About The Papers

LIZ SAYS:The second stage of procurring the Long Stay Visa was as successful as it could be. We reported to the prefecture (police station) across from Notre Dame about 15 minutes early. There was a large but not enormous line. We did get to the desk at the appointed time, so everything was going well. We hd been told to show up together and we would be processed together. Well, but of course, that was not exactly right.
I was at one desk, Dick at another. I had only made one copy of all the documents.

I have to interject here, while I was typing this, I kept feeling like something was up, it was like chants on the wind. I just told Dick and yes, there is a protest at the corner. Our street is being blocked off by the police. That end of our street is more like 2 or 3 Madison blocks away.
Its sunny, warm, and of course, there is a protest.
Anyway, back to the story.

It turns out that we needed one photocopy of approximately 25 documents, per person, not for us as a married couple. So, I had to keep running back to Dick's desk to get copies, if we had them. It was like some very bad sitcom from the 50's-60's, with me as Lucy and Dick as Ricky. They were amused by us, which was good because they are a pretty humorless lot.
Since they could see the problem, they actually gave us a break and copied some of things for us or accepted the papers we did have.
At the end of it all, they gave us an appointment sheet. We now have to get a health exam. I have no idea what that entails, Dick thinks its a chest x-ray. I'm thinking AIDS, TB, maybe.

So, those are the facts, now for the filler. I woke up on the 5th feeling a little dizzy and tired. But, I was determined to get to the show on time. I was not going to miss the prefecture appointment. Adrenalin and drive got me there and through the appointment. By the time the whole thing was over, it was lunch time. we thought we would go to a little place about 4 blocks away. The restaurant is right on Pont Neuf, a sweet, elegant little place with an incongruous name referring to truck drivers. It claims to serve the classic truck drivers version of Beef Bourguignonne. I haven't tried it. I have had the poached eggs with onion jam and that is what we were heading for. It was like a wind up toy running down. As we walked, I just lost more and more energy and by the time we got to the restaurant, I knew I was sick.
I caught the cold that every third person in Paris has right now.
So, I spent the last two days with a spliting headache, conjestion, and no energy. Good thing that health exam isn't until the 20th!

Tonight we are going to see Onegin as a ballet. I can't wait, should be splendid! Hopefully, I won't cough all the way through it!