The Carte de Sejour, Part II

It's never easy.

We have been waiting for the "final" answer from the Prefecture regarding our Carte de Sejour since March 5th. And, this whole project has been carried over from the Fall. We left France thinking that they'd send us their answer by mail.

Barbara, who watches our apartment while we're gone emailed us last week, saying that there have been a "flurry" of Avis de Lettre Recommande (french version of Certified Mail). She sent them to us so that we could figure out who wanted to send us something but wanted a signature.

From what we can figure out, two of these forms are from the Prefecture, meaning that this is the mail we've been waiting for concerning the "Carte". But, we need to sign before we can find out our fate.

A quick trip to the La Poste website clarified, however, it's not good news.

Evidently, what we should have done is called a "Procuration" and it involves leaving the name of the person who can sign for your items with the local post office. It must be done in person! We're still trying to figure this one out.

As an aside, the reason we don't get our mail re-directed from Paris is because La Poste is so disorganized. Twice, for two different trips, we went in, filled out forms (in person) to re-direct our mail and paid Euro 55. Not one piece of mail was forwarded each time, so we finally realized that they can't handle this. Both times they admitted their error and refunded the money!

Another "Lettre" seems to be from our Syndic. I wrote them a letter and included it with the Q2 check for our "homeowner's association dues" telling them to forward any critical mail to MB. They cashed the check so I know they got the letter. So, why they sent a "Lettre" to our Paris address vs. the requested MB address is another French mystery that will be solved at a later date.

So, we are stoically awaiting a second package sent by Barbara with more "Lettres". Evidently, many people want to get hold of us!

The next chapter of the "Carte" will surely follow after we get the mail sorted out.