Renewing French Visas

An important question former teaching assistants and international students in France ask me concerns the renewal of French visas. So long as your reason to renew the visa is of the same nature of your visa, the renewal process should be a breeze; if you're changing the nature of your stay in France, things are more complicated--but it is possible.

As Americans possessing a French visa, we must register with our local OFII and obtain the vignette OFII as soon as we come to France. Chances are you've already completed this process, but did you know that the combination of your visa and vignette OFII serves as a titre de séjour? This is an important idea for understanding the visa renewal process.

To be legal in France, you are required to have a titre de séjour, which is typically an identity card communicating information about you to relevant French authorities. As first year Americans, we don't receive this card and instead receive a use the combination of our visa and the vignette OFII to form an equivalent titre de séjour. I suppose the reason is to reduce administrative tasks surrounding the titre de séjour, but, let's be honest: the administrative tasks are probably more tedious for French civil servants, mais bon.

Prolonging your stay beyond your visa end-date is possible and simple if your reason for staying is of the same nature as your visa. A teaching assistant who came on a work visa, for example, and who plans on renewing a work contract with his or her school; a student with a student visa who wishes to continue his or her studies into a second year: these are reasons to stay that are of the same nature of the visas with which they came. In this case, to renew the titre de séjour, you need to go to your local préfecture or sous-préfecture (if your department is organized as such) and provide them with the documents they require.

If you would like to stay in France but change your reason for staying, this process is more complicated, more expensive, and more time-consuming--but it is possible. Personally, I did the teaching assistant program while beginning a master's degree at a French university in Paris, so, when I wanted to renew my titre de séjour, I was told that I couldn't. I couldn't because I had a work visa and my reason for staying was to continue my studies--i.e., the nature of my stay had changed. (An exception to this rule: students graduating from a French institution of higher education have the right to look for work after their studies.) The solution to this problem is to return to the US with your grades and an admission note and apply for a student visa at your local consulate. Then, when you return to France, you make an appointment with the OFII--and you're already familiar with the rest! You'll be good for another year.

A good piece of advise from anyone who has gone through the agony of French administrative tasks is to be aware of the requirements, to bring everything (as well as copies) plus anything else you might have. It just helps to be overly prepared.

Parlez-moi de vous: A French Film Review

Melinda, an incredibly popular radio celebrity, resolves relationship problems and family issues with grace, humor and uninhibited honesty on her popular radio show in France. Everyone recognizes her voice, but her face is kept secret to guard her anonymity. Parlez-moi de vous is a film that unmasks the troubled life of a woman who earns a living by helping women from all walks of life--but who cannot seem to help herself overcome the abandonment she felt as a child.

Melinda lives in the 7th arrondissement of Paris; it's a luxurious, expensive location in a beautiful Haussmann building. She's successful, but lives alone with her only companion, a small, well-behaved dog. Antisocial and an OCD case, the film slowly unveils the multiple characters of this woman: her warm, caring radio personality, her unpleasing perfectionist persona and her dark, inner self. At 40, she's a complicated woman, none the less made more complicated by the fact that she has recently discovered, for the first time, who her mother is and where she lives.

I will not spoil the story for you. I recognize that it would be much more enjoyable to go to the cinema yourself to watch this film peal away layer after layer of this woman's personality. It's not judgmental, happy or as positive in the end; it is sad, realistic and deeply profound.

France Lost her AAA Credit Rating

According to the Sarkozy government, Standard & Poor's has downgraded France by one note from her prestigious AAA credit rating. This was announced after the CAC closed. Now, investors have the weekend to think about it...

Read an article in France.

Read an article in English.

Despite the fact that this could lead to significant problems for Europe as a whole (it's not just France who lost her AAA), Germany and France are saying that, in today's world, a AAA credit rating is less and less important. That's not what they were saying when the US was downgraded.

* *

It's official now: Les Echos (in French).

Appreciating Roquefort Cheese

My humble Wisconsin origins have not sufficiently prepared me for the smell and the taste of some of the sharpest, most pungent of French cheeses. Sure,  I've tasted ash-lined and algae-layered varieties; I didn't regret eating the raw milk cheeses, nor has the odor that comes with nearly all French cheeses stopped me from enjoying the dietary richness of such cheeses as the Camembert de Normandie.

Roquefort is another story: it is literally moldy. The cheese owes its existence to a boy leaving cheese in a cave only to return some months later to find it "deliciously" moldy (read the Wikipedia article). It has a distinguishing look, a strong taste and, not surprisingly, a pungent odor beyond any of the other cheeses I've tasted. 

Enjoying cheese is an essential part of French culture, I've observed; the French really enjoy the nearly 300 varieties of cheese for which their country is known, so I cannot live here without at least appreciating a cheese that I have until know avoided eating at dinner parties, at family gatherings, etc. 

My new year's resolution is to... appreciate Roquefort cheese. I will probably never love it, but the least I can do is eat it from time to time.

Laws Against Foreign Students in France

A series of new laws aimed at foreign workers in France will also affect international students trying to transition from institutions of higher education to the professional world. 

These new laws will not only limit the number of visas given to workers in most domains, but they will also make it very difficult for students--even those who already have jobs lined up--to work in France after having studied in French universities. 

For those assistants who would like to stay in France a little while longer, the laws will also affect you. Finding jobs outside of the Teaching Assistant Program in France will be more and more difficult. And a French education might not even help. 

There might be some hope, however, that the laws will take competitiveness into consideration. If the need is high, or the skills of the foreign worker important, the laws might be a bit more flexible. I'm just hoping that the my master's degree in rédaction technique will be competitive enough to be considered important...

Epiphany Cake of the Kings

After the rich celebrations of the Réveillon de Noël, Noël, Réveillon du Jour de l'an, and the Jour de l'an... we're ready for the delicious Galette des rois !

We celebrated with great French food, but it's not Christmas or New Year's day that make France's holidays stand out as culturally unique. Sure, there was plenty of foie gras, champagne, farce, raw oysters--which I love--but the rest of the holiday meals is nothing incredibly different from what we eat in the States. The Galette des rois, however, is a tradition that I am not aware of in the US.

Essentially, the Galette des rois is a crispy, frangipane-filled cake that is baked with a small figuring hidden inside. The "frangipane" is a delicious, sweetened almond filling. It's a unique flavor during the holiday season, and a tradition that is celebrated on the 12th day of Christmas, known as the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6th) in order to celebrate the biblical three kings. In honor of these kings, the person who discovers the figurine in his cake is crowned the "king" for the day. 

It's a fun, traditionally French holiday and the final one of the season. In Paris, most people will simply buy the cake from a local patisserie, but if you're not in Paris and you would still like to celebrate this holiday, please click this link for a recipe. 

Les Cadeaux de Noël

The Ritz

I wasn't the only non Francophone for Christmas this year. In years past, I spent traditional Christmas nights in Germany and in France, but this year I learned a bit about Italian culture while partaking in a traditional French Christmas ripe with froie gras and champagne.

In Germany, I discovered red sauerkraut, a delicious surprise that I find very little of in France. The family with which I dined on that Christmas day served a simple, satisfying meal. In France, there's the famous farce, froie gras, smoked salmon, perfectly cooked poultry, plenty of wine and champagne and, of course, an abundance of conversation (above all, politics, society and culture) and cheese.

Language had previously been a barrier. I speak French and know a lot more about French politics this year, so the entire evening's conversation was open to me. We talked political strategies, who will vote for whom, why and under what conditions... It was interesting, something I think we do very little of in the US.

When Adrian, the son of Anthénaume's mother's paramour brought his Italian girlfriend over to introduce the family, the spell was broken: we had to speak in English. She had lived in London for three years and thus had been forced to learn English; she spoke very little French.

I might have been disappointed, but we continued to speak French throughout most of the evening, as Anthénaume and Adrian were the only others who could speak English. Needless to say, there was a lot of confusion in between Adrian and his Girlfriend and even Anthénaume (I never said that they spoke English well) and among all of the strictly francophone guests, but we nevertheless managed to produce a beautiful exchange on Culture.

In Italy, I learned, each of the regions have kept their particular language and culture--especially the cities front Rome and southward, where men still treat women as inferior objects. Adrian's girlfriend explained a lot about the divisions between north and South, between Sardinia and the continent, etc. Having heard this, I am really glad we chose to book a flight to Rome in order to see the Italian capital. France has a strong, centralized culture that does not tolerate very many culture divisions between regions... and Germany simple seemed a bit too globalized. Italy will be more of a cultural experience that I had imagined!

We exchanged gifts (bottles of wine, books, chocolates and perfumes for the ladies), and ended the night at roughly 3 in the morning! A night of lively conversation, polite company and a lot of cheese and champagne--my Christmas 2011 in France was above all a pleasant experience.