LOL ! Jane - wrong side of bed this morning ? :-
Simon, unfortunately Jerome 's bed is a grave.
I am speaking from personal experience and the treatment of people from the Cluny gendarmerie is anything but funny.
I have not met anyone here who has a good word for them.
Perhaps it is different where you live and I hope it is.
After the procureur said she wasn’t interested in my case, I was called back to the gendarmerie to complete the paperwork.
This meant that I was fingerprinted and my photo taken as though I were a criminal. I can assure you that I was in tears and not laughing out loud.
It is a beautiful sunny day here and I have not got out of bed on the wrong side.
I can appreciate people making off the cuff remarks, but when your personal experience is at such variance it is very difficult to find it amusing.
I’m glad to hear that Jane as reading your posts has not given me that impression. Good luck with your application, it’s a big step.
Thank you.
I am totally opposed to
Brexit and am one of the crowdfunders in the case against the legality of Article 50.
Another worry coming up this morning is how Brexit will affect horse racing.
I wonder what those who voted for it will think when Aidan O’Brian finds it more difficult to bring his horses over from the Irish Republic and there could be no Irish raiders at Cheltenham or Aintree?
As a lover of the sport it would be a very sad state of affairs indeed.
I saw that but cannot believe that it will be an issue. Racehorses have always enjoyed a level of free movement denied to other animals from long before the EU came into being.
Let’s hope so.
Jane, I’ve had contact with gendarmes here for various reasons and overall I’ve found them helpful and reasonable - even when issuing me a ticket for a traffic offence. I’m sorry to hear about your experiences to the contrary.
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Ok Jane message received. Sounds like you’ve been through the mill - hardly any wonder you feel as you do!
Debra, when your Mayor has gone to the gendarmerie on your behalf to explain that the woman involved and her ex gendarme husband are well known for causing problems in our commune and is told that it is too late to do anything about it you wonder who the gendarmerie are actually protecting.
hmm
life gets really difficult some times.I know.
Jane, as I’ve been protected and aided by them and so has my son I don’t have any doubts about my local gendarmeries.
Without sounding like a “grumpy b***tard”, im an EU Citizen /Immigrant and not an “Expat”.
However well intentioned is the document, the term just maginifies to our homeland, what stereotypes they think we are.
Apologies for the rant.
Martin
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Absolutely Martin :-
I think the term expat is used mostly by those who feel a bit squiffy (uncomfortable) about actually being an immigrant, you know, one of ‘them’ lol
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me too 
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technically an immigrant is from outside the eu, we are just citizens of Europe soon to be immigrants 
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That’s the crux isn’t it - is another EU state the same as a foreign country for an EU citizen?
Personally I don’t feel justified in calling myself an immigrant because I haven’t been through immigration procedures. As an EU citizen I have had no contact whatsoever with OFII, they don’t know I’m here, they don’t have a record of me so I don’t see how I can be included in official immigration statistics.
I think the French term “ressortissant UE” hits the nail on the head nicely.
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Did you just parachute in then Anna ? 
So much more ‘acceptable’ isn’t it …like being in a different league, class, echelon - just altogether nicer. Most importantly not one of ‘them’. 
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