4015. That is how many page views our blog has had since its conception in October of last year. Holy crap! That's a tiny number to many seasoned bloggers, I'm sure, but I was pretty surprised that our ramblings for family and friends have been viewed that many times. I know I've said before how much we both enjoy posting to the blog, even though we don't post nearly often enough, so merci, tout le monde, for staying with us through the periods of drought!
It also occurred to me that while we probably know most of the current blog subscribers in person, there are probably some people who keep up with our posts that we don't actually know, and we should probably do a better job of introducing ourselves and explaining how we even ended up in France.
L is from the Southwestern United States, and I am from the province of Quebec. L is American, and I am Canadian-American thanks to the nationalities of my parents. Since we met 6 years ago at a dinner party, we first dated long distance for about a year, and then reunited in Portland, Oregon, where we spent 5 years surrounded by awesome friends, fresh, local, and eclectic food, and beautiful hiking spots. We are married (thanks, Canada!), registered domestic partners (thanks, Oregon!), and will soon be PACsé (the French equivalent of civil unions), once we assemble the required paperwork. We are looking forward to the day when our marriage is recognized everywhere so we can stop collecting certificates that are only valid within geographical boundaries!
Both of us took the road less traveled to our current occupations, although L is currently on hiatus from work to do the incredibly important and exhausting work of raising our 2 year old son (and soon to be baby #2 - stay tuned in the next few weeks...). Before we met, both of us had traveled, moved far away from our families, and generally been pretty good at building a life in a new place. We had talked about moving to Europe in a 10 or 15 year plan, but had no idea that the opportunity would come as soon as it did. We dove headfirst into this move and I can definitely say that it has been more challenging than either of us expected. Moving to another country is tough; moving away from an incredible support system of friends is tougher.
When we were researching France before our move, it hit us that there was virtually no information available to same-sex couples emigrating to France, and even less about same-sex parents. Second parent (same sex) adoption is illegal here, and it is also illegal to provide fertility services to lesbians (and, I believe, to single women regardless of sexual orientation). In starting this blog, we first hoped to remain connected with our amazing network of family and friends, but second, we also hoped to provide a resource for same-sex couples here and abroad. I can admit that we have not done a stellar job on the second objective so far, mainly because things move pretty slowly and we are still in the process of going through all of the immigration formalities. I can safely predict that in the next month or so, there will be more posts on these topics!
Hope you enjoy what you have read so far. More will certainly follow!
Cheers,
-E
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThe french law 2009-526 of 12mai 2009 recognizes foreign domestic partnerships as being Pacs'd in france (I am guessing it would also apply to foreign gay marriages, but of course this is France so logic may not apply) so you may not have to collect another certificate unless you feel it might make things easier. we have no problems with the prefecture nor secu nor impots being recognized as a PACS'd couple but of course like always in france it depends on who you talk to that day. They accept a copy of our calif domestic partnership.
-Jack of Jack and Randy (you know Randy's blog).
Jack,
ReplyDeleteWow - that is news to us! We had been considering jumping through the paperwork hoops to get Pacs'd here, but as I am sure you are aware, the paperwork is more substantial for foreigners :)
Out of curiosity, have you had to reference the specific law in order to obtain recognition as Pacs'd, or do you just declare that you are Pacs'd and leave it at that? We do have an official translation of our OR registered domestic partnership (and our Canadian marriage) but since official translations are only good for 6 months at a time (or 3, depending on who you talk to), it seems silly to get our documents re-translated on such a regular basis.
In any case, thanks so much for the info. You have potentially saved us from 3 administrative trips (one to the consulate, one to the tribunal in Paris, and one to our own tribunal!)
Cheers,
E and L