I so disagree. I loved driving our RHD merc for the last17 years here in France. We live in the country and roads tend to be narrow. Oncoming vehicles drive in the centre of the road. I would know exactly how close to the verge I could get to pass with safety. We had so many punctures in the LHD Skoda because I couldn’t see exactly where the verge started, nor indeed what the verge was hiding.
Re overtaking, quite often it’s possible to have a sightline on the inside of the car in front and gauge whether anything was coming and then move out.
On motorways, we used the blip thingy, so no problem at peages.
I really miss our old merc. Kept me safe for many, many years.
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Retrospectively yes but it can take a while from application to ouverture des droits, and until your rights have been opened there is no mechanism for getting reimbursed. That is what I was saying. So in the meanwhile you pay, keep your feuilles de doin and claim once you are “in the system”.
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Note that if your S1 comes because you are employed in the UK whilst commuting from your home in France, HMRC not DWP issues your S1 and it will have an expiry date. So HMRC will need to be asked to issue a further year so long as you qualify for an S1 by that route snd you will have to send each new S1 off to CPAM register it.
If you can get an appointment at CPAM then this is excellent practice in appearing at any appointment with officialdom in France carrying your dossier with every possible document including others they may not have asked for.
I’ve had 2 or 3 appointments with CPAM one of which was to register and hand them the first S1. The look of joy on the CPAM interviewer’s face first when I (a Brit) appeared carrying a file, and then when I opened the file and produced a document each time one was asked for, was worth all the assembling of the dossier.
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My partner has been piggy-backing on my S1 for the past few years and now he has his own so had an appointment and went to see CPAM . They said it was very straighforward, looked at everything he’d brought (including CdS) took copies and said it should go through fine. Two months later, he got a letter from them saying they needed a copy of his CdS.
I would second (and third and fourth) the previous posters who say that French bureaucracy asks for what it wants.
I have a friend who asked for French nationality on the basis of his Mum being French and, despite us telling him to take every bit of relevant paperwork he had to the Embassy for the interview, he only took what was specifically mentioned on the website, then had to appeal against the rejection of his application because he hadn’t brought his Mum’s birth certificate (which he’d left at home).
Anyone who has been here for a while tends to take a large folder with everything conceivable in it to formal interviews… 
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I second your reply and as already said, been here over 30+ years, had several CDS/TDS and yet the authorities still often demand to see a current photocopy and most deffo my passport time and time again even though I must have supplied it dozens of times previously. French bureaucracy is one of the world’s mysteries and we do best not to question it.
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Couldn’t agree more and arguing is definitely NOT a good idea. Pissing off a fonctionnaire is a very counter-productive move!
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FYI France Services (here in a Seine Maritime village) routinely recommends NOT making face to face appointments to register with CPAM. Instead they advise to do it all by post, completing the relevant CERFA form plus required justificatifs. They reckoned that if sent to the Department HQ of CPAM, the application was screened for completeness, then passed to whichever office in the country actually processes it, who apparently then ‘take it more seriously’. I have no idea if others have been given similar advice, nor whether it actually makes much difference at the end of the day to obtaining a secu number, carte vitale etc etc.
Ler’s be honest. Processes and people are not joined up, much is not computerised and it appears many staff are not, and above all they lose things.
Not saying anywhere else is any better. Jusf worth it to be ready to do your best to overcome these things when they directly affect something you need to get done.
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Yes and always having your thick file of paperwork on hand does help to smooth the way.
We have the German equivalent of an S1. Before we got the carte vitale we kept the feuilles de soin, then took them to the CPAM, showed them our EHICs, and we’re were reimbursed. We didn’t yet have a permanent address, and were handled as tourists.
This all reminds me of something a Syrian refugee we knew, who was complaining about German bureaucracy, which can also be frustrating, said:
“In Syria it’s much easier. You give some bakshish and you get what you want straightaway.”
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Yes absolutely a visa or CdS is required if you don’t have an EU passport.
Your S1 is only notification of who will be paying for your healthcare once you are in the system. It’s not an insurance policy certificate.
Until you are registered in the system with CPAM with your S1, you are not covered and would need additional cover.
You can apply to join the health system immediately with an S1.
CPAM will only back date reimbursements from the date your rights were opened and that’s not always the date you applied.
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