting old haunts.

While she was here we kept ourselves quite busy with an evening visit of Bordeaux, and my first time exploring the city since we moved here:

La Garonne

 

walking along the quais de la Garonne

 

the miroir d'eau in Bordeaux at Place de la Bourse

 

La Porte Cailhau

 

Place de la Comédie

And we took Amy out to the Bassin d'Arcachon for a visit: 

 

on top of the Dune de Pyla

 

enjoying the beautiful view from the Dune de Pyla

 

enjoying some oysters in the port de Gujan-Mestras

 

le port de Biganos, probably the prettiest port I've seen on the bassin

And we went to St. Emilion:

 

 view of St. Emilion and the vineyards

 

vineyards of St. Emilion

 

exploring St. Emilion

 

enjoying some St. Emilion in the heart of St. Emilion

 

a view over the town

 

 

walking around St. Emilion

And then we were off to Paris: 

 

spending a relaxing Sunday afternoon enjoying falafel from L'As du Fallafel in the Place des Vosges

 

relaxing along the Seine

 

 

walking past Notre Dame on the way to meet a friend, I just couldn't resist the urge to take a picture since blue skies are so rare in Paris

 

I was shocked by how clean the Conciergerie looked when we crossed the Seine, so I had to take a pic 

International move with a four-legged family member

Crystal kindly requested that I do a more detailed blog on the process of moving your furry family member across the ocean, and being the obliging blogger that I am, here is more info about the whole process.  Warning: this may be a very boring post for those of you who are not interested in this process or who don’t have a pet.

My experiences, moving from France to the US and from the US back to France with Rasteau, have both been with Delta/Air France primarily because these airlines offered us the shortest trips between France and Ohio, which we personally thought was very important when travelling with an animal.  After all, the poor little creatures are trapped in cages the entire time, even when at the airport, without a bathroom and most of the time without access to food and water (though from what I understand this does depend on the length of the trip, the airline, and the mode of transport chosen i.e. in the cabin, in the hold or as cargo).  As an added bonus, for us at least, Delta/Air France allows you to bring your small pet in the cabin, rather than restricting them to the hold, on international trips.  This is not the case with all airlines, and from my research, it seems like Delta is the only major US airline that allows pets in the cabin on international flights.  On the way to the US we chose the cabin as we thought it would be easiest and we liked the idea of being able to keep an eye on the little guy throughout the whole trip.  On the way back, however, we decided we would give the hold a try.  I don’t really know the pros and cons of each option, so I think it is up to you to decide what you think will work best in your particular situation and with your pet.  Either way the cost was the same, $200 to have your pet on the plane (not to mention the added cost of having Lionel travel with super expensive Delta/Air France rather than my relatively cheap, but 21-hour long trip with Iberia).  However, if you travel with your pet in the cabin you do not get to bring a carry-on suitcase, only a small personal item in addition to the pet.  I personally think this is an airline scam.  You are paying extra to bring the pet soyou should still get your carry-on!  If the animal is in the hold this does not change the number of bags you get to bring.  In either case, I highly recommend making a reservation with your airline of choice as far in advance as possible as there are restrictions on the number of pets that are allowed to travel in the cabin and in the hold on each aircraft.  Definitely do not just show up at the airport the day of your flight hoping to get your animal on the plane as this is not a guarantee.  Each time Rasteau has flown he was not the only pet on the plane.

So first, more information on travelling with your animal in the cabin.  If your pet comes with you in the cabin the animal must be in a small, soft-sided carrier that can fit comfortably under the seat in front of you.  The airlines can provide you with more specific information regarding the dimensions of the carrier, etc, but it has to be soft-sided in case it has to squish a little to fit.  Also important to note is that you can give your animal sedatives if it is travelling in the cabin, but it is not recommended to do so if the pet is travelling in the hold.  From what I read, and from what our vets told us, apparently it can be fatal to drug an animal travelling in the hold, but I don’t really know why.  

When you arrive at the airport you have to present your pet at the counter so they can make sure the carrier is the right size and that it follows any and all regulations.  You then proceed through security and boarding as normal.  The only difference is, depending on the country/airport, you may have to remove your pet from the carrier to take it through security.  In our experience, in France they gave us the option of carrying Rasteau through the security check point or keeping him in the carrier to go through the x-ray machine with the other hand luggage.  In the US we had no choice but to carry Rasteau through.  There again, I don’t know which is better, but I’m sure there is research out there.  I’m sure it also depends on the temperament of your pet and their ability to escape from your grasp.  I can’t even imagine the stress if we had to chase a terrified cat through a major international airport!

When travelling in the hold you have to follow IATA requirements for a hard-sided kennel.  These requirements go so far as to dictate the kind of latches holding the kennel together, the materials the kennel is made of, the kind and number of openings, the dimensions based on the height/length/weight of your animal, etc.  I recommend doing a lot of research before purchasing a kennel to make sure you buy one that meets all the guidelines.  You should also check this against the guidelines provided by your airline.  In our experience, Air France required a kennel that went above and beyond the IATA guidelines but when it came time to actually make the purchase, the only kennels we could find that met the Air France guidelines were for large and extra-large dogs.  We thought this was a bit ridiculous as we certainly didn’t need a kennel that big for a small cat, so we checked the Delta guidelines, and they were very different from Air France, though the two companies operate codeshare flights.  The Delta guidelines were the same as the IATA so, after many frantic calls to Delta/Air France, we eventually followed the Delta guidelines.  Even though we had purchased the ticket through Air France, we were flying out of Cincinnati, which is a Delta hub, the flight was operated by Delta and we would be faced with Delta representatives at the counter who would have the final say as to whether or not our furball made it on the flight.  These kennels, depending on size and brand, can range anywhere from $30-$200.  

Additionally, according to the IATA and most airlines (but again, not Air France) you should attach travel food and water dishes to the door of the kennel, and attach a plastic bag of food to the outside of the carrier, in case the animal needs to be given something to eat or drink.  This does not apply in all cases, but on longer flights, or if there are unexpected delays, the flight crew may be required to feed your animal and they must be able to do so without opening the door.  On a normal flight to France your pet would not be given anything to eat or drink, but if you had a long delay they would (not sure exactly what the time limits are).  Upon arrival at the airport, your pet is dropped off at the counter during check-in to be transported to the aircraft and upon boarding they usually make an announcement to let passengers know that their animal has been safely boarded and is indeed on the plane.  

However, when it comes to travelling with your pet in the hold, please let me give you this one very important tip based on our own very unpleasant experience bringing Rasteau back to France.  Be absolutely sure to verify that the type of plane you will be travelling on can in fact accommodate animals in the hold.  Even if you’ve made the reservation and have been assured by the reservations specialist that your animal will be flying on your plane in the hold, do the extra research.  We did not and when we arrived at the Delta counter at the Cincinnati airport we were very rudely informed that animals could not travel in the hold from Cincinnati to Paris because the specific aircraft used for that route did not accommodate pets in the hold (I think it was a 767).  You see, I had naively assumed that when we called and made Rasteau’s reservation (and subsequently confirmed it at least 5 times through various other phone calls related to the kennel requirements), that the reservations agents would have informed us if the type of aircraft Lionel was scheduled to fly on could not accommodate pets in the hold.  Seeing as we had to provide Lionel’s reservation information in order to make Rasteau’s reservation, this seemed like a logical assumption, but you know what the say, assuming makes an ass out of you and me.  

Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the airport, loaded down with luggage, a giant hard-sided carrier and a very stressed out cat, and we were so impolitely told, at first, just that animals could not travel through Paris.  What!?! I nearly screamed, completely confused as we had made the reservation months in advance, confirmed it, and never been told anything of the kind.  Not to mention our cat is Parisian, of course he could travel through his hometown!  I tried as hard as I could to calm down and asked, as kindly as possible given the circumstances, what our options were at that point.  We were rudely told that our only option was not to bring our cat.  Clearly not an option!  Finally, after a near panic attack, a couple of inappropriate curse words on my part and a few tears, another Delta representative came over to see what the problem was and kindly informed us that in fact, it was not that the cat couldn’t travel through Paris, it was the type of aircraft that was the problem and he couldn’t travel in the hold.  She, unlike the first bitch who was incredibly rude and unbelievably unhelpful (and now that I finally have internet and phone access I have to file my complaint), apologized for the inconvenience and explained that we could still get the cat on the plane if we could manage to find a soft-sided carrier to bring him in the cabin.  She also offered to check Lionel’s carry-on suitcase free of charge (and personally I think they should have offered more than just that considering all the money we lost on the fancy kennel and all the stress they put us through because their representatives are idiots) since Rasteau would now be counted as his carry-on and we hadn’t planned on that. 

So, off I went with my dad on a mad dash across the airport and out to the car, directions in hand, to find the nearest pet store to buy a carrier as quickly possible so that they wouldn’t miss the flight.  Luckily, as I was frantically running through PetSmart I found an incredibly nice employee who was very sympathetic to my problem and quickly showed me all the options and then let me cut in line to pay so I could make it back in time.  Once back at the airport, we got everyone checked in and I watched them head through security, secretly praying that a non-sedated Rasteau would not manage to claw through the soft-sided carrier in a panic on the flight (he has already managed to rip through two of them).

Upon arrival in the country of destination you must take your pet through customs and then back through security if changing planes.  According to everything I’ve read online, when your pet travels in the hold, you have to pick it up with your luggage to go through customs, and if your pet is travelling in the cabin you just carry it off the plane and through customs.  Normally, from what I understand, there is supposed to be a quick check with a vet or at least a customs specialist to verify that the animal does not appear to have any diseases, but we did not experience this on either side of the Atlantic.  Also in customs they are supposed to verify all of your paperwork, but Lionel said that in Paris they didn’t even really bother to look at it.  Also, contrary to popular belief, most of the time your pet does not have to be quarantined.  Usually your pet is only quarantined if it appears unhealthy when/if checked at customs.  However, this does vary depending on the destination country.

As far as papers are concerned, for Rasteau to travel from France to the US he needed to get a passport and a health certificate.  Both of these documents can be obtained very easily from your vet in France.  The passport contains the animal’s ID information, microchip number and info on all check-ups, vaccines, etc and can be obtained at any time and then updated with each subsequent visit to the vet.  The health certificate must be obtained shortly before flying and states that the animal is in a condition to travel, not sick, not injured, etc.  

For the return to France, from what I understand we probably would have been fine with just his French passport, but I like to be overly prepared, just in case, so we went to our vet and got a health certificate as well.  In the US the health certificate is much more complicated than in France, probably because the US doesn’t have passports for pets so they have to include records of all vaccinations, etc on the health certificate, and it took our vet 5 days and multiple calls to the US State Department to complete all the paperwork.  The US State Department provides the forms to the vet and has specific forms depending on the destination country.  The State Department insisted we needed all of this, and according to their requirements, once the form is completed by the vet you have to bring it to the US State Department office in your state to be stamped, which costs maybe $20.  We didn’t know about any of this and found out a few days before flying.  This would have required a trip up to Columbus and we just didn’t have the time, so we didn’t end up getting it stamped, figuring that the airline didn’t require a health certificate and France didn’t seem to require one for a French cat with a passport, though of course the US State Department insists they do.  Another requirement for bringing an animal into Europe is that the animal now must have a microchip.  Rasteau already had one, so that wasn’t a problem for us.  The US, however, doesn’t require one.  Be sure to check with your airline though because some airlines do require documentation and others, like Delta, don’t.  The papers required also depend on your destination country and of course your animal’s origins.  For example, I know that it is much more difficult to bring an animal into the United Kingdom and it would require a lot more research and work.

  

Rasteau's passport

  

The ID pages of Rasteau's passport.  There is even a place to put a photo of your pet, though this is optional.

My overall impressions were that it is actually quite easy to travel with an animal, at least between the US and France.  Rasteau took it pretty well both times.  On the trip to the US we sedated him but he was still wide awake and freaked out at the airport in Paris, moving around a lot and meowing quite a bit.  But once he was settled on the plane he just passed out and slept the entire flight, only waking up upon arrival in Cincinnati when he was removed from his carrier to go through security.  Coming back to France he was not sedated because we thought he was going to travel in the hold.  He was pretty freaked out at the airport and from what Lionel said he didn’t really settle down until after take-off.  Upon arrival at the airport in Paris he was quite scared again but then he mostly slept through the flight to Bordeaux and woke up again when he was taken off the plane.  So overall I don’t really know if the sedatives made much of a difference because drugged or not he was scared at the airports and he slept through the flights.

I planned months in advance both times, partially because I’m a control freak and partially because I like to do everything possible to be sure to avoid potential problems (though that didn’t work so well this time around…).  I made Rasteau’s reservations a day or two after booking the tickets, shopped for an appropriate carrier a few months in advance, verified and reverified and then verified yet again all the documentation needed, both on the airline’s website and the border control site for the destination country (in this case Les Douanes Françaises).  I talked to the vet about 2 months in advance just to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything and to make sure to have an appointment for the health certificate a week or two before departure.  In the end, problems can obviously still happen, as was the case for us this time around, but it really is not too difficult to travel with your four-legged friend (keep in mind, species outside of cats and dogs can be more complicated), especially with proper planning and preparation.  I know that there are companies that specialize in helping you move with an animal internationally, but I imagine it costs quite a lot more and in my opinion it is not really worth it in most cases as the whole experience is quite simple.  And I find that it really doesn’t cost as much as you would expect, especially if you already have a good carrier.  But what really counts in the end, regardless of all the stress, the expense and the hassle, is that your furry family member makes it alive and in good health, as Rasteau did.

 

Rasteau seemingly quite happy here in France, taking a nap in the bottom of our hall closet. 

 

Rasteau out in the garden, ready to pounce on something he saw move in the ivy.

Le petit furball

Rasteau has really been adapting well to his new surroundings. He especially loves his new 2000 square meter garden and he's working hard on honing his hunting skills.  He's already managed to get a bird and a few lizards, and every time he sees the dirt move he tries to figure out how to get at the moles underground.
He's also already had a few run ins with a big male cat in the neighborhood,  but they seem to have smoothed things out and now Rasteau is working hard to claim his territory, putting his scent everywhere he can!

Here's a picture of him taking a rest in the old wheelbarrow, one of his favorite spots to sit back and surveiller son jardin, keeping an eye out both for other cats and for the lizards that like to climb on the wall next to him!