The Prefecture, and Le Rendez-Vous de Le Cheval

Today was a good day! I finally got my carte de sejour (provisional), my definitive carte grise for my car and today was a light work day!

The French have an obsession with taking forever to get stuff done. They are known for their ongoing bureaucracy. I had read about it before moving here but I had no idea how bad it was until I dared to demand a carte residence. It has taken a month to get an appointment at the Prefecture to apply for the carte. The Prefecture gives you an appointment time and tells you in a threatening manner that the appointment time is fixed and you had best show up or else. Ok... if I want the resident carte, why would I not show up? Who does that? Why the threats? Aren't we all adults?


So I show up 5 minutes before the appointment time and get to sit with all the other immigrants trying to get resident cartes. Now I know what it feels like trying to get a green card! The lady called my name and asked for all my documentation... in rapid fire french, which I hastily provided. She said, "merci" and asked me to wait until they called my name. 15 minutes later my name was called again and I had a carte resident provisional. It was so weird hearing, "Madame Cardwell",I kept thinking, "are they talking about me?"


OK, so what do I have to do now? I have to get a medical exam, have a chest x-ray, open a bank account, and get a letter verifying my registration in a French class.... That's it? You sure you don't want to me perform open heart surgery as well? Ok... I think I can handle that!


After the carte resident I went to grab a number to apply for the carte grise. This is the registration for my car. So after I got the form from the info desk, I had to take a number to have my application processed. It didn't take long for number 1170 to be called, in fact it happened so quickly that I hadn't even finished filling out the form. Now this is a huge change from my adventures at the DMV! I can wait up to an hour at the DMV with a number and fill out 6 forms. So I stroll on over to poste 6 and greet the assessor.....


My God! I sit down in front of him and get a whiff of... I can't even describe the stench as anything other than "Ode to Funk!" WTF? Dude, you work with the public! How can you not use deodorant? How can you not know your armpits are humming... and NOT a Precision tune! I sat down and tried not to fall over in the chair from the stench! Thank goodness he didn't move around too much... or I would have had to explain in my turtle French why I was constantly breathing into my shirt!

After giving the State of France 99 euros for the carte grise, I was on my way... to breathing some clean air!

Later we drove to an equestrian club in La Londe, so The Kid could go horseback riding. There are 3 clubs in La Londe but this one... Centre Equine L'Ourail is the only one that works with people with disabilities. Actually we were late getting to the lesson and there was a handicapped group ending their lesson. So we saddled up Etiquette and The Kid mounted up . The Kid cried the ENTIRE time he was on the horse. Etiquette soon got tired of the racket and stopped walking and refused to take another step until The Kid shut the hell up!

Go Etiquette! Etiquette stopped walking and decided he needed a snack. He refused to move until The Kid calmed down. He munched on nearby grass and didn't care who pulled on his bridle.

Who says animals are dumb?