So I've got the ball rolling......
 It's a little tedious in France at the beginning of every year.
 Once you get going with your competition licence and get you foreign horses on the books it all rolls along very simply. Much more easily than in England really as all entries are done on the internet from a competing account that is held with the FFE or someone affiliated to them. Anyhow all your entry fees are taken from it and all winnings paid to it. Entries only close a week before too which is wonderful I must stress.All disciplines are covered by the one account and your annual licence fee covers everything too, so it works out a fair bit cheaper than all the various yearly  fees in the UK.
That's down the road though, first of all you have to get a competition licence. To do this you must have passed gallop 7 which can be done at your local riding school.(If you have a good one near you and can prove you have competed at affiliated events in the UK they may be kind enough to offer a once off assessment.)
The gallop 7 stands forever so  I'm now always able to apply for my annual competition licence.It's not paricularly cheap as you have to get a licence to ride then I put an amateur licence on top, gets me up  to around 100 euros. The pro licence is three times that and for the moment the amateur licence allows me to do all I want. It's fine for 1* and also the professional 6yo classes up until the middle of the year.There aren't many amateur classes you can do with the pro licence (I decide if I want amateur or professional licence depending who I fancy competing against, how's that? )
Assuming I haven't confused you this far there is one further complication, every year I must prove to the doctor that I am capable physically of holding a licence to compete. My local doctor seems to take this very seriously and asks me lots of pertinent questions. Normally he makes me bend me knees 30x which causes me to just about have a heart attack, this year he obviously felt sorry for me and I got off lightly. He tested my eyesight, then I had to hold out my arms out with my eyes closed, this was to  test my balance which he reckons is important for riding.I passed the doc's balance test though it doesn't stand up to much with Red, he doesn't have any problems in making me loose it rather rapidly when he fancies dumping me on the floor which he finds hilarious. He's always happy for me to climb back on, I think so he can buck me all over again, it stretches my sense of humour.
So I passed the docs exam, but that of course is more money. Then you're set to head off down to the local riding school to pay your subscription and get them to send off for your little competing licence card. EXCEPT this year I was smart and espied that you can get your licence through the post from SHF , they organise all the young horse classes. WOW my licence was back in a week. I can't tell you how many sodding trips I made  to the riding school last year trying to get them firstly to send of for it,then to issue me with it.
WE HAVE ACHIEVED ROUND ONE !!!!
Round two is trying to get all Ned's paperwork up to scratch before the first comp I'd like him to go to in mid Feb. To be honest I think it's pushing it, they take a whole month when everything is in order and believe me it's never all in order.

AND while I'm here do any of you fancy a puppy?