La Paperasserie

After what seemed like months of document accumulations, translations and preparations, today was the day for me to report to the French Consulate to apply for my visa.  I was terrified.  The French are notorious for being extremely scrupulous (yet, oh so plodding) about their paperwork.  If the tiniest thing had been done wrong I chanced having to start the process all over again, and maybe even face some serious travel rearrangements.  But, after looking everything over about ten times, I was confident that everything would go well.  And everything was going fine (a traffic jam on 75S not withstanding) until the nice office worker asked me for my travel itinerary. The frantic look on my face prompted the young man to ask, "you do have a ticket right?  How else will we know you're actually going to France?"

  I suddenly became really annoyed.  Yes, I did know at some point in time I needed to bring a travel reservation because it was mentioned in some nebulous part of the consulate's website...but not actually included in the list of things that needed to be brought with you.  The same list that I looked over almost a million times to make sure I had everything.  Just when I was about to scream "putain!" the man asked me to write a simple statement that said I was leaving for France on August 7th and to sign and date it.  I could mail my travel reservation in to him when I left. Whew!  We carried out the rest of the process and I was told to sit and wait for another person to see me.  When it was my turn for the next man to see me, he told me I didn't need to mail him any travel documents, and my written statement was fine for him.  I totally don't believe him and am going to send it in anyway, but this was good news.  By the way... all that man did was look at my papers and hand back my original contract and school inscription form, not really sure what his job was.
Alors!  My first run in with the French government was a success. I left the building feeling like Delacroix's Liberty and felt like shouting, "Onward! To France!"  But something tells me that would be terribly un-French, and this was only a battle... the war will continue on once I arrive.