Oct 27

Automne à Paris

By Scotsdreamer Uncategorized Comments Off

So Saturday night was the end of European Summer Time, the clocks went back an hour.

Normally I don’t notice it as much in the UK, but on Monday when leaving work it was distinctly dark.  The leaves are starting to occupy the streets and the cleaners are out in force.

It’s an experience I am looking forward to especially seeing the Tour and a lot of the ‘tourist’ areas once the throngs of camera loaded and awestruck Americans have left.

Only problem will be that the cold weather will mean more people off the streets and on the public transport…

Joy!

Oct 14

Le médecin

By Scotsdreamer Doctors Comments Off

I suffer from la goutte and I can normally handle the occasional twinge.

It’s rarely like the first time I experienced it when I thought a steam roller had run over my foot, reversed back and then did a highland jig. That was until this week…

On Monday I woke with pain in my right foot and golf ball sized swelling. I didn’t think of my gout as it was on my ankle and on the wrong foot.

By the evening I was doing a very passable version of Tiny Tim.

By Tuesday the swelling had grown to the size of a tennis ball and I was experiencing pain like having a red hot needle being forced through your ankle, bone and all.

So enough detail there i think…

I found a ‘British Hospital’ and decided to call for more details, it’s always better to tell your ailments in your natural language as you can be more descriptive.

First the receptionist didn’t speak English and only appeared to say the name of the doctor who did. This was the same response every time I tried to call.

Second when I eventually managed to speak to the Doctor, she was in a meeting and advised that I would unlikely be able to get an appointment the same day. It would also cost me €85 as she was private.

The future Mrs Scotsdreamer managed to find a doctor locally and I got an appointment for 09:30 the next day.

When I arrived there was no reception and six people ahead of me. I am glad I decided to turn up early. Each patient had approximately 15 minutes with the doctor so we were eventually seen just after eleven o’clock.

The doctor appeared to understand English but unfortunately as I have a Scots accent I threw her a bit. I am glad I had the future Mrs Scotsdreamer with me to translate.

After a quick examination of my foot and advising me to have a petit régime she wrote out a prescription for my Diclofenac which I had in the UK and something called Colchimax I have to take the first one for 3 days and the other for a month. She also said I should rest up for the rest of the week, but since I hate being off work I managed to talk her to giving me only 2 days off.

All in all the whole experience cost me €28 which once I have my numéro du sécurité social I can get this repaid to me.

In comparison to the UK seeing a doctor is easy. You just turn up and wait for your turn. There is no need to register, have medical, prove you live near the doctor and then figure out if you are to be NHS, Part Private or Private. However the NHS is still good as you don’t pay up front, but it’s a little easier to get treated here in France.

Across the road there is the Pharmacy, signified by the Green Cross, flashing outside the building.

So getting my medication I have a small white pill and a larger blue pill. The Pharmacy said I must not and cannot take any painkillers with these. Especially iboprofen and aspirin. I was only to find out why when I got home.

The one of the active ingredients of the blue pill is opium!

The pills are working and by Thursday my swelling is a lot smaller and my limp has noticeably reduced. So thankfully I’ll be back at work tomorrow and completing the paperwork that I am starting to become so familiar with…

I finally manage to feed the red tape!

Oct 08

The Te

By Scotsdreamer Tea Comments Off

Ok this post isn’t strictly about me and my exploits in France, but…

While writing The Thé I was also reading about a little place in another celtic country – Pembrokeshire in Wales

Now, Pembroke was originally Famous for the dear pets of Her Maj, the Corgi, but a newcomer has come to the Throne and I want some :)

The Guys at Pembroke Tea Co. have set up just the thing that the thirsty Scotsdreamer needs.

The Emergency Tea site where agents logging onto MYFANWY can request the dispatch of any one of their Orbital Support (a la Thunderbirds), COSY Class Submarines and 4WD vehicles to quench the thirst of a seriously dehydrated tea drinker.

This Site is http://www.emergencytea.co.uk/

Now if only they could get in contact with the seriously thirsty Scotsdreamer with one or two cups of their great range I’d be in a better position to scout out a secret base under the TE (Tour Eiffel) just for their needs…

The Pembroke Tea Co are on Twitter @PembTeaCo
As is one of their not so secret agents @PembsDave

Oct 06

The thé

By Scotsdreamer Coffee, Tea 1 Comment »

Hello, my name is Scotsdreamer and I am a slave to arabica beans

I have realised that since moving to France I have started to take on another stereotype because of the lack of my vice.

In the UK I was on the christmas card list of my local coffee shop (Esquires in Woking, you have to and you have to tell them I say hi), who incidentally were selling fair trade before it became ‘trendy’. My regular order was an Americano, extra shot and the must have, cream – I strangely don’t like milk nor sugar in good bitter coffee but that amount of black coffee will mean my desk would be in the toilets.

So moving to France would be an absolute bonus, as the French are infamous for their café.

Nope!

French coffee this is either in the form of an espresso or as a traditional drip (filter) coffee, you can only find MY coffee in that American chain with the green signage, but their coffee isn’t worth giving to the plants…

When I left Scotland I could not find my favourite creamy drink, 70/- (velvet) or 80/- (ember), so I turned to the other nectar of the gods, whisky!

So likewise in France where I cannot find my deliciously creamy coffee I have turned to the other ‘traditional’ British drink… tea.

Usually a green tea, a chai or even a mint or jasmine is nice, but at the same time worrying.

In the UK I could not go 24 hours without a coffee because of the withdrawal symptoms – yes coffee addiction exists!

It does look as if I am over the biggest hurdle of my addiction but I am hoping I don’t develop the stiff upper lip and start wearing a bowler hat!

I do however still drink about 500ml of coffee a day…

Oct 05

The 18th and the bureaucrats

By Scotsdreamer Uncategorized Comments Off

I found out I get a day RTT every month, apparently this is because I work a 37.5 hour week, well I’ll saying that I don’t think I’ve done under 40 hours for years…

So I take my day off and I have a huge agenda to complete… The bank to placate the wolves of the credit card companies, the immobilier to pay my rent, to go to the wedding shops and to obtain my attestation d’enregistrement so without boring you with the tale of paying money to people I’ll concentrate on the wedding and the paperwork.

On the advice of the Consulate General and the foreign office (@britishabroad on Twitter) I have to register myself as a resident of La France wihin 3 months if moving to the country.

Therefore I go to the mairie (Town Hall) of my commune who look at me strangely saying as a EU citizen I don’t have to do anyhing, but I should go to my préfecture just to confirm. It’s a train and an RER away from the mairie so we de decide to do this last as we had more things to do in Paris.

In Paris we know of this shop that specilises in weddings but at prices that even a scotsmans sporran doesn’t complain. This shop happens to be in the 18eme arrondisment, thinking to myself I’ve been to the 18th it’s ok, thats near Gare Du Nord…

Now getting off the metro, at a particular stop which I won’t mention, but Parisians could guess the name of, I was in for a shock, first of all the crowds were immence and then we were accosted by street psychics (who if they were who they said they were would know we couldn’t care less as we were on a mission…) to street hawkers flashing packets of cigarettes trying to sell some dodgy contraband while I presume their ‘partners’ waiting to see what pocket my wallet was in…

Barging through all these I am starting to think that my previous post about the toilets in montparnasse was a little premature.  It’s probably a patch of straw you have in this area…

So, I digress, the wedding shop was nice, but considering the publicity it has it’s quite small. It had dresses (I didn’t look), draget, stationary and everything else you would want for a wedding.  Just nothing for the future Mrs Scotsdreamer.

With a loss of heart we trapse off and decide to go and meet the bureaucrats…

On to line 2 so we could get to the Arc du Triomphe and catch the RER we go, once again braving the crowds, though it now must be time for le gouté as the maize sellers had appeared…

We arrive in La Defence and quickly find our way to the préfecture to fill out the paperwork. Going through the x-ray and airport scanners they take my cameras as we are not allowed to photograph the portacabins. We are there for less time to pour a perfect Guinness as only ‘foreigners’ have to register and I don’t as I’m a citizen of the EU…

What a waste of time, I had my passport and all the paperwork I could think of to keep the red tape happy… C’est la vie!

At least we found a shopping centre on the way back and it is 3 stops away from the house on the SNCF!

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