A slow journey to France?

Now, it feels more like a rollercoaster ride to Toulouse. We have signed the contract for the apartment we are renting for a year, we have put our house on the market and have received the breath taking quote for a removal firm to take all of our worldly goods to a storage facility in the depths of rural France. Our next task it to enrol our daughter in the French state school system; not something we found straightforward in the UK but even more perplexing in French. Fortunately, with the aid of a large dictionary we were able to send our completed application form together with at least some of the documents required to the Mairie in Toulouse. The response has been better than we expected. A steady stream of additional e-mails with attached documents have been sent as the helpful lady in the Mairie set out each time what we had not understood. The Haute-Garonne department offers non French speaking children additional language support in a number of their state schools; our daughter has to attend an assessment at the ‘Espace d’Accueil de la Haute Garonee’ with a teacher, not as formal as it sounds, and following this a recommendation will be sent to the Mairie on the most appropriate school for her to attend. Following a conversation in halting French with a very patient lady we have an appointment to take our daughter for her assessment. We haven’t jumped over the first hurdle but we are definitely on the run up.