Postcard from Corsica
Not the best start but it’s looking up . . .
I don’t know if this has ever happened to you but when my partner and I got to the gate at Gatwick to fly to Bastia on Saturday I presented my ticket and passport and sailed through.
He was stopped for a minute or two, then another minute, then another and finally told he couldn’t fly.
Why on earth not? Because his passport was ‘only’ valid until December 16th. Now we all know it’s advisable to get them renewed six months before they expire when travelling to certain long haul destinations but France?
Absolutely France, given France has decided to rigorously enforce the Schengen rule that passports must have a ‘date of issue’ less than 10 years before the date you arrive. Apparently a lot of people are falling foul of this.
What to do? Should I stay or should I go?
There wasn’t much time to decide. He said of course I should go, he would get an emergency passport on Monday then join me as soon as soon as he could.
Except. There were no appointments at the passport office until Wednesday, the last direct flight was on Tuesday and the main airlines were charging over 600€ for highly inconvenient connecting flights.
So after a great deal of agonising we decided it didn’t make sense for him to come.
The following day - a Sunday - I tramped disconsolately around a depressingly wet, mostly-shut-down Bastia* which was, according to the hotel receptionist, suffering the kind of weather they generally have in March.
But gradually things started looking up …