ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

We were at the Préfecture as early as we could get there, which was not that early as it's over an hour away and there is dog walking and other stuff to do first thing.

We were both feeling inexplicably nervous and arrived to find a long queue outside the building, in front of which there was no doubt a long queue inside the building.  Groan.  Next thing, a Police car came by with lights flashing and parked just up the road.  Three police officers, two male, one female, all pretty well built and serious looking, entered the building.  Oh-oh, we thought.

Everyone was patient and polite and when we were finally let into the building gave the group containing the two men being questioned by the police and the Préfecture security person plenty of room for manoeuvre.  Maybe having three burly police officers nearby does a lot to calm people's fractiousness.

We seemed to be the only people who already had our fiscal stamps, 450€ worth, purchased online late on Sunday evening.  Every other person that was called forward to the desk ("guichet") was sent away again to get a 45€ "timbre fiscale" from the tabac across the road, who was clearly doing a roaring trade.  I wondered what permit you get for 45€ as opposed to the 225€ each we had to pay but it seems nobody else realised there was a fee to pay.  A lot of time was wasted in the to-ing and fro-ing, in and out to the tabac then to the front of the queue to complete the issue of the permits.

We were called forward by the same lady that gave us last year's cards, almost out of date, only three months ago.  The new cards are already two months into their twelve months.  She seemed to recognise the surname, greeting us warmly as she gave us our cards.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  

If you read my reply to Ken's story on a previous post it seems that whilst he had fallen foul of a "jobsworth" we had fallen foul of AI.  A computer programme now being used to process online applications for renewal of a CDS has given rise to thousands of complaints and unacceptable delays.  It is behaving as a "jobsworth" and of course you can't have a face-to-face discussion leading to a reasonable resolution with a flawed computer programme.  A face-to-face appointment for the renewal of a CDS is no longer an option, it all has to be done online.

I'm not sure if knowing it was not a real person doing a bad job but a bad computer programme makes me feel better about it all, or worse.

I sincerely hope that all the wrinkles have been ironed out by the time we have to apply again but for now it's nice not to be in constant uncertainty.  Our roses have come into bloom and it's going to be a nice week next week.