The Passport (or: How Jacob became a French citizen)

The Passport 
(or: How Jacob became a French citizen)


Before we left the US, we had to get Jacob a Pet Passport – a document certifying that he is free of any contagious diseases and has had his rabies vaccination.  It is required for travel in Europe, and is good for a year.  Or so we thought.

Since receiving his passport, Jacob has flown from the US to Germany and traveled through an additional 16 countries with no issues.  (To be completely honest, no one has even looked at his passport.)  To enter Norway, we had to get him a tapeworm treatment/prevention 24-120 hours before arriving.  A very nice Swedish vet did the honors and entered the verification into his Pet Passport.  England has a similar rule, so we went to a vet in Bastogne , Belgium, who took care of it and gave him a quick wellness check while she was at it.  Easy peasy, right? 

Well, no.  After spending the night in a parking lot in Calais, France, we arrived at the Eurotunnel station this morning to board the underground train to England, updated Pet Passport at the ready.  Our first stop was the Pet Check-In, where they checked his microchip and then read his paperwork. 

“I am afraid,” said the sweet French clerk, “that this paperwork is expired and he cannot travel with it.”  Apparently, some obscure rule that only British bureaucrats and their French clerks in Calais know about says that even though the document is valid for year, after four months, an American Pet Passport is not valid for entry to the UK from a third country, i.e. France.   An appeal to her supervisor netted the same result.  

The supervisor, however, offered a solution, and said we would still be able to travel today.  He asked the clerk to call local veterinarians and find one who could see us right away and issue Jacob a new French Pet Passport based on the information in the US document.  No new examination, just new paperwork.  (How that protects the British public from a diseased pet I have no idea.)

An hour and fifty euros later, Dr Hamzéa issued Jacob his new, official French passport, and dubbed him “François” to go with his new nationality.   We were good to go.  A rescheduled ticket got us on the 3pm train and we arrived in England 30 minutes later, none the worse for wear.  

Except that now Jacob is a French passport holder.  We are wondering if he might be able to sponsor us for dual citizenship.  


_____


Meanwhile, some photos from our visit to Norway.  What a beautiful country!  

Sheep in the road

The home of trolls

Typical outbuildings. Note the carving.

Stave church
Crossing the country through the mountains - 
just outside one of the country's 900 road tunnels

Another stave church

A two-way road through the forest

A Viking rune stone, marking the death of Harald Bluetooth

A roomba lawn mower encounters a Viking burial mound






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