I will try to be concise but there is a lot of info to relay, so please bear with me.
DH gets a small monthly pension from the years that he worked in France. For this, he must visit a notary annually to make a 'declaration d'existence'; in other words - to prove that he is still alive.
The date this must be received in France is the 11th of this month. He was planning to do it before Christmas but unfortunately he was hit by a car on 7th December and was in hospital for nearly 3 weeks. He is home now but cannot put any weight on either leg, i.e. effectively cannot get out of bed.
I telephoned the solicitor/notary and explained the situation. Initially, he was helpful and said he could do a hospital visit but that was difficult because there was no definite information from the hospital as to when DH would be discharged. We could have set up a date for the visit after he was sent home IYSWIM.
When I phoned a second time the solicitor was a bit off with me and said his office was closed from Christmas Eve to January 2nd - "It's Christmas, I'm afraid" but still sounded willing to make a home visit.
So we come to today and DH phoned his office and was told he would call back. He hasn't, so that is another day nearer the cut off date. It never occurred to me what we would do if this guy wouldn't do the declaration. He is the only notary in the town AFAIK
The French authorities are totally inflexible and unhelpful. They suggest getting the mayor to do it or the police. DH investigated other possibilities the first time he did the declaration; the notary was the only person who could do it and was acceptable to the French authorities.
I'm really panicking now. We stand to lose a part of our income which we really can't afford to lose. And I don't know what to do next.
I was hoping someone might suggest something that I haven't considered in my panic-stricken state.