A string of bad luck…

Six weeks out my dream trip starts to turn into a nightmare.

My eighty-three year old Dad, in hospital for prostate surgery, takes a turn for the worst and is intensive care. My South African born partner (we’re in a five year, committed relationship but don’t live together or plan to marry) found he can’t get a visa to go to France with me!

My dream is to go to Paris. I am writing a book inspired by Monet’s garden in Giverny which is close by. I’ve been fantasizing about this trip for a long time but when a friend said she was renting a seven hundred year old chateau in the south of France and invited me to go, I made up my mind this was the year!

My plan was to fly to London, the city of my birth which I have not revisited since I left at age twelve forty-eight years ago. A week there then I’ll take the train to Paris and on to Reims in the Champagne region for three days.  Next, to the south of France to the Chateau for a week then back to Paris, Giverny etc. for another week or so.

Now Paris, you have to admit, is the city of romance, so I thought I’d see if my man wanted to come.  Of course he did! But he wanted to extend the trip. “You’re going all that way, may as well get the most out of it!” He wanted to take in Spain as well. I was reluctant because I run my own small, one-person consulting business and I’m dependent on the income it produces – retirement is a long way off for me. Four weeks away is stretch, six weeks away is huge but I travel a bit for business alone, so a holiday with the man I love was too attractive to pass up. And, because I had laid out my plans for London and France, I capitulated.

We planned the itinerary, booked all the tickets and accommodation in London and France. Leon suggested that we leave the Spanish leg unbooked so that we would be free and flexible when we got there.

All good so far. I am an Australian citizen with an Aussie passport but I also have a UK passport that allows me to travel throughout Europe. Leon is a permanent resident of Australia. He’s been here twenty years but has kept his South African passport because he has family there, including an elderly mother whom he visits regularly. For this trip he explored getting Aussie citizenship and a passport. He applied to the South African authorities for dual citizenship but has not yet had a response. He checked the French website – you can’t phone them – and found that you must apply no sooner than three months prior to travel, which he did. An appointment was scheduled and he took paperwork about the trip with him. Unfortunately, it was deemed insufficient and he was knocked back.

Who knew it would be so hard?

All was not lost, however. Apparently, what he needs is called a Shengen Visa. It will allow him to enter any of the continental European countries and you must apply to the country that you will land in first and/or spend most time. He had also applied to the Spanish embassy just in case. He has done more homework and, with a changed itinerary flying straight to Spain after London and additional tickets and bookings, he goes for his interview tomorrow.

Meanwhile, things have been touch and go with my Dad. He improved then had a set-back. Today he moved from intensive care to the post-surgical ward. We are into the fourth week of what should have been a one-week stay. I went to NRMA today and got my international driver’s license in the hope that I will still be able to go.

The twenty-eight day count down has started. Wish me luck!