Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. The place God put us to start our ministry in Bayonne is an amazing blessing. Did I ever tell you how it came about? Well, going way back to March in Caen, we knew we had to start thinking about moving to the south. Little did we know the incredible challenge it would end up being.

We needed to start the residence permit renewal 3 months before the end date. We actually started about 4.5 months, just to be safe. This is because every sort of official document change/application requires a rendezvous, an appointment with an official at the prefecture offices. So we made our rendezvous a month before the start of the 3-month countdown. We went to the meeting and began submitting our paperwork. This means we had a meeting, and an official went over our paperwork with us to ensure we had everything. We did. Then the official asked us which date we would prefer for the renewal interview – late October or Novmber 2019. ? Quoi!? We told her our permits expire in August… and thus we’d be in the country illegally. She just shurgged her shoulders. We asked her what do we do in the meantime. She again shrugged. Then, we made a fatal error! We told her we would also have moved by then to the south; would we have to come all the way back to up Normandy in Oct/Nov, or could we get the rendezvous transferred to the Pyrenees-Atlantique prefecture. Ohh!

As soon as the Normandy preferecture realized we planned to move they told us to just do the renewal down south. Ok. So we tried to book a rendezvous for the prefecture in Bayonne. But everytime we tried the booking website would say “Closed”. How were we to book a meeting then? We even called the office, and they also said go online. We tried for about 2 weeks but always got the “Closed” notice. We called again, and THIS TIME we were told, “Oh, the booking site only takes bookings on Mondays.”. Wow.

So we waited till the Monday afternoon and tried to make a booking. But it was still closed. We spent the rest of the week trying to call the prefecture, and finally just sent an email. Wonders of wonders they replied to the email explaining that the booking site makes renedezvouses only Monday mornings, between 9 am and 12 noon! Ok, so we waited for the following Monday, made an appointment, then got an email later in the week saying it was cancelled. Now, it is important to keep in mind that these appointments are usually for dates 4 weeks ahead of the current date. So we were now in late May. Then we got busy and didn’t try to make another appointment for 2 weeks. We tried again, but it was cancelled again. We couldn’t understand.

So I looked at the booking site really closely. I realized at the section where it was asking for my address I had been submitting our current address in Caen, in Normandy. And we guessed that that must be why our rendezvous requests were being cancelled – because we weren’t in the Pays-Basque region yet. We decided to just drive down there and go to the prefecture in person because weeks and months of internet attempts and phone calls weren’t getting su anywhere. So in late June we drove down and went to the prefecture. They were helpful, and generally kind. It was quite different altogether compared to the Normandy prefecture. The Normandy prefecture was dealing with hundreds of people a week, a day even, it seemed. If you had to go there, and it opened at 8, you had to be in line outside before 6:30 am or you woudn’t get in before the noon lunch break!

Anyway, the Pays-Basque prefecture explained that we had to make the appointment online, and coached us on how to do it properly. But remember, it is now mid-June, and our permits expired August 3. Taking into consideration the 4-week advance window, we had to make an appointment immediately. But alas! June was proving to be popular, and we could only get one appointment for July 25, for Shane. Michelle’s would be August 14! The last thing the prefecture told us was that we must have a local address or they could not do anything.

All along we had been looking for a place, using sites like leboncoin.fr, pap.fr, and various other sites. But, this was nigh impossible because we weren’t actually in Bayonne in person to look at possible places. No one wanted to do a deal from a distance. (We also have a continuing problem that most agencies require tax returns as proof of sufficient income, but France tax returns. So many agencies with prefect options for us refuse to work with us because, as foreigners, we have no France tax return.) But how in the world would we find a place before July 25? We even looked while we were in Bayonne, but the tax return issue hampered our attempts.

Well, the about 10 days before my July 25 appointment I talked with the teammates we were going to join and I mentioned the housing problem. The husband paused and said, “You know, I might know someone. I will call you back.” So he called someone who had helped his family when they first moved to Bayonne 7 years ago and asked. It turned out that the house that that guy’s church uses to house their pastors was empty, and would be empty until April 2020! And the last council meeting for a few months was the next day! He told my teammate he would raise the question of whether the Cookes could stay in the empty house. We waited with bated breath.

The next day our teammate called back to say yes, we could stay there! So I arranged to go down immediately and meet the council and hopefully sign a rental contract. Off I went, back to Bayonne, and met my teammate and the person in charge of the empty house. It was in need of renovations before we moved in. He asked me when we wanted to move, and I suggested early August. In the end we agreed Aug 14 would be possible. And the morning I had to leave Bayonne to get back to Caen I met the person one more time and we signed the rental agreement! He actually met me in the parking lot of a Burger King, and he was dressed in white and red, on his way to have fun at the Fêtes de Bayonne! I hopped in the rental car and drove back to Caen with some relief. A few days later I returned to Bayonne for my prefecture appointment, ready with all the paperwork.

This is where things got tricky again. Because we weren’t continuing to be students, and we had no job in France, what status would be applicable for us?? In the end I had to apply for a Visitor Status, good for only 6 months, and this being dependent on a sufficient salary from Canada.

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OK, so my application was accepted, so I asked the lady at the interview about my wife’s appointment being Aug 14, 11 days after her permit expired. So she gave me a Post-It note with her name and date and a brief explanation which would act as a unofficial notice excusing that Michelle would be late, not because of laziness or ineptitude, but because of the dynamics I have just shared with you! (I told her the whole tale too.)

We had been trying to figure out how to move then. We decided on renting a moving van from France Cars. There were some complications there too that I won’t go into detail, but they were resolved by our local bank, BNP, raising our spending limit on our bank card on the spot, something they told us would normally not happen without… an appointment and a long history of banking with them. They were so kind to do that for us!

Due to other details, such as the moving van not being able to be rented one-way and needing to be returned, we decided that Michelle would go down to Bayonne with all her paperwork on the Aug 13, the day before her appointment. The kids and I would load up the moving van the same day, Aug 13, and leave that evening for Bayonne. Let me tell you, the kids did amazing with helping me load up the moving van! And we had our own deadline – 3 pm, when the landlord would come by to check the apartment. At 2:55 we had the apartment totally empty and clean, albeit with a full entrance on th ground floor with our stuff. By 4:30 we had put the last of the stuff in the moving van, said a prayer of thanks to the Lord, and the kids and I began our moving journey down south. We had heard from Michelle, letting us know she made it to Bayonne. (She had to leave early early on the 13th, take a train to Paris, and transfer to another train to go to Bayonne.)

August 14th came. The kids and I had stopped for the night at La Roche-sur-Yon. Michelle called us late morning to let us know her appointment went well, all her papers were accepted, and she too had to switch to the Visitor Status. But, the official did say that due to the computer automatically entering data, there remained the possibility that Michelle would get fined for being late. This is one reason why ask for prayers about our permits… we haven’t heard yet if they’ve been finally processed, and if there is a fine or not. If so, it could be as high as 700 euro!

So, here we are in Bayonne, living in a nice Basque house. There is a yard, trees, an the old chicken coop which is now home to Popcorn and Charlie. But. There are mosquitos. TONS of mosquitos. They especially like Van and I. Poor Van, his legs are covered in red dots, despite spraying anti-pique spray. But I don’t want to complain about the mosquitos! Thank God for this house, our first place in Bayonne!