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Last week, I go to the passpost office, with Kate, for her to get her passport in order. I bring mine along, which had been through a washing machine not me. They tell me I need it replaced. Shit.

I come by the next day, having hit all the stops on the way to make it a smooth sailing unlike the day before. I get pictures taken, I get a cashier’s check no fucking credit cards taken? wtf?, I fill out all the forms. They tell me I need my citizenship certificate, that no form mentioned.

No problem – my mother has all those thing, she’s really neat and tidy, keeps them all in a big filing cabinet. Not messy at all like me. I’ll pick them up when I go down for sunday dinner. Make an appointment to return Monday, pay all the bills up front so all I have to do is walk in, hand over the paper and wait for the mail to come.

Mother doesn’t have my certificate of citizenship. Pulls apart the house. Says “Are you sure you don’t have it?” I know I don’t. Pull apart my house anyway, as act of solidarity.

I start making plans for a two week road trip across the American West instead. the lady at the office had been very specific: no citizenship certificate, no passport. Citizenship certificates take 3-4 months to acquire. They literally have to pull your records out of a hole in the ground: specifically, out of a re-purposed mineshaft in Utah.

So, just to make sure, I go to the office. Wait my turn, talk to the lady. Wait for her manager, talk to the manager, wait for her manager, she’s busy: talking to her manager in the main passport office about my case.
They say, take all my papers, print out my ticket, go to the other office, here’s a reservation, go on friday, state your case, good luck.

I lose my drivers license. Need it as ID. was taking it in and out of my pocket so many times all day that I mislaid it. Tear my house apart looking for it, it was in the pocket of my pants, the one pair I didn’t check.

I head down to the office, take all the papers, find parking downtown, go through metal detectors, go to window #1, take a deep breath, hand them my appointment card, get ready to state my case and…

The lady walks away before I can say anything, comes back with my new passport. Tadaah…

My grandma is turning 100 and I’m invited. yay!

Ok everyone, you know the deal now.

Click on this link to see the next set of pictures from France.

There would be more to say, but we have to be up at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow for the latest day’s adventure. Hopefully, with time at the end to allow the photos to catch up with the adventuring.

As you can see from these photos, we are definitely still in France.

Today’s offering: boats, bees, and sore feet. With a side of kultcha.

Mange tout!

Finally noos avons lee wee-fee.

The last two days have been consumed by epic levels of the Parisian triathlon – walking, climbing stairs and eating.

Click here to start watching the photos from the beginning.

We have to depart now, the trial by triathlon awaits us. Now that we have found a reliable source of network connection, and have the really arduous walking and eating behind us (I am praying), we might be able to post things at the end of the day, instead of collapsing.

It is the morning of day 3, and all in all our first two days have been very enjoyable. After a supposed catastrophic airline delay, we ended up on an Air France direct flight instead of American Airlines cattle class. After a minor kerfuffle with the vending machines at the Charles de Gaulle TGV station, we made it into town and spent a pleasant evening eating vegan French food (yes, it does exist!) and wandering the city center. Yesterday we visited Notre Dame cathedral, the Sainte-Chappelle (royal chapel of Saint Louis and some of the most breathtaking stained glass in the world), and the Conciergerie, where they imprisoned the likes of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI before chopping their heads off. On the agenda for today are the Musee d’Orsay (19th century art), the Eiffel tower, and a night cruise of the Seine.

A great time is had by all.

Beth

Hello all!

I’m going on vacation again. If you come back later, I am sure you will find pictures. In fact, you are absolutely certain to find pictures.

I am too blitzed from cleaning the house and getting ready all night to write anything particularly interesting write now. In the meantime, please amuse yourself with a perusal of any of my previous pictoral adventures that you may have missed:

Keep refreshing until you see something that you absolutely have to click on.