One of the commonest responses from people in the UK when I talked about our plans was “How will you ever deal with the bureaucracy ?” Well, mainly we’ve managed to avoid it so far but there comes a time …..
I’m in the process of re-registering our car in France. This is a four-stage process consisting of getting a tax certificate (I thought this was to show I had paid VAT on the vehicle but see later), getting the lights changed to left hand drive (eye-watering expensive due to our vehicle’s sophisticated projector lighting system), passing a contrôle technique (French equivalent of our MoT test) and, finally, registering the car and paying some other taxes (a registration charge, an ecotaux for pollution and some undefined contribution to the tax office’s summer holiday fund; I made that last bit up – I think).
So last Monday stage 1, I know where the bureau d’impots is at St Symphorien in Vannes but I looked up the website to be sure, typed in the form I needed and found out I had to go to another office on the north side of town. The SATNAV got me to within 100m but then it took me four passes up and down the road to spot the insignificant sign, then parking was difficult and when I got to the reception desk the receptionist was on the phone to someone telling them in excruciating detail why exactly she could not pay her tax bill by a cheque unless she could provide one or more of several different forms of identity. Eventually one of the other people there spotted me and came over, I explained what I wanted and he helpfully told me that I needed to go to the bureau d’impots at St. Symphorien in Vannes.
So, back to St Symphorien and another, more helpful reception where I was given a numbered ticket and told to wait outside office G. When I got there, office G was advertised as handling taxation of small enterprises so, thinking I had made a mistake in my explanation of what I wanted, back to the reception desk to be told that office G handled taxation of small enterprises and issuing certificats de fiscalité. The people ahead of me had big files of papers and were anxiously shuffling through them, once during each interview the woman clerk came out of the office, walked across the waiting area and photocopied one or more pieces of paper. When it was my turn I went in, explained what I wanted, had the correct papers and was issued an official looking certificate from a big ledger. Strangely, as the main purpose of this part of the process was to prove I had no TVA to pay, I wasn’t asked for a copy of the UK sales invoice for the car. We had some confusion as the woman didn’t know what a CRV was and thought it was a Honda motorcycle but this got sorted out, she did of course have to go and photocopy my registration document, and I had my certificat. Now, onto the Honda dealer tomorrow for the lights …..
The best example of bureaucracy remains CPAM in Vannes (Caisse Primaire Assurance Maladies – the healthcare organisation), Barbara and I went there at the very end of a hot day in August. Most of France is on holiday in August and none of those who remain do anything related to administration at this time. So it wasn’t busy, it fact it was empty and looked as if it had been for some time. We went and waited at the line in front of the reception desk until being called forward and asked for our queue number, as there wasn’t a queue we hadn’t taken a ticket to tell us the queue we were in, what time we had joined it and how many people were ahead of us – it just didn’t seem worth it. We got sent back to the entrance to get a ticket and come back to where we had just been and the man at the desk smiled and said “How may I help you?”.
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