Wednesday, August 09, 2006

auto école

4 months ago, I lost my driver’s license, not due to speeding, nor one thousand accumulated parking tickets, only because I lived in France for too long.

The French authority allows certain foreign driver’s license holders to exchange their driver’s license the first year when they move to France and only the first year. If you decide to do it one year later, too bad, you have to pass the exam. So Feb 20th 2006, I became officially license-less.

In order to get a new license, I will have to be enrolled in a driving school and study for the traffic rules, pass the written test and do 20 hours of practice on the road and then the road test: turn left, turn right, stop and pull into the alley ... What an insult to a veteran driver with excellent record, 10 years of driving history, never in a accident, no speeding ticket, not even a parking ticket (not in my name anyway).

This afternoon, I called every driving school in Paris, basically tried to bribe them to avoid the 20 hour driving lessons. No one agreed to it. At 16H55, I was on my bike heading towards my only hope in the 13th district, there I saw a small office marked in big letters “auto ecole” next to Notre Dame. I walked in, I explained my problem and five minutes later I got a deal. I will subscribe to the normal class, pay a bit less and he will just mark the 20 hours I am supposed to do with a black pen and I then will pass the exam.

I hate the French authority but I have to love the French people for their imagination and flexibility.