I was still in a state of shock when I woke on the boat the next morning. After such a long and convoluted journey to get the Titre de Sejour last year, I still found it hard to believe that they had simply changed their mind and now decided to reject my application. So I sat down and read the rejecton letter again several times to try to understand their reasoning. While I may have missed some of the finer points in the translation from French, it seems that the rejecttion was somehow based on three issues:

a)     The required residential status of Rita;

b)     The “irregular” arrival of Tony in France on 15/6/2018; and

c)     The relevance of Tony's family situation in Australia.

I then sat down and wrote a response letter, to gain clarification of these issues, before deciding whether to launch an appeal against the decision (which could prove costly if we needed to employ an immigration lawyer). I tried to be as diplomatic, yet as forceful, as possible. I addressed the three pooints as follows:

"We are in receipt of a letter from the Prefecture dated 12 April 2023 (attached), in which we are advised that my application for a Titre de Séjour has been rejected.

While we understand the conclusion that has been reached, we are unclear as to the reasons why this decision was made. In particular, there are three points in the letter on which we need clarification, so that we can decide whether to appeal this decision to the Prefecture:

a)     The required residential status of Mme. Rita Seethaler;

b)     The “irregular” arrival of M. Anthony Richardson in France on 15/6/2018; and

c)     The relevance of M. Anthony Richardson's family situation in Australia.

I now explain why we are unclear on these issues, and seek advice on how we should address the issues in any potential appeal.

a)     The required residential status of Mme. Rita Seethaler

In tIn the third paragraph on page 2 of the attached letter, it is stated that Mme. Rita Seethaler must reside permanently in France in order for the Titre de Séjour application of M. Richardson to be considered. In reading information online (see attached) about applications for a Titre de Séjour for the Spouse of a Swiss Citizen, I see no mention of the requirement for the Swiss citizen to live permanently in France. Do you have other documentation that you could send to us, that would explain this “permanent residency” requirement more clearly? As stated in several conversations with Prefecture officers, Rita is a Swiss citizen who lives in a permanent married relationship with me in Australia, but  we spend several months together each year in France, living both on our Bateau Kanumbra and in our house in Moissac. The reason for my application for a Titre de Séjour was so that we could  spend more time in France than the 90 days allowed via the Schengen Treaty, without the need to apply every year for a Long-Stay Visa (which requires plane trips from Melbourne to Sydney on each occasion). Given the above, can you explain the reason for the apparent need for Mme. Rita Seethaler to reside permanently in France?

b)     The “irregular” arrival of M. Anthony Richardson in France on 15/6/2018

In  In 2018, M. Anthony Richardson arrived in France under the Schengen 90-day rule, and then applied for a Titre de Séjour at the prefecture in Montauban, which was subsequently granted. The reason why I arrived under the Schengen 90-day rule was that when I went to the French Consulate in Sydney to get a Long-Stay Visa, I was told in very clear terms that, because I was married to a Swiss Citizen, they could not grant me a Long-Stay Visa. Indeed, they refused to even accept the application forms that I had already completed. They told me that I would have to enter France under the Schengen 90-day provisions, and then immediately apply for a Titre de Séjour to extend my stay in 2018 (which is what I did). I now see in the attached information about applications for a Titre de Séjour for the Spouse of a Swiss Citizen that “third-country nationals” must first apply for a visa in their home country, and then apply for a Titre de Séjour for the Spouse of a Swiss Citizen after they arrive in France. Has this rule been introduced since 2018, or was I given the wrong advice by the French Consulate in Sydney in 2018? More broadly, is what I have described above the reason for the “irregular arrival”, or is there some other reason for this determination?

c)     The relevance of M. Anthony Richardson's family situation in Australia

TheIn the fourth paragraph on page 2 of the attached letter from the Prefecture spends considerable time describing M. Richardson's family situation in Australia, and concludes that these matters are relevant to whether the Titre de Séjour is granted or not. We fail to  see the relevance of his family situation to the current Titre application. We understand that if M. Richardson was applying for asylum in France (which he is not), then such matters pertaining to his ability to return to and live peacefully in Australia might be relevant. But can you explain how his family situation in Australia is relevant to his application for a Titre de Séjour for the Spouse of a Swiss Citizen, given the circumstances described earlier?

We We hope you are in a position to be able to facilitate a response to our questions above. We are considering lodging an appeal of this decision to the Prefecture, but you will realise that it is difficult to lodge an appeal if we don't fully understand the reasons for the application being rejected. Given the deadlines imposed on the lodging of appeals, we would appreciate a response at your earliest opportunity. If a written response via email would be too lengthy or difficult, we would be happy to attend a face-to-face meeting at the Prefecture in Dijon."

Writing the letter helped me to better understand, and cope with, the possible reasons for the rejection, but at the end of the process, I still had no real idea of whether an appeal might have any chance of success. We showed the rejection letter, and our response, to Alain, the port captain, and he suggested that we might indeed need some professionaal legal advice. Later in the day he came to our boat with some names and contact details for potential lawyers that we might consult.

While we thought about our options, we decided that the best thing to do was to go about our business as usual, and hope the issues would  be resolved. One problem we faced, however, was that our return tickets are booked for mid-November (over six months away). If the issue is not resolved favourably, then I may have to leave France after 90 days (although Rita can stay as long as she wants). Do I change my return flight, or do I find a way to stay out of the Schengen region (e.g. in the UK) for enough time that I don't exceed 90 days in Schengen countries? Decisions, decisions.

So while we deliberated, we un-hitched the bimini from the rear wheelhouse doors, cleaned it of all the winter grime, and then erected it over the rear deck so that we could at least have some drinks and dinner in the sunset tonight.

Since we had to go to Besain today to collect the campervan, we decided to go via Dole and look for some eBikes at Intersport. Our eBikes that were stolen last year with the van were not reimbursed by the insurance company, but we decided to splurge and get real eBikes, recommended by some barging friends, this time around. We looked at a few models at Intersport, but on the advice of a salesguy (and based on our physiques and cycling needs), we decided to go with the Nakamura eCity110. A more upright bike than we're use to, and also step-thru, but it seemed to have all we need at a reasonable price (for an eBike). We'll see how we go!

After paying for one of the eBikes (restricted because of the daily limit on our French credit card), we headed off to Besain to meet with Sarah and Alban and to collect Vanumbra from its winter storage shed. When we got there, all seemed to be in order, but when I tried to start the van, no go! I had my voltmeter at hand, in anticipation of such a problem, and sure enough the battery voltage was down around 11.2v. So I pulled out the Bosch C7 battery charger to charge the battery, but the power in the shed was disconnected (in fact, after all the wiring had been installed, it had never been connected to the grid!). But a nearby neighbour came to the rescue with a long extension lead to go with ours, and together they just reached from his house across the road to the van at the back of the shed. However, he was concerned about leaving the power cord lying across the road because of tractors who use that lane late in the day. So we found some planks in the shed and made a tunnel in which the power cord could sit as it crossed the road. As Rita and Sarah carried one of the planks out of the shed, it reminded me of Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper from the 1967 movie "The Plank"!

Because the charging of the van battery was going to take a few hours, we decided to accept Sarah's invitation to have dinner with them and then stay the night. We didn't need to have our arms twisted too much to accept her offer.

We woke early, partly due to ongoing jet-lag but also because we had left the window shades up and were greeted by a Monetesque scene of the woods outside the bedroom. Quite a nice way to greet the day.

We were not too upset at waking early, because Alban had already left to milk the cows, Sarah was just about ready to drive to Bern for her teaching work, while the two boys would soon be up to catch the bus to school in Poligny. We also had business to attend to, in the form of taking the van to Iveco in Dijon to get the new fridge fitted. Since we had stayed in Besain overnight, we had to leave early to get to Dijon on time, since Dijon is on the other side of Auxonne. So after a quick coffee, we went up to the shed to see if the battery had charged OK overnight. I was surpised to see on the battery charger that the lights indicated that it was still charging. But we didn't have time to hang around, so I disconnented the charger and was pleasantly surprised when it started first time. So after packing up all the cables and giving the neighbour a bottle of wine for his help, we were on the road to Dijon.

We drove in tandem to Dijon so that we could leave the van overnight with Iveco. After doing that, we went to a nearby LeClerc for coffee and croissant and then did a bit of shopping. As we entered LeClerc we noticed these recycling facilities outside the checkouts. The plastic bottle recycler was one we had never seen before. We watched an older lady feed in her bottles, have them scanned for acceptability, and then watch as they were turned to flakes to land in the container below. She then collected her receipt, which she took to the checkout after her shopping to get a refund. The recycling facilities on the other side of the walkway covered many items: light bulbs, flourescent tubes, Brita water filter units, electronic items, batteries and printer ink cartridges. We will show these to our local supermarket after we get back to Australia.

After LeClerc, we drove back to Auxonne in the Scenic, then caught up on mundane tanks around the boat including doing the laundry. In the evening we took a walk up the river (for Rita to deposit her compost bin in the neighbourhood garden bin) and had an interesting conversation with the head of the local high school, who was out walking her dog.

After some overnight drizzle, we were off relatively early to collect the van in Dijon, because we had a busy day ahead of us. But when we got to Iveco, we found that the van was not ready. During the installation process, there had been a short-circuit of some kind (which took out all the power in the workshop) which had blown a component in the controller for the fridge. Silvain had tried to get a replacement part but had been unsuccessful in getting it in time, and with next Monday being a public holiday (May 1) he would not get the new component before Tuesday. But because we needed the van for our trip to Maastricht next week, we agreed to bring the van back again for them to finish the installation before we start our next trip. Luckily there was a Feu Vert store nearby (car parts), so we went there after Iveco and bought a portable fridge with dual power supply (12v from the cigarette lighter and 240v for when we have external mains power). It seemed like a reasonable price (79euro), so we'll just see how it goes over the next couple of weeks.

When we got home, I continued working of the Titre appeal, trying to find anything online which might explain the rejection we got from the Prefecture. But after many hours, I was still none the wiser. Maybe we have been mislead all the way, and their rejection is correct!

After lunch, we went across to Dole to the Citroen dealer to pick up the metal plaque showing our correct VIN number for the van (which was changed illegally during the theft last year). They fitted the plaque in the engine compartment, and then we were off to Dole Intersport to pay for the second eBike, buy some accessories and take both bikes home with us. Before we left the store's parking lot, we hoisted the bikes up onto the bike rack on the back of the van, just to make sure they fitted properly (given that the bikes were an unusual size and shape). But all went well, even if they were much heavier to lift than the old bikes.

On our way home, we stopped at Mont Roland and had a coffee/beer at the cafe, then a walk around the church and monastry perimeter wall. We got back to the van just as it started to rain steadily. That night, after a quiet dinner, I went for a long night walk around the port area to consider my position re France.

The rain cleared overnight, and we were greeted with a sunny morning. There was a big Salon Fluvial (Boat Show) at St Jean de Losne this weekend, so we went down there on Saturday morning to have a look. There were some interesting stalls (especially with respect to eBoats) and plenty of Piper barges (16 in total moored in front of the Piper Offices). We didn't take Kanumbra along because, considering the difference in age between the boats on display and Kanumbra, it would have been like taking your grandparents to a rave party!

But we did meet Simon Piper (the head of Piper Boats Ltd and the creator of the Piper line of Replica Dutch Barges) and had a short chat with him. While we were talking to him, Pete Jeffs arrived. i had been talking with Pete online about getting him to come and get our boiler working again, and had asked H2O (who are somewhat reluctant to allow external people to work on boats moored in their ports) whether that would be acceptable. My question was answered when the person accompanying Pete was Phillippe, the manager of the H2O workshop at St jean de Losne, and they said that they were both just on their way to go to Auxonne to look at Kanumbra! So we quickly went back to our car to try getting there before they arrived. As it turned out, we both arrived at the same time so the timing was perfect. It seemed that H2O had no problem with Pete working on Kanumbra, because they had no specialist in boilers on their staff. Phillippe was accompanying Pete just to find out what he was doing and how he approached the problem. They were quickly down in the engine room, and in a very short time Pete had diagnosed the problem (a faulty preheater) and fixed it. He then asked if I wanted the Howarth boiler fully serviced (as he had done for us in Moissac in 2017) and I quickly agreed. Within half an hour he had finished (it helps when you really know what you're doing) and we again had a properly working boiler giving us hot water and heating. Yes, warm showers and a warm boat again on cold mornings! Finally, things are looking up.

Things got even better later in the day, when I checked the NRL Rugby League results and saw that Wests Tigers (my Sydney team that had not won a game since midday through last season) had got up and beaten Penrith Panthers (the reigning premiers). Quite an upset, and shows that miracles can still happen. Later in the evening Rita went to bed early with a headache, so I stayed up and followed the first Speedway Grand Prix of the season. Australian Jason Doyle was carrying his early season form in the leagues through to the SGP, and showing very consistent form. He was favourite going into the Final and was leading the race, when his bike reared going through turn 1, and he laid it down rather than going into the fence at full speed. An unfortunate end to the night, but a promising sign for the rest of the season.

Yesterday's fine weather must have been an aberration, because this morning was much cooler (lucky we have a working boiler!). I spent some time searching online for Ferry Routes and Fares to the UK, in preparation for our trip to Scotland in the next month of so. They were much more expensive than I thought, but probably not a huge component of the overall trip to and from Scotland. Because Rita was still not feeling too well, I volunteered to go do the grocery shopping at Intermarche. And I learned one lesson - never go grocery shopping on a Sunday morning (and the store closes at noon) when the following day is a public holiday and everyone has just realised they have no provisions in the house!

After I got home, I realised I had to take a different approach to getting information about the Titre question, because all my serches so far had yielded very little new information. So I got onto the DBA website Forum, and explained my situation, and asked whether anyone had experienced a similar problem, as follows:

"Last year I (as an Australian) applied for a Titre de Sejour as the spouse of a Swiss citizen. It was approved at the Dijon Prefecture and I received a Recepisse in September. This month I received a letter from the Prefecture saying my application was rejected, and the Recepisse was null and void. It appears that the main grounds for this decision (although it's hard to tell from the letter received) is that while my wife is a Swiss citizen, she does not reside permanently in France. Rather she travels every year with me from Australia to France. I have searched online for this "permanent residency" requirement for the Swiss citizen but can find nothing. Has anyone else had a similar situation (or an approved Titre where the EEA-spouse is not a permanent French resident)? Can anyone provide some sage advice, or online references, to help me in preparing an appeal against the decision?  Thanks in advance."

Within an hour, I had received a few responses, and while no one had direct experience, one person (thank you Judy) suggested I should look for a Facebook page entitled "Applying for a French CdS (Carte de Séjour) and/or visa", because "they handle queries on French visas for applicants from across the world and I am sure will be able to help you understand this. Well, that was a bit of an understatement, because within the next couple of hours I had applied to join their group, and was approved, read part of their collection of online Guides to different types of situation, and then posted my question on their page as follows:

"I have read your Guide 3, and was interested in the following paragraphs as the Spouse of a Swiss Citizen wishing to stay in France each year for up to 6 months:

The rules are set in EU Directive 2004/38/ec Article 6, the relevant text is easily understood, and a copy is available in the group Files (for this FB page). It reads:

Right of residence for up to three months

1. Union citizens shall have the right of residence on the territory of another Member State for a period of up to three months without any conditions or any formalities other than the requirement to hold a valid identity card or passport.

2. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall also apply to family members in possession of a valid passport who are not nationals of a Member State, accompanying or joining the Union citizen.

A person may repeat these three month stays as long as they leave the country where they wish to stay, for a day or longer. However, if it is determined the non-EU spouse, or indeed the EU national, is repeatedly invoking the three month stay in order to avoid establishing residence, they may be ordered to leave the country."

I was particularly interested in the last paragraph above. Does this mean my wife and I could stay in France for 3 months (or is it 90 days), then go to the UK for a little while, then re-enter France and stay for up to another 3 months? If so, what evidence do you need at entry and exit from France to prove that this is legitimate? And what are the official documents that spell out this provision (I couldn't find any mention of this possibility in the references at the bottom of this section in the Guide)."

This all seemed to be too good to be true, and so much easier than going through all the hoopla we had experienced in the past three years at the Prefecture. Within the next couple of hours, I had received responses from several group members and administrators, along the following lines:

"What you have read is correct. The EU directive states that an EU citizen and their family can spend up to 3 months in an EU country without doing any formalities. There are also no limits on how often you can stay in the EU country (no 90/180 rule like for regular tourists). So yes, if you leave France and go to the UK you can then return to France and stay another 3 months. You would need to keep copies of your travel documents, hotel receipts etc to prove that you left France if questioned. You won't find any official documents on this because it is built into the EU directive on Freedom of Movement. Note that this only really works if someone is planning to stay for longer than 3 months but isn't planning to stay longer than 6 months as then it becomes more complicated with tax residency etc."

"And it is within French law that the the 3 month clock is reset after an absence from France of a minimum of 24 hours. Note you just need to leave France and be able to evidence it."

"Think of it in these terms for simplicity - The non-Swiss spouse benefits from the Freedom of Movement rights of their Swiss spouse, as long as they are travelling with them (or 'joining' them). Therefore, in these circumstances, the 90/180 day rules do not apply, in any way, to the non-Swiss spouse. There is no counting of 90/180 days. Forget the 90/180 day rules. This has been the case for as long as FoM has been in place so the border officials are well versed in how this works & how to police it. The only difficulty you are likely to encounter is on leaving the Schengen Zone, (not entering it), when you may be asked to prove that you have not spent more than 3 months (in one go) in ONE particular Schengen country. There is NO 3 month limit for being in the Schengen Zone itself, so this is where your hotel receipts showing only that you left a particular country for at least 24 hours or exit passport stamps are required if you have been in Schengen for more than 3 months."

So it looks like there is a simple way for me to stay in France (or more generally Europe, except Switzerland) for as long as I want (within reason) so long as I leave France at least once every 3 months for a minimum of 24 hours. Seems doable.

But I will keep checking the veracity of this system over the next few days to satisfy myself that it is real and workable.

Relieved to have found this information, I set out to conquer another problem, which was that my drivers-side wing mirror on the van keeps swinging "closed" when travelling at higher speed (>110kph) or when a truck passes me in the opposite direction on a 2-lane road. John had advised me over the phone that I should take the plastic covers off the arms of the mirror and see if there was something to tighten. But when I took the covers off, I saw that a metal rod had broken, so I used a length of wire to tie the two ends of the rod together again, and put the covers back on. It seemed to hold the mirror tightly in place, but time will tell when we test it under motorway conditions.

I reaiise that today's entry contains no photos to keep you interested/amused. But it was such a turning-point day in my battle to find a way to stay in France for more than 3 months, that I couldn't find any photo that suited the occasion.

But it's been quite a good weekend to close out my birth month; getting  a working boiler, finding a way to stay in France for longer than 90 days, and getting a Wests win. What more could you ask for?