We fell into Sh*t and came out smelling like... well it was a hot day too. 4-17-15

Our last hurdle almost came up and threw us on our butts.  Early last week we went down to the National Railway, SNCF, and bought our Senior + cards which will enable us to travel in France at a significant discount.  I mentioned before that our first trip was excluded because unfortunately Belgium is not included.   Be that as it may we forged on and bought no change no refund tickets and reserved a hotel in Brussels under the same terms, and it was expensive.  We joked at the time that we would probably get our letter from French immigration telling us we would have to come in for the last interview and health screening for sometime during the trip.  Well guess what, it came the day before yesterday and was for the day we would be returning from Brussels.  Our choices were to either return one day early and lose a couple hundred Euros in prepaids, or to go to the Immigration Office to see if we could get another interview date.  We're talking French bureaucracy here, a very daunting prospect especially in French.

 
But we actually got out around 8:30 am and caught the Metro to go to the office which we had scouted out yesterday.  It was shades of Japan with the press of people on the train and hotter than a two dollar pistol.  My pictures are too late but you get the feeling.





So we got to the Immigration office in a somewhat perspirant condition and girded ourselves for a siege.  The receptionist, keeper of the keys, greeted us and Deb stepped up to explain our plight.  Now we had just heard her speaking English so we knew we had an out, but Deb went through our explanation in French and we watched her shake her head and mutter a bit.  Disheartening but we persisted and mentioned that we had all the required documentation with us including the required revenue stamps.  So she called upstairs and told us to sit down for 10 minutes, then she asked us again if we had all the documentation to which we affirmed, yes.  She jumped up and ran upstairs then came back and told us they would process us today.
Sure enough a few minutes later someone came down and brought us upstairs and we were processed and out by 11:30 am. Not one curt person; not one cross word!  EVERYONE of them was genial, courteous, and efficient. 

We know we're living on borrowed time regarding the bureaucracy but for now VIVE LA FRANCE!