France Doesn't Make It Easy

A lot of things are happening right now that are not fun. We're here in France to have fun. France isn't making it very easy.

First the Euro is very high against the dollar, making our expenses skyrocket. This isn't France's fault. The rest of this stuff is.

Our Taxe Fonciere (property tax) bill arrived about a week ago. It was increased by 28% from last year. While the average increase, we've heard, is 30%, it still isn't a good sign and in combination with the cost of the Euro, the increase is even larger for us.

Our neighbors are inconsiderate. We've had an almost constant problem with the neighbors below us. First they installed a flood light on their kitchen window that pointed up into our apartment. It took several letters (some threatening and a verbal show-down) before the light was turned off. It is still turned on from time to time when they think we're not around. They also have a terrible habit of opening the windows and playing the piano right at our dinner time. They play the same thing over and over and over. Not even a complete song. Now, a man, who I think is just visiting, has started playing Barry Manilow-type songs and singing off-key in French accented-english, also during the dinner hour.

Another neighbor was feeding the pigeons. There were at least 10 pigeons in our courtyard at all times while she was doing this. Of course, they left behind a lot of bird poop to remind us of this neighbor's activities.

Then, there's the threat of H1N1. We have no idea how to get a flu shot for this or if it will even be made available to us. It would seem that if there's a shortage of the vaccine, we will be very far down the list of possible recipients. With traveling on public transportation all the time, we will have a hard time avoiding the flu if it becomes rampant in Paris.

Last, but not least, there's the Carte de Sejour issue. We just had our meeting and got the same "fonctionnaire" that denied our card last time. She pulled every form of technicality, many of which she had to retract. We still did not get a complete sign off and we would have if we'd had another person.

All I want to do is have fun, enjoy Paris, learn to speak better French. I don't want any of these hassles. Perhaps an attitude adjustment is needed.