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Residency Permit

Today, 4 February, we went to the prefecture to renew our residency for our fourth year. In less than 7 months we will have been here for 5 years and are eligible to apply for "permanent" (10 years) residency and citizenship. The citizenship process takes one to three years.

Ruth and I dutifully waited in front of windows
3 and 4 for our appointments. 		This was the first time that there
was not a crowd of people. 		Once again the French civil servants
were very kind and helpful.





Danny

John and I started feeding Danny a wider variety of food, monitoring him closely for any digestive troubles. He's starting to plump up a wee bit. He's much more demanding about getting fed than he used to be. One of the brands he likes the best has all its info in tiny print in 12 languages! Amazing. Over all Danny seems to be doing well. We will take him to the vet again in about a month. I'll keep you posted.





Elections

Mike Bloomberg bought several ads on English language newspaper websites in France encouraging Democrats living abroad to vote for him. In the 4+ years we've been here we had not seen ads by U.S. candidates leading up to global elections until now. Democrats Abroad global voting is March 3 through March 10. Our Oregon primary ballots will be mailed to us April 29 for the May 19 primary. John wants to vote in Oregon because it includes all federal elections, not just the presidential. I want to vote in the Democrats Abroad primary for earlier voting and greater impact (Oregon isn't a swing state) and then vote only for the down ballot candidates in May.

This is one of the ads that Bloomberg ran.





Phone Calls

I don't know the dynamics of the situation but we get a heck of a lot more telemarketing and scam phone calls here than we did in the U.S. They ask for me, not John. Based on what has been said to me it seems they got my info from Orange.fr, our Internet and phone provider. Recently I received a call telling me I needed to go to the police station (which seems very weird as they gave me the correct address for the national police in Rennes). They said they would call back and never did. Another was about installing some insulation "I had ordered" (which I didn't order). And we get a ton of other calls for marketing from realtors, Internet companies, donations ... and more. As I said, it is much worse than I ever experienced in the U.S. I'll probably at least write a letter to the appropriate national agency about that.





Happenings in France

If you want to follow happenings in France, here are 4 helpful websites:
English language RFI, France 24, Euro News and France Bleu





COVID19

I've included a ton of info about COVID-19 because it is steam rolling through northern Italy and into the rest of Europe. And if you want any products from Italy? Fegettaboutit! For awhile. Your best source of info is the World Health Organization. Info about the status of COVID-19 is updated continuously on Worldometer with 25 sources, one of which is WHO.int. That tally shows the deaths and number of cases from which you can determine the death rate. The virus is just starting in the U.S. and has a high death rate there (which will drop as the number of cases increases). In France the death rate is about 1.4% at this time. Italy's is 3.6% The US death rate is 6.9%. Germany has a high number of cases but no reported deaths. Americans have been advised not to wear face masks so health care workers will have enough.

Italy has the most infection cases of any EU nation and 3rd in the world behind China and South Korea. The Venice Carnival was ended early (so sad). In France we can't get Italian pasta or electronics from China.

WHO warns of 'sustained' virus spread in Europe.

There are 13 mainland administrative regions in France and 5 overseas ones. The administrative regions are similar to states in the U.S. The departments resemble counties.

In Brittany, the admin region where we live, one of the departments most impacted by the virus (Morbihan) is about 50 km (30 miles) west of our home in Rennes.

Leaders in Nice are meeting to prepare for the virus on 24/02/2020 because the virus has spread so much and so quickly in Northern Italy just a short distance away. Countries in Europe with COVID-19 are: Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Iceland, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Czechia (the Czech Republic), Finland, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Estonia, Hungary, Andorra, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Monoco and several others. I should have just listed the ones that aren't infected or just posted this link: 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Europe. This is a map of the virus cases world-wide. Serbia -- Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport introduced new measures, including thermal cameras

On February 29 France declared the virus to be a stage 2 pre-epidemic and Frenchies were warned to avoid large gatherings, and no handshakes or kissy kissy (la bis). Stop kissing, "say hello more sincerely", said an expert in etiquette. NOTE: to translate paste the web address in the left box of https://translate.google.com/

The objective of this stage 2 is to slow down the epidemic in order to allow the health system to get into working order. It can lead to closings of schools, nurseries, or restrictions on visits to care facilities for the elderly or children. It also consists in "saving staff and resources, in order to keep the potential low for the very demanding stage of the pandemic wave", which corresponds to stage 3. Stage 2 can finally result in measures to limit travel " non-essential ", the possible suspension of certain public transport, or restrictions on large gatherings and collective activities.

Stage 3 would correspond to the epidemic itself, "when the virus circulates widely in the country," said Edouard Philippe on Thursday. "In this case, heavier everyday decisions can be made." It would then be a question of limiting the effects of the "pandemic wave".

Additional measures can then be taken to drastically limit the movement of people, while organizing the maintenance of "essential services missions and sectors of activity of vital importance".

The WHO daily situation report on Coronavirus is a handy reference.

Everybody wash your hands often. Carry hand sanitizer with you. In Europe the price of isopropyl alcohol has increased a lot during the last month. It's still dirt cheap in the U.S. but you might want to buy a gallon or several liters before prices go up in your area.