Always one more piece of paper

Whatever you do in France, from registering a car to getting married - you will need many pieces of paper to prove who you are, where you live, what you do and what you earn. But not only this, you will need similar pieces of paper for, at the very least,  your wife, ex wife, parents and grandparents in many cases - not only this, but you may need to have these certified and validated not more than three months from when whatever official asked for them in the first place.

In France papers such as birth certificates are issued by your local Mairie and are only valid for six, sometimes three, months- so if you are delayed by a missing piece of the merry-go-round puzzle of official procrastination and paperchases, then you will have to start all over again to collect this Alexandrian library of scrolls to appease the legions of civil servants.

We have a freind who has lived in France for sixty years, she has given France three children and  is the widow of a Frenchman -  but she is missing the birth certificate of her father in law - so cannot be recognised as being French until she finds this piece of paper. After many visits to many officials in many depoartments and producing volumes of other documents, marriage certificates, her own papers she has had since the second world war when she fought for French freedom, this new request is proving difficult to find - she will persist and eventually we hope she will be a recognised as being more French than many people living in France.

When we checked my Mother into hospital yesterday we were only three pieces of paper short of the necessary requirement so we felt quite smug .