| Katie and Mike Register a Bike |
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| Written by Neill W |
| Monday, 09 June 2008 12:51 |
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Katie and Mike Harrington live in the Charente Maritime in France and have lived the French life for quite a few years now. In between summers running their Gite holiday lets they spend winters organising great skiing holidays. An idylical lifestyle you might think and hassle free. Well it was until they decided to buy a Yamaha motorcycle in the UK and take it home to France….. I then drove the bike over to our house in Western France. I could not continue the English insurance as the maximum time allowed abroad is 45 days and according to our insurer this is standard and law now. What would happen if you were on your 44th day of a holiday and got delayed, no one could tell me. So therefore I had no option but to get the bike on French plates, a process called reimmatriculation. This is not an easy word to say in English, let alone with a French accent. Little did I know that I would have six months practice at it and I now have it off pat.Despite France and England both being members of the EU, French bureaucracy needless to say was still something we were going to have to battle with.. First of all I had to visit the Sous-Prefecture in Saintes, which is half an hours drive. The visit went swimmingly, all I needed I was told was a Certificat de Conformité and I should be able to get this from a Yamaha dealer. Our nearest dealer was in Royan, another 20 minute drive. They were very helpful but it was not possible for them to issue me with this piece of paper, I would have to contact Yamaha France in Paris. They gave me to number so I returned home and rang them. So far, all was going OK and having lived in France for five years have come to expect a bit of bureaucracy, but I was not ready for Yamaha France. Once I contacted them I was told that I would have to send a cheque for 100 euros to them and they would then send the correct document. This seemed a bit extortionate to provide a piece of paper confirming I had a Yamaha Diversion, when I already had the registration document and there was no need for the bike to be inspected. It was just to say that the biked conformed in general, a fact of course which should be on record and accepted by all and sundry. So I sent my 100 euros off and was told that the document would be sent back with three weeks. Not so. Seven weeks later and after many phone calls, still I had received nothing. I was told that summer was a very busy time for them and also of course the timing coincided with France being on holiday for the entire month of August.. Eventually though on 12 August they finally sent me a sheet of paper (100 euros worth). I then had to take this back to Saintes to the Sous-Prefecture. I was told there that the document I had been sent was only a Conformité Partiale and I would have to go to Royan first of all (yes another 20 minutes drive) and then to La Rochelle as well, an hours drive, to visit the Direction Regionale de l’Industrie de La Rochelle et de ‘Environment, affectionately known as DRIRE. The people there were very nice but said that before they could do anything to reimmatriculate the bike I needed a new headlight. Although I knew this would more than likely be the case, nobody had mentioned it, and it was not so easy. Since the bike was no longer insured, I somehow had to get it to La Rochelle to get the new light fitted. A friend was kind enough to let me borrow his van and put the bike in the back. So off to La Rochelle I went. I left the bike with the garage to have the light fitted. Once I knew this had been done I contacted DRIRE and made an appointment for them to inspect the bike again. This was now 1 December. The bike was now insured with French insurance, now made possible because the process of registering it on French plates was in process. When I went to pick the bike up from the garage to take it to DRIRE, I arrived to discover the battery was flat as it had been idle for so long. We then ran into another very French was of life, the two hour lunch starting at midday. By the time we left the garage it was 11.55., We phoned DRIRE to be told that not only were they closing for lunch but it was Friday and they were not open on Friday afternoons. So as I started moaning once again about the French and all their bureaucracy, BUT they said they would stay open and wait for us. How unusual. They checked the bike over and agreed the light was now in conformity with French law etc. There was still vast amounts of paperwork they had to prepare for the Sous-Prefecture in Saintes in order for them to issue the Carte Grise. Could we come back at 5pm so collect it. This was going to be a real nuisance living so far away. We asked them if they could post the paperwork but they would have had to have sent it registered post which was going to take several days (it does in France) and we were leaving for the winter three days later. So they did it all there are then. Giving up their lunch break. Of course this did not come free, we parted with another 86.90 euros. By 1pm we had a Proces Verbal de Reception a Titre “copie?. I didn’t like the sound of the “copie? bit but was pleased to have something. The next day I revisited Saintes again and after parting with another 95 euros, I was the proud owner of a Certifcat d’Immatriculation. The holy grail of a “Carte Grise? for the Yamaha had finally been attained. It would seem that everyone we know has had different experiences. A friend had to get both his van and car, both right hand drive, reimmatriculated. This he did in one visit to the Sous-Prefecture. Don’t count on it though. As I said before, second hand bikes and cars are much cheaper in the UK than in France but the importation can be a very time consuming and costly business. The whole process cost us 475 euros. For cars it can be as much as 800. I am afraid it looks like I will have to sell the kids for medical science after all.
Katie & Mike Harrington have been living in the Charente Maritime area of France for years. In the summer, their holiday gites are available to rent at: Winter takes them to the Alps to run excellent ski holiday accommodation at: |
| Last Updated ( Monday, 30 June 2008 12:53 ) |