Tracy van Leyden Interpreter

01/08/2024

Just a little reminder - my mini domestic art gallery will be open for viewing Thursday 1st and 8th from 17H00 to 20H00 - a bit of a cultural apéro? 😂

04/07/2024

https://mailchi.mp/97768dd2e7cc/n3-newsletter-bits-and-bobs-about-property Newsletter number 3 out now! A few bits and pieces about property

04/07/2024

Hey everybody - want to spent a mellow Sunday afternoon sipping fizz and checking out my art? Sunday 21 July is my opening/versnissage I'd love to see you 😘

11/06/2024

Doing another Garage Sale - completely restocked (yes I've got a lot of stuff!) do come and have a rummage....😃

11/04/2024

Thank you Harry Shindler .

When I was about 10 years old I remember my grandfather telling me that I must vote, even if I only voted for the good-looking one, because women died to get me my vote. I moved to France in 1988 and at the time I was told that I could only vote in the UK for 25 years, which seemed like forever back then. I didn’t vote because I thought it a bit of a cheek since I no longer lived there and what went on there was really no longer any of my business. Until, of course, the Brexit vote - that’s when I found out that somewhere along the line the 25 years had been shrunk to 15! I wouldn’t have been able to vote anyway since by Brexit time I’d been living in France for over 30 years. Right up until Brexit I consoled myself with my local vote here in France and the European elections. So, its been a few years now that I have been completely disenfranchised!

I had heard that the UK had had its knuckles rapped about this particular bit of naughtiness and that someone had taken them to court and won. That was Harry Shindler who fought for 20 years to get his British vote back - and finally won. Although Harry got to see the legislation pass through parliament he didn’t get to vote before he died at the ripe old age of 101. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Harry.

I have just registered to vote on line - and have my parents to thank for keeping all my early documents for me - whilst rummaging around I managed to find an Official Poll Card from Birmingham District Council from 1983, addressed to me with my maiden name, living in a tower block that has since been demolished at a remarkably minimalist postcode that couldn’t be recognised by the site. Also found a letter from the Department of Social Security telling me about my National Insurance contributions for 1988/1989 (equally minimalist!) which obligingly gave me my NI number. So thank you Mum and Dad for saving these bits of historic necessity for me.

I have had to register for a postal vote because my proxy would need to vote in Birmingham - if anyone is interested the deadline for applying for a postal vote is the 17th April this year… so not much time left - Thank you Richard for your timely nudge.

I’m still waiting to hear if my application for a postal vote has been accepted but the emails from Birmingham City Council have been very prompt this far and I’m ever the optimist.

Good luck anyone else who’s planning to do this and get your skates on!

Thank you Harry, Ruth, Brian and Richard.❤

Lots of love
Tracy

11/04/2024

Yeehaa I finally did it! Here it is my brand spanking new Monthly Newsletter! Well the link to sign up for it anyway 😆 I'm hoping in the future to add links to it for any checklist and information documents I produce, they'll also be posted on here in the archive bit when I find it but I'm guessing that a link from the Newsletter will be easier to navigate. Just click on the link if you want to join the mailing list.

Sign up to my monthly Newsletter for timely reminders, updates, info and tidbits about living in France and navigating French bureaucracy

01/04/2024

Just because I wanted to share this somewhere 😃

“Every city has a s*x and an age which have nothing to do with demography. Rome is feminine. So is Odessa. London is a teenager, an urchin, and in this hasn’t changed since the time of Dickens. Paris, I believe, is a man in his twenties in love with an older woman.”

― John Berger

01/04/2024

There you go! 😂

23/09/2023

https://youtu.be/hRIhHH4TQvU?si=aasGujwqNJKCrIKt

Here’s a lovely treat 😃

Are you feeling in a giving mood? - https://www.rethink.org/get-involved/make-a-donationSeason 11 Episode 5 - Henning Wehn is live at the Hammersmith Apollo,...

08/06/2023

05/06/2023

Great - the Paris metro names for anyone who doesn’t recognize them 😃

29/04/2023

02/04/2023

The Wonky Pot

17/03/2023

We will be able to declare on line as of Wednesday 13 April 2023.

On line deadlines are:

25 May 2023 à 23h59 : départements n° 1 to 19 ;
1st June 2023 à 23h59 : départements n° 20 to 54 ;
8 June 2023 à 23h59 : départements n° 55 to 974/976.

Paper declarations have to have a postal date stamp before 22nd May 2023 .

17/03/2023

It’s that time of year again folks! Tax season 🤪
Here’s the link for the relevant dates and howtos.
I’ll put the dates up next …

Impôts : ouverture du service de déclaration des revenus de 2022 le 13 avril 2023

19/01/2023

/ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe /
"Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much."
"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism as well as treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour. He is widely regarded as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language, his work having a profound and wide-ranging influence on Western literary, political and philosophical thought from the late 18th century to the present day. Goethe took up residence in Weimar in November 1775 following the success of his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. He was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Karl August, in 1782. Goethe was an early participant in the Sturm und Drang literary movement."
W
Born: Johann Wolfgang Goethe, August 28, 1749, Free Imperial City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire
Died: March 22, 1832, Weimar, Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, German Confederation
Occupation: Poet, novelist, playwright, natural philosopher, diplomat, civil servant
Alma mater: Leipzig University, University of Strasbourg
Literary movement: Sturm und Drang, Weimar Classicism, Romanticism in science
Notable works: Faust, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Elective Affinities, "Prometheus", Zur Farbenlehre, Italienische Reise, West–östlicher Divan

09/06/2022

ARRRGGGH c**k up!!! Deadline for taxes on line in the Morbihan is the 8th June not 24th as per my previous post!!! On line declaration still available at the moment - sorry folks I don't know where I got that date from...

05/05/2022

Just to let everyone know - in the Morbihan (56) your income tax declarations for 2021 are due in on 19th May 2022 on paper and the 24th June 2022 if you do it on line. The exchange rate that I'm using is 0.8403 (december 2021) eg 750£ divided by 0.8403 = €892.54.

14/11/2021

😊

14/05/2021

A Client asked me to help sort him out with his travel to the UK - I had to do a spreadsheet to get my brain around it!!! Thought I'd share as it might be useful to someone. NB regulations are changing all the time but this was what it was this week.

14/05/2021

For anyone who's still not applied for their carte de séjour this site seems really clear about what documents you need for which case 😀

Free assistance is only applicable for those living in The Dordogne, Auvergne / Rhone Alpes & Provence Alpes / Cote d’Azur

25/03/2021

Turns out the best way to share documents on FB is to make them an image!!! Sorry about that. This is something I had occasion to produce recently - I hope you never have occasion to use it - the whens, whos and whys timetable for dealing with a death and officialdom in France.

25/03/2021

Just found this for a friend and thought some of you might find it useful 😃 importing UK cars to France after Brexit.. https://www.frenchentree.com/living-in-france/importing-a-uk-vehicle-and-registering-it-in-france/

24/02/2021

Love this so much 😂😂😂

FrasierFrom 'An Affair to Forget' - Season 2 Episode 21

27/01/2021

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Niall Horan, Rose Byrne, Chris O'Dowd, Antonio Banderas, Nina Dobrev, Alicia Vikander, Alexander Skarsgård, and Zara Larsson team up t...