The best laid plans ....

Highlight of the day: Didge peed on a lamp post on the sidewalk just outside our building!

Of course, if that's the highlight, you can guess about how well today went. Actually, it wasn't horrible or anything, but it wasn't much fun, either. We went to the commissariat de police today to apply for my carte de séjour ... ugh. We got there around 10:15 am, and there were about 35 to 40 people ahead of us in line - and that was just the line to get into the building! Two hours later, we made it inside and got a number to talk to the woman that stands between you and the officials that actually issue the residency permits. I had been warned about French bureaucracy, but I guess I didn't realize that everyone was just talking about the line to get to the French bureaucracy!!

Other than being hard on the feet, standing in line wasn't too bad. It was somewhat funny to watch exasperated people run up to the front of the line and try to coerce their way into the building. Also, there was a woman who actually worked for the commissariat who came out and absolutely pitched a fit because the line to get into the building was blocking the exit from the building. (Never mind that a police officer with a semi-automatic weapon had just moved us there to get us out of the way of the police van that wanted to park next to the building.) She started yelling at everyone in line, and we all looked at her like she was nuts. (Oh wait, she WAS nuts!)

So, after 2 hours of waiting, we finally got up to the woman who checks to make sure that you're really ready to see the actual authorities in the building. Except for my French, I was confident that we would be fine -- we had all of the paperwork required and then some! But, somehow the electric bill for our apartment had gone missing, so we got sent home to get the necessary paperwork. Oh, was I TICKED!!

We never did find the bill. Colin had to go to the utilities office and ask for a letter that attested to the fact that we are paying our bills. (Luckily, I got to take a nap while he did this!!) We went back to the commissariat, and 30 minutes later, we had .... an appointment on Wednesday morning to get my carte de séjour. AAAAHHH!! At least we were approved to see the right people and we have an actual appointment. I'll have to write more when I actually get to see the wizard.

So, our original siteseeing plans went down the drain in favor of standing in lines and walking our feet off between our place and the commissariat de police. So, since I have no new pictures to share, I'll leave you with a picture of home sweet home (be it ever so humble...)