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Regardless of world perceptions to the contrary, the Swiss bureaucracy has been nothing but helpful in our 4 years. We’ll be putting that to the test over the next few weeks as we prepare to move. We’ve progressed on a couple of fronts:

• Movers have been contracted, so our household goods will, in general, be moving to central France, where friends have kindly offered us storage. We are taking advantage of this as we have not the faintest idea what will come up after (or during) the year. Pictures and all those family heirlooms that we cart from continent to continent will go to Keri in New Zealand, probably to remain unpacked for another generation!
•  Our flat has been inspected and is ready to be shown to prospective tenants. We’ve got professional cleaners coming on the last weekend.
• Paperwork with the Gemeinde is done. This leaves banks and the Post Office. A friend has been very kind in volunteering to be our ‘receiver of posts’ next year, which will help for licensing, finishing off our last bills and, more importantly, allow us to close our bank account.

Still-to-do list includes a number of things I’m really clueless about:

• Getting extended cover for the ‘van. This is proving a little tricky, for a Swiss van (non-EU) registered to NZ citizens, who have no visa for either Switzerland or the EU after June.
• On that point – it seems that NZ citizens might have some visa exceptions, see the link: https://nz.ambafrance.org/IMG/pdf/Border_controls_in_Europe.pdf?3252/e2e160de39bfa53f1c366ecf6da45e02752c731c    Obviously we are hoping this is accurate.
• Getting bank accounts done. I’m always clueless here, so nothing new, and very happy to leave this to Niki. Multiple updates coming, I’m sure.

Last, but not least, is saying goodbye to the prettiest place we’ve ever lived, and some friends with whom we’ll stay in touch, but miss. I will say that this was an opportunity that was not really planned for, thought out, or set for a particular date. But now that this is real, we are ready to let go and embrace a little uncertainty… again.