u/VeterinarianKobuk

Hey, so I just posted a very long post about recently moving to France & a lot of the ceramic materials I am having trouble finding, so I won’t repeat myself. But a piece of equipment I’ve been needing for years, especially with my autoimmune disease in my hands/wrists/elbows & the fact that the only utilitarian type ware I make are big Onggi jars, where a pugmill makes a world of difference to produce the big long coils, I was wondering if anyone knows of someone looking to get rid of theirs for a reasonable price, even if it would require some fixing up. Or hell, I saw a YouTube video last summer of a potter making his own de-airing pugmill but that is quite beyond my technical knowledge, but I’d be happy to pay someone who feels they could pull it off!

I don’t care if it has a mixing container or not, but the extruder part needs to be over 3”, preferably closer to 4”, and it has to be stainless steel because actually the vast majority of the time I’d be using it with porcelain. And I’d really prefer de-airing or somehow to option to add de-airing to it (I don’t know if the manufacturers can do that). Willing to drive to hell and back for the right price.

Thanks!

Hey, so I just posted a very long post about recently moving to France & a lot of the ceramic materials I am having trouble finding, so I won’t repeat myself. But a piece of equipment I’ve been needing for years, especially with my autoimmune disease in my hands/wrists/elbows & the fact that the only utilitarian type ware I make are big Onggi jars, where a pugmill makes a world of difference to produce the big long coils, I was wondering if anyone knows of someone looking to get rid of theirs for a reasonable price, even if it would require some fixing up. Or hell, I saw a YouTube video last summer of a potter making his own de-airing pugmill but that is quite beyond my technical knowledge, but I’d be happy to pay someone who feels they could pull it off!

I don’t care if it has a mixing container or not, but the extruder part needs to be over 3”, preferably closer to 4”, and it has to be stainless steel because actually the vast majority of the time I’d be using it with porcelain. And I’d really prefer de-airing or somehow to option to add de-airing to it (I don’t know if the manufacturers can do that). Willing to drive to hell and back for the right price.

Thanks!

So, I have to have a number of very important medications shipped to me from the US because my travel medical insurance I need while waiting for my Carte Vitale won’t cover pre-existing conditions (none I could find for Americans will and the few companies that do based in the UK who will cover non-UK residents won’t cover my particular conditions). Yes, many drugs in France are cheap without insurance but also many that are not optional for me are hundreds of euros a month or in one case 2000 euros for a month of migraine prevention.

I arranged before I moved here the seeming miracle of my US insurance company approving a 12 month supply of every med that legally you are allowed to prescribe more than 1-3 months, got my doctors to write the prescriptions that way, and then ran into problems with the pharmacy actually filling them that way and am still on monthly phone calls trying to sort it out.

In the meantime my mom has trying to ship me my meds (which is legal, we are not shipping any France has any rules against and customs inspects them always and has no issues). But even when we pay hundreds of dollars for the fastest international shipping category for USPS or FedEx it takes every time 5-7 weeks to get here instead of the 3-4 days we pay for! Nothing we do seems to make a difference trying to contact the companies in either country. While things are not quite as fast as they used to be in the US due to…the current situation, the packages are actually getting to CDG within 5 or less days, getting through customs usually in hours and then sent right to Cher, where they then sit in some warehouse somewhere for a month or more before they are delivered. One time that happened and they didn’t even pretend to try to deliver it and just randomly ended up returning it back to my mom.

This is making my life hell and having to go weeks or months without really non-negotiable meds, some of which are dangerous to stop without proper very long term tapering.

I’m looking into a FedEx e-commerce account because I’ll need something like that anyway for a business I’m starting and I’m hoping it is faster and cheaper. I’ve never used DHL, are people having luck with them? Or any other service? Or is it just utterly impossible to ship from the US (even though it really seems most of the issue is on the French side) like it’s currently almost impossible to ship or send mail to the US?

Any help appreciated.

Ok, so I am a US/Luxembourg dual citizen, got my Lux citizenship through heritage in 2023 and was told when I was there doing my interview for final processing of my application that getting my Lux passport and National ID would take 2-3 years if I tried to go through the Consulates in the US because they were so backed up for appointments, and they told me when I moved to France it would be quick to get my passport/ID through the Parisian Embassy. It has actually taken over 6 months to even get an application from them and I am running into a lot of bureaucratic headaches with only my official certificate of citizenship with my Lux SSN, which legally in the EU is all that should be required as passports are not necessary for proving identity across borders within the EU. I am disabled, significantly, and partly moved to France because the situation for medical care in the US had become life threatening. And I know that EVENTUALLY the Assurance Maladie and the various social services they provide to disabled people will actually be better than what I had in the US. But I have run into so many conflicting statements/directions since I moved here about everything that I am hopelessly confused, and the government websites just make it worse because they also say totally different things depending on which one you are on. I went to France Services right away when I arrived and they told me due to my significant health and prescription needs my application to CPAM could be fast tracked, but then I became significantly more ill as I developed a severe, often fatal chronic illness that was new that I couldn’t get healthcare for here and have been 98% bedbound since November. My French is conversational but not up to explaining complicated subjects, and there was no way to contact French Services to ask for further help and they needed me to bring in person my complete list of medications which I literally could not do for months. Also, despite telling them (and later CPAM) that while disabled and only getting tiny benefits from the US government, that I had used my retirement savings to buy a large house here in a tiny rural artists colony (I am a veterinary epidemiologist but also a sculptor and potter when I am up to it, and if I could finally get proper treatment for my conditions I could at least work 10-15 hrs a week running a Gite and selling my art work, and I also hope to get to the point this year where I can start consulting again part time in vet epi). My village of 200 people is almost all ceramic artists and a big tourist hotspot who come looking specifically to buy art, and since there aren’t really any hotels near here Gite/Airbnbs are almost always sold out all the time.

So to make this easier to read (slightly) here are the things I either can’t find info out online or find conflicting info from both government websites and government workers:

1. From most of what I could find, a micro-enterprise/auto-entrepreneur company is the easiest & makes the most sense, but I can’t find info on if that works if you have more than one work activity. Can I register one company that lists artist, Gite proprietare, and epidemiology consultant?

2. Some sources indicate if you are an artist starting a micro-enterprise you have to register with and entirely different agency than if you rent rooms out (which is supposed to go through the Chamber of Commerce and they are supposed to forward your file to CPAM to get your carte vitale, which is not at all what any people at France Services, my Mairie, or CPAM told me.

3. some sources say if I am self-employed I have to get my SSN through CPAM with the exact documents I already gave them, but 5 ladies at CPAM told me I needing to go to the social security agency to apply for a SSN

4. Back to businesses, looking at the websites regarding registering for self-employment I can’t find any category that makes sense (other than Gite owner) for my professions. I’m not considered a craftsman, I don’t really understand what the commerce or liberal freelance professions entail- there is not mention of anything medica or scientific or artists…Why are there so many different organizations to register your business with?????? And why are they all so confusing and not explicit?

5. I submitted my CPAM application several weeks ago, again despite being told I was both disabled and starting a small self-employed business they told me the opposite of what Ameli.fr and other sites say about getting your SSN when self-employed, they gave me a form that they told me I needed to take to an ER and have a doctor sign it in order to expedite my application so I can get covered ASAP. But when I went to the ER in an adrenal crisis where they flat out almost killed me with their incompetence and worse than 3rd world medical care, several people including the doctor yelled and abused me screaming that they do not sign any government forms and on and on about how that isn’t their job and they wouldn’t do it, but there is seemingly no other way to get the form signed to expedite my application!!! I was also told to take the form to the Mairie to get them to assign social workers for me, but I honestly can’t get there and that Mairie has told me repeatedly flat out lies that have been really detrimental. Isn’t there any way for someone this disabled to have a social worker either come to my house or call me?

6)I got a fat envelope from CPAM a few days ago and was ecstatic thinking it was my Carte Vitale, only to find a letter saying my application was incomplete and it had more forms for me to fill out with the info they already have and a list of documents I need to bring to the CPAM office that THEY ALREADY HAVE IN MY file, in fact they have WAY more documents in my file than were even necessary. It was also riddled with errors, my name was always misspelled and they only checked Foreigner/US citizen and not EU/Luxembourg citizen despite having multiple official identity documents proving my Lux citizenship and my Lux SSN in the file. This has majorly delayed the application that already desperately needed to be expedited, and I can’t get anyone on the goddamn English helpline to ask why they need this and why everything is wrong when I watched them put every needed document in my file in front of me and then have 5 separate people look through it and all say it was totally complete and nothing more would be needed! I can’t have an Ameli account yet of course so I can’t message them, and showing up in person after a 45 minute drive just has them tell you to come back in a week for an appointment.

7. EVERYTHING says that as an EU citizen, I do not need a carte sejour. I specifically asked France Services and the Mairie this when I first got here just to make sure my info was correct. And then the CPAM ladies tell me I need to apply for a carte sejour, possibly before I can get a SSN? Before I can get something, I can’t remember what. I reminded them right then that I am an EU citizen and they still told me I needed it. Please tell me that is wrong because I cannot deal with anything more, since I still have to figure out getting a tax ID and all this other stuff. I know if you have one you can use FranceConnect+ but at this point I really don’t care about that.

At this point I have emailed the US Embassy asking for emergency medical assistance and to help me get the hell out of here to get treatment at home so I can stabilize and come back when everything has finally been processed, even though I am really not sure how I could afford to rent someplace at home while not making any money short term. I spent over 20 years visiting France for months at a time almost every year, studied abroad here and really loved it, but living here is absolutely awful. And it is impossible to make friends where I live and everything is a far drive.

Appreciate any help anyone can give me on one or more of these topics. Also seriously scared to live here now based on the absolutely horrific malpractice and neglect in a major hospital in the Loire Valley, how the hell is France ranked so highly for healthcare in the world?