My Carte Vitale

I am now the proud owner of a Carte Vitale – a little green plastic card with my picture on it that gives me free health care in France.

Since I went to the social security office in July I have had a piece of paper with a temporary social security number, but this now the real deal.

All French people have a Carte Vitale and – when plugged into a card reader at a hospital, pharmacy or clinic – it gives information about how much the card holder has to pay towards their care.

For most people the Carte Vitale pays 70% of health care costs with the additional 30% paid by a mutuelle – an insurance policy usually paid by the person’s employer.

However, for people with long-term health conditions (affections de longue durée), the Carte Vitale pays 100% of all health care, apart from a few pharmacy items – a list that the government here is trying to lengthen.

I managed to get a Carte Vitale with 100% cover because I was able to get a form E121 from the Pensions Service in the UK. This isn’t always an easy process, but I knew that I needed it in order to be able to live in France for a year.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme may have been sufficient if my Crohn’s was much more stable and I didn’t need regular hospital admissions for my Infliximab treatment.

Although, having said that, my partner Becky is having some problems getting the correct EHIC card – there is one for holidays and one for longer stays.

So far, my health has been quite stable. Even so, I have been to see a médecin généraliste (GP) twice, a gastroenterologist once and I have had one trip to the university hospital for Infliximab and one blood test.

This week I need to have a Vitamin B12 injection, plus another blood test and then have another Infliximab infusion in two weeks’ time. And I am having ongoing treatment for a dental infection at the dentists (paid for by the Carte Vitale).

To be able to hand over my Carte Vitale each time does make life much easier and cheaper than having to pay and then claim back 70% of costs via the EHIC office in the UK. It will be interesting to see how this works if Becky needs to use her EHIC card while we are here.

Slowing down time

It is a strange thing how time can appear to go very slowly and then, suddenly, the weeks speed by. That is exactly how the last month has been for us.

To begin with, each day was a real challenge - finding our way around the town, struggling with speaking French and trying to understand how everything works here. Time went slowly and every day was memorable.

At some point we must have reached a level of proficiency and confidence where most aspects of everyday life were not a struggle. Then days merge into others, with special trips or events the highlights that shine out from the humdrum.

In some ways it is quite nice that each day is no longer a struggle, but I would like to slow time down a little, otherwise our year will be over too soon.

We have had two nice trips in the past month - to the American Film Festival in Deauville and to Bayeux - and we've had some nice visits from family and friends.

We have also both had a nasty cold that has lingered for a week or two and has caused the postponement of another couple of trips out.

With Becky starting her university course next week, we will be settling into more of a routine. This will be good for getting things done, but does threaten to speed up time. Once we have Becky's timetable, we can spot times for day trips, evenings out and times to meet up with new friends.

Regular half terms are definitely being reserved for trips away - Paris and possibly a trip to the south at the end of October.

After our 12 weeks of 'acclimatisation' our adventure is really about to start now, so we need to use what we've learned so far to make sure the experience doesn't fly past too quickly.

Keep on speaking French

The days and weeks are really racing by at the moment. France has returned from its summer break and we are now seeing the country as it is for 11 months of the year. It is busier, noisier and the shops are all open.

It took me a while to recover from coming off the antibiotics I was taking for a tooth infection. I was fine while I was taking them, but as soon as I stopped I felt rough for a week and didn’t get out much.

Back in the UK having to stay tucked up for a week is not unusual and I take it in my stride. Here in France it was more difficult. Partly this is because our flat is a little small, but I think the main reason I went a bit ‘stir-crazy’ was that I wanted to be out and about speaking French and learning about my new town.

I learned that it is very easy to feel isolated. My French is progressing well, but I am very aware that I do struggle to have a conversation. Every time I am out I have to work hard and be prepared for constant linguistic challenges.

It will need a lot of commitment from me to progress with my French to the level I want to achieve. Lying in bed feeling poorly, this all seemed rather impossible and pointless. I really did end up feeling sorry for myself!

Once my body was back on an even keel I had an afternoon out with my partner. We went to the library, picked some CDs to listen to and filled our bags with all the brochures and leaflets for the new season of local arts events and then went to a local bar to read them.

There is so much going on in town between now and next summer – it was reassuring to know that I won’t have any excuse to be bored and I will have plenty of opportunities to practice my French.