…except the big difference is that we’re not moving from the UK.
In early March - before you-know-what on the 29th - we’re coming from Italy (where we’ve lived/worked since 2007) in our Italian-plated RHD car; driven by me on an Italian Driving Licence; with Italian insurance; my Italian permanent residency permit stuffed in my pocket, along with my Italian Health Service card; and my Italian ID card; and an application for Italian citizenship approved, but still inching its way through a system which has just doubled the waiting period from 2 yrs to 4. (So I’ve got about 32 months to go…)
So…Q1. Has anyone ever done the same move ? If yes - from a bureaucratic viewpoint, how’d it go ?
Q2. Is the fact that I’m a Brit who’s lived in Italy for 11 years going to give the local Mairie a fit of the vapours ?
Q3. Might the fact that I have an Italian Health card remove the need for any private cover needed before (if ?) I ever qualify for the French system ?
Q4. Should I present my Italian ID card - or UK passport - to the Mairie as proof of identity and…er…general pro-EU attitude ?
Q5. Should I speak in Italian ? (Just kidding. Maybe…)
Q6. Is the last 11 years non-UK residency in another EU country going to make a blind bit of difference to anything, or will I be just another Brit - but with irritating documents ?
(There are going to be an awful lot more q’s - so don’t go away…)
Q4: It is always useful if new arrivals do come along to the Mairie… no need to flash credentials… just explain which property you will be living-in… and make sure you put your names… clearly… on your letterbox.
Q5: Absolutely wonderful if you can manage a few words in French… at the Mairie… but no need for Italian… (I suspect you will be “Monsieur Brenner, l’italien”… or just “l’italien” when the locals are chatting about you… but it will be a friendly classification…no worries…
“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore! When the sun seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine, that’s amore! Bells will ring, ting-a-ling-ling etc.”
Wow, now you have really arrived Peter. A couple of years ago my ‘ex’ was invited to share his views on being an ‘Englisman abroad’, it was for our yearly communal newsletter. He was as pleased as Punch to see his article and name published !
They used to play Dean Martin on a loop at a spaghetti franchise in Basildon Festival Park when we lived in Rayleigh. The food was OK but we overdosed on DM and stopped going. It went out of business shortly after
Apologies, Inglese, I was very rude to you, a touch of misplaced over-exuberance, and although I don’t understand your message, I think I can guess its import
But I did sincerely mean that you should be embraced by the membership, and hope you get the support you need. Your experience of life in Italy will be a rich resource, and a point of contrast, I’ve no doubt.
I tend to cyclothymia, slow but powerful and unpredictable mood-swings, as my history of comment will demonstrate. But I am basically harmless, and enjoy the forum very much. I hope you will be lenient and overlook my excess on this occasion, as I undertake not to repeat it.
I invited David Amess to come and talk to my nurses at Basildon Hospital in the early 80s just after his election. He spoke very movingly about his Dad’s final illness and the care he received under the NHS. He seemed a very earnest and unassuming young man. He awarded my son with a medal as a member of Basildon Boys FC when we lived there. If he got messed up later I would blame the political system, it does that to people. I am not a Tory fan.
(I suspect you will be “Monsieur Brenner, l’italien”… or just “l’italien” when the locals are chatting about you… but it will be a friendly classification…no worries… 
