Last Thursday S and I finally went down to the Préfecture to trade in our American Drivers Licenses for French ones.
We gathered all of our paperwork that we were told we needed. Official translations of American licenses, completely filled out form, passports, cartes de séjour, 2 passport sized photo’s, proof of residency, American licenses and 46€ each. We also packed into S’s briefcase anything else that we anticipated could possibly be asked for, birth certificates, marriage certificate, birth certificate of first born, death certificates and urine samples.
I found the Préfecture web site so I could find out what time they opened. We decided that if we arrived when they first opened at 9:00 am, we would be likely to catch the public servant that dispenses these revered items, in a good mood and we could get in and out of there quickly and without also having to supply blood.
We arrived at the prefecture at 8:45 in the cold morning to find a small crowd of about 40 people already waiting outside the gate. We waited across the street with a handful of others, stomping and shuffling our feet to stay warm.
At 8:55 it was like there had been a silent alarm going of somewhere and the crowd surged forward, compressing in front of the gate that was not sliding open on its track. As more people arrived the jockeying for position grew increasingly hostile. At 9:02 the tension in the crowd was palpable. S and I had held our positions across the street for a while but slowly started to move forward.
“You know where you’re going in there?” S asked me while eyeing the crowd.
“Yes, just follow close. Some of these folks are likely here for car registrations and some are here for Visas, Cartes de séjour, work permits etc. Of course some are also here for drivers’ licenses so we’ll have to be quick”
Strategy at the ready, we waited.
At 9:06 as the gate started to trundle open on its track, those skinny folk near the front squeezed through and sprinted toward their destinations. By the time we finally made it through the torturously slow opening gate there were lines everywhere.
“Keep going, we’re straight down the hall and on the right” I shout to S over the babble of the crowd.
We pass the long line already forming at the Visa etc. area. As we pass the car registration room we can see that the chairs in that waiting room are already ¾ full. I start walking as fast as possible in full evasive maneuver mode. We reach our destination and take our numbers from the ‘take a number’ machine and enter the room to find two other people there besides us.
This is too easy.
When my number is called I go up with S following and I hand the already scowling civil servant my paperwork. I shoot a murderous look at the back of the man departing ahead of me for pissing her off already. She asks a couple of questions, stamps some paper, writes stuff down and hands me a temporary drivers license. S hands her his stuff, mumble mumble, staple staple, spindle spindle, stamp stamp and voila his temporary license.
This is too easy
She asks us for a contact phone number in case they have any questions. I give it to her. I ask her if the licenses will be mailed to us and she says no that we’ll have to come back and pick them up. When can we pick them up I ask. In TWO MONTHS!
I knew it was too easy!
Travel Arrangements
After two days (mine) and two long nights (La’s) we have finalized our travel arrangements for the summer. ‘Last Minute La’, with much help from her more alert half M, was able to finagle two trips to France on American Airline miles. These plans were discussed back and forth on the phone between the hours of 2 am and 5 am California time either because La is a night owl or because she suddenly woke from a dead sleep in panic over not yet having finalized flight schedules. Either way it still took two days of wrangling to get flights scheduled that would work for everyone. Of course I had to wait for their plans so I could then schedule my departure from here with them and then the rest of my trip so we could schedule J’s flight to SD and then also so S could schedule his trip in August so we could depart the US together then. Phew, what a mess. But it’s all under control now. We hope.
My twin and her hubby will arrive in Paris on May 20th where S and I will pick them up and spend two days with them, running from must see tourist sight to must see tourist sight. We will then head back to Toulouse where we will do tourist stuff and hope to hit Barcelona the following weekend.
We will depart together, La & M and myself (S is not coming), on June 2nd for San Diego. Our flight stops in NYC and then on to the coast. That is about 14 hours of flying time in one marathon day.
We will arrive exhausted and cranky in SD on the 2nd where J will be meeting us as she leaves Chicago on the same day for SD.
On the 3rd we begin and finish planning, shopping and organizing the rehearsal dinner for Ardo and KM. Said dinner will be held on the night of June 4th at La’s house.
We hope to catch a showing of the new Harry Potter on that night and still be bright eyed and bushy tailed for the wedding on Saturday. After which we will all collapse and sleep for a week.
I will hang with Z & La and their gaggle of kids and my brothers and parents too, for about 5 weeks. (At this point La and I will have been together for a little over 7 weeks and I hope we both will live through it.) I leave SD for home in IL on July 12th where I will hang with J and hopefully Ky and my Ya-ya’s until I leave with S on August 20th. S will arrive sometime around August 1st for a weeks worth of meetings in St. Louis, after which he hopes to spend 2 weeks of 'vacation' time on fixing a years worth of neglect at IL house.
That in a nutshell (nut being the operative word) is the plan for the summer.
File Under Strange But True
I stole the following story from Fletch and had to share it with you all. Who says they don’t make women like they used to.
| In what is thought to be the first case of its kind,
a pregnant woman in Mexico performed a caesarean section on herself with a kitchen knife and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The 40-year-old woman lived in a rural area without electricity, running water or sanitation, and it was an eight-hour drive from the nearest hospital. "She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts...and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried," said Dr R.F. Valle, of the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico. The woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help before losing consciousness. The nurse stitched the wound with a sewing needle and cotton thread, and the mother and baby were taken to the nearest hospital.
From Bizarre News |
