Slight Hiccup - the Happy Ending

People who have been following the blog since last year will remember when I discovered that my Irish car insurance company (123.ie) would not cover me for more than 30 days abroad - anyone else can go back and have a quick read of A Slight Hiccup to bring themselves up to speed!

Anne is insured with a different company, Quinn Direct, and they will cover her for up to 93 days abroad in any one insurance period.  By a stroke of sheer genius (or maybe luck!) her insurance falls due for renewal while she is here, so her trip covers two insurance periods - definitely genius!

I investigated getting insurance with Quinn Direct, but I was absolutely up-front with them and told them that I would be here for at least four months, and the answer was no, you won't be covered, so I let it rest at the time and planned to research French insurance companies in January.

The jeep was covered on her Irish insurance up to the 27th Jan, and I started looking for insurance during the second week of Jan.  I didn't do very well at all, probably because I wasn't prepared to lie and say I was moving here long-term and would be importing and re-registering my car.  I had been told that the jeep and I would have to be physically in Ireland to take out a new Irish policy and it was beginning to look like I would have to dash home before the 27th and take out a policy with Quinn Direct to get their "90 days abroad" cover, and then limit ourselves to 90 days once I got back here.

At the 11th hour, I emailed the help section on this website, www.frenchpropertylinks.com.  The very helpful Jo Rhodes replied with the name of a Dutch-owned company.  Correspondence has been going back and forth, I seemed to be waiting forever for my "proof of no claims" to arrive from 123.ie and I was afraid to say anything here in case I somehow jinxed it but now finally it's all sorted, Jeepy has her Carte Verte (Green Card) and is "French" insured.

The magical Carte Verte

The company is Schreinemachers SARL, their website is www.insurance.fr and I can't recommend them highly enough - they have been so helpful every step of the way.  Their staff are either English or are very fluent in it, which is a huge boon when you're struggling to resurrect language skills learned 35 years ago!  I've taken out a one year policy with them, I'm to notify them in writing when I want to cancel it and they've sent me information on how to re-register Jeepy in France in case we decide to stay - how helpful is that!!