Update on plans for London.

The good news is that I now have an appointment for a medical exam in Soissons on December 20 at 8:15. The bad news is that I will have to wake up at an ungodly hour to get to Soissons that early. The other bad news is that December 20 is the day before I was planning to leave for London. I don’t know yet whether I have to have the exam before I get my reci-passé, but if I do, that means that I will have only one day to get it.

I am debating what to do about this. I don’t think I can realistically expect to buy a same-day ticket from Paris to London four days before Christmas. I should buy it in advance, but I hadn’t wanted to do that until I had my carte de séjour or reci-passé in my hand. If anything goes wrong on December 20 and I don’t get my reci-passé, buying a ticket in advance – or making a hostel reservation in advance, which I should also do – will have been a complete waste.

I am going to sit on this for now, until I find out whether or not the exam is required to get the reci-passé. I e-mailed the prefecture in Soissons about it yesterday, and I hope their reply will come very soon. It’s true that I’ve e-mailed them a lot of questions already, but that’s really their own fault for making this so complicated. If the exam is required for the reci-passé, I am going to operate on the assumption that all will go well on December 20 and I will leave Soissons with my reci-passé in my hand. That means I am going to buy a ticket and make a hostel reservation in advance. I’ll be taking a chance, yes, but sometimes you have to in life, right?

Of course I won’t know for sure what I’ll do until I know how to get the reci-passé. I will post again when I find that out.