Although we've been here 5 years, and speak half decent French, faced with putting an English classic car onto French plates, we decided to enrol the help of a young French lady who lives in Puylaroque (82). Emmanuelle Dangé Mannella is carving out a career for herself as both as an official translator and interpreter, but also helping English speakers deal with officialdom in our part of France.
With a classic car, some original papers the authorities need - like the dreaded Certificat de Conformité - never existed when the car was built. So the chief problems to crack were sourcing various documents the Préfecture would demand in order to re-register the car on French plates.
Our young helper was brilliant. She didn't just pick up our questions one-by-one and make the necessary telephone enquiry, she actually took the initiative and made strings of calls, finding an alternative way forward each time we ended up in a cul-de-sac. In other words she did just what you'd want : she took ownership of the problem and produced solutions, not just additional questions.
And when it was time to present our dossier at the Préfecture in Montauban, Emmanuelle came along and held our hands. She very much took the lead, quizzing the functionaries in anticipation of our questions, and didn't leave us until we had succeeded in getting the official French documents.
In addition to Help in Quercy, Emmanuelle's business is e-trad.fr for business users of translators, interpreters and language teachers. Importantly, she is also a "traductrice assermentée", which means she can produce sworn document translations for official use - both from English and German, should that be necessary.
She is also a genuinely charming character and the proud Mum of two young girls soon to enter school. We cannot recommend her help strongly enough. Emmanuelle charges upwards of €25 per hour, but be assured she works fast and gets an awful lot done in the time!
If you could benefit from this sort of assistance, Emmanuelle may well be able to help you. Her contact details are :
Emmanuelle Dangé Mannella, 9 rue de Béral, 82240 Puylaroque, telephone 0033 (0)5 63 24 17 74; email e-trad@orange.fr
If you would like any more information, feel free to ring us.
Chris and Karen Robinson
