We rented this car in the South of France and it was kind of cool....at first. The doors were automatic, but the passenger door was broken so it would immediately start to close once it was fully opened. I am pretty sure I got a few bruises from it. 
I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday at the Prefecture, the French equivalent of the DMV and social security office, to tie up some administrative paperwork. After spending so much time there AGAIN (I spent more time than I care to remember when I got here last year), it made me long for the DMV! I will never complain about going to any American bureaucratic office again, I promise, cross my heart! I had number 68 and after waiting in line for 5 hours, they skipped my number. When I told the woman, she said she had called my number 3 times and suggested I was stupid. Well, the number appears on a huge digital screen at both ends of the counters. I might well have misunderstood someone saying my number in French, but I can read numbers and number 68 never appeared. After arguing with the woman in what I am sure was the worst French ever, she agreed to wait on me, after everyone else! I waited until the person with the last number, number 112, was waited on and then got to talk to her. I ended up spending 8 hours there. ARRGGG!
I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday at the Prefecture, the French equivalent of the DMV and social security office, to tie up some administrative paperwork. After spending so much time there AGAIN (I spent more time than I care to remember when I got here last year), it made me long for the DMV! I will never complain about going to any American bureaucratic office again, I promise, cross my heart! I had number 68 and after waiting in line for 5 hours, they skipped my number. When I told the woman, she said she had called my number 3 times and suggested I was stupid. Well, the number appears on a huge digital screen at both ends of the counters. I might well have misunderstood someone saying my number in French, but I can read numbers and number 68 never appeared. After arguing with the woman in what I am sure was the worst French ever, she agreed to wait on me, after everyone else! I waited until the person with the last number, number 112, was waited on and then got to talk to her. I ended up spending 8 hours there. ARRGGG!
Street sign in the old village of Bormes Les Mimosas. Translated, it says something like "Butt buster street."
While I was at the Prefecture, I got to watch a show by BBC about sea horses. There was no sound and the program only lasted about 5 minutes, but they showed it every 15 minutes; I saw it a lot. It got me so interested in sea horses that I did a bunch of internet searches on them when I got home. Now I know the internet is not 100 percent reliable nor does it have completely accurate information, but I think this might be fact because I found it on every site. The males give birth! How fantastic is that? I think this is a brillant idea and more species should adopt this practice.
4 comments:
American DMVs are a nightmare but eight hours beats all. The French DMV is worse. Hard to believe.
Poor you! Trips to the prefecture always stress me out but I've never stayed there for 8 hours. I think you might have set a record! I've always been paranoid about watching those numbers flash -- because sometimes things do seem to get out of whack every now and then -- but now I am definitely going to be extra vigilant. Maybe it's time for you to crack out those mouse ears and get in some Disney time.
Just a quick note to say I will return to catch up on the rest of your posts, Angela, just going to my daughter's soccer play-offs this weekend!
geeze - what luck..
WE got a kick out of that last sign, love it! (plus p said it to me in his sexy accent!)
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