Tag Archives: Foix

Permis De Conduire? (Driving License) French Bureaucracy Stuck in 19th Century!

It’s all so straightforward, everyone assured me. You simply take your old driving license into the Prefecture in Foix before the expiration date and turn it in and they’ll replace it with a French one. Right???

No — not in a million years is it straightforward! Perhaps if you are one of the million-plus Brits living here, but if you are Australian? Then it is not so easy, reliable, and speedy.

We took a day off in November to go to Foix, a lovely day out in a beautiful and historic town with the bonus of a delicious lunch. The man at the driving license desk was charming and he handled all of my paperwork pleasantly and told me that I would be receiving my new French license in the post very shortly. Days went by — then weeks. I was checking our mailbox daily and at this point my Australian license was about to expire.

But today — only today — did some bureaucratic twit woman in Foix write to me AFTER I sent a polite request for information about why the license had not arrived yet. And what she told me simply sent me over the edge into white-hot rage.

Nothing in France is digital — nothing. They are still firmly entrenched in a 19th Century brain-set about how to operate in a 21st Century world, so things never go quite right. Everything is awash in paperwork and every single government office requires photocopy after photocopy of your documents. They must have to build vast warehouses just to store all of the damned paperwork!!!

When you need to renew your license in Australia, it’s a 21st Century DIGITAL world. You walk into the VicRoads office, have them take a new digital photo right there on the spot, (no — they don’t make you bring in a 4 photos the way they do here!) hand over your payment, and out you walk with a new laminated license — period. They DO NOT ISSUE a file full of paperwork each time showing when your original license was and so forth. But apparently they do here in France — and PAPERWORK is what they want before they will issue my new license.

They could have told me that in November and it would have been here by now. Now I have to fill out online forms from VicRoads, have them signed and witnessed, and send them BACK to Australia so they can send the completed dossier BACK to France. Then and only then will the uppity woman in Foix decide that I am ‘worthy’ of a f**king French driving license.

My love affair with France is, quite justifiably, wearing off. The shopkeepers are charming, the French people are invariably polite, the everyday man and woman we deal with are very straightforward. But the nightmarish and antiquated government systems here are doing my head in and I am the one who has to deal with this over and over and over just to be able to live here. Every single month there is some sort of paperwork dragon to fight and I shouldn’t have to be doing this at my age. That’s why after 10 months of fighting with another bureaucratic office and submitting the same paperwork again and again, we still do not have a Carte Vitale for each of us (national health card) because you never talk to the same person twice.

As of now, I am unable to get a French driving license before my old one expires because bureaucrats who are paid to do a very simple job simply occupy a desk, get paid their comfortable little guaranteed government salary, don’t care one bit about the people they are supposed to be helping, don’t tell the poor suckers at the counter any information in a timely manner, and then they collect a comfortable pension at the end of their working life.

Are you thinking of moving to France? A piece of advice — unless you have some personal body slave who can go and run errands for you and do all of your paperwork for you and you never have to buy a car, drive a car, earn a living, or negotiate through the health care system — just DON’T DO IT!

It will save you a lot of gray hair and stomach aches. The way the French bureaucrats treat the foreign residents who pay their taxes and prop up this crumbling country is simply appalling.

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A Frolic Through Foix — Part 2

Resuming the visit to Foix that we began yesterday…

Taking a break from the brilliant sun and heat, we ducked inside the abbey church of St. Volusien. In contrast to the elaborately decorated stone churches with gilded interiors that we have visited in other parts of France, this particular structure was quietly and simply elegant. For this reason, I have chosen to present the photo essay in black and white.
 

St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

Interior of St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

Side chapel in St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

Massive organ perched above the entry to St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

Row of deep windows in the stone walls of St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

War memorial plaque just inside the abbey church of St. Volusien in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

Clock on the belltower of St. Volusien abbey church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

The bell tower of the St. Volusien Abbey Church in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 
One tiny note for people who are ‘sensitive’ to spirit movement, there were a few places inside the church that were quite active. I laughingly thought of calling this post “Spot The Ghost” — so that’s a wee hint for you. Whenever my camera is aimed at a stationary target and nothing visible is moving but it struggles to focus in ample light, I have learned to expect surprises when I see the pictures afterward. These things have happened to me all of my life, so no, outside of the sudden plunge in temperature whilst the spirit moves by, it never rattles me.

After a tasty plat-du-jour lunch in an outdoor cafe, we headed back to St. Girons, vowing to return one afternoon for a visit to the Chateau de Foix itself and museum inside.

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©Deborah Harmes and ©A Wanderful Life
Please respect the words and images on this page.
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A Frolic Through Foix

A medieval hilltop chateau with ‘fairytale’ towers? Check. Picturesque and twisty cobbled streets? Check. Ancient abbey church? Check.
 

Chateau overlooking the town of Foix in the Midi-Pyrenees in the South of France


 
Welcome to Foix — a beautiful and historic town in the Midi-Pyrenees of France. It’s a small and truly lovely place for a day out and it is easily traversed on foot.
 

Medieval chateau overlooking the town of Foix in the Midi-Pyrenees in the South of France


 
Beseiged repeatedly during the 13th Century, the medieval town of Foix was built in part on the earlier foundations of the hilltop Roman fortifications.
 

Top floor ornamentation flanking windows in a historic building in Foix, Midi-Pyrenees, France


 

Foix building ornamentation close-up


 

Burgundy Citroen parked in the medieval town of Foix in the South of France


 

Views of the Chateau de Foix, looming over the town of Foix in the South of France, can be seen through many of the streets and passageways of the town.


 

In tomorrow’s post, part 2 of A Frolic Through Foix, we pay a visit to the medieval abbey church of St. Volusien.

Hope you have enjoyed this taste of Foix!

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©Deborah Harmes and ©A Wanderful Life
Please respect the words and images on this page.
All rights reserved.