April showers...

...bring May flowers showers — at least this year they have. We had less rain than predicted yesterday, but the day was not rain-free. We did see the sun for a few minute over the course of the day. We'll just have to be content with that.

For me, both April and May have been times of discontentment. We haven't been able to get the vegetable garden plot ready for plantings because it's just too muddy out there. I've had a hard time getting my private insurance policy sorted out to figure out at what rate the upcoming cataract operations will be reimbursed. I still don't know. The other hassle has been getting my U.S. passport renewed. I'm still waiting with bated breath to see if my application will be accepted. See below for details.

I had special passport photos taken a few months ago. That set me back 25 euros. Still, I was happy that there is a photographer who has a special machine that lets her take photos of the size and clarity required by U.S. passport rules. A month ago, I decided I'd better get started on the process, even though my passport doesn't expire until December.

The process requires renewal of the passport by mail. It took me a while searching on the U.S. Embassy web site to find all the forms that needed to be filled out. I needed to send in my current passport, the completed forms, and a self-addressed pre-paid envelope that the embassy will use to send me my old passport back along with the new passport. People who need to renew a standard 10-year passport are not allowed to make an appointment and go to the embassy in person to renew it. Fine.

The embassy's instructions specify that the applicant needs to send the forms and the old passport to the embassy in Paris in a specific kind of envelope called a Colissimo "ready to send" envelope rated to hold documents that weigh a maximum of one kilogram (even though the documents and old passport weigh far less than that). Fine, even though that cost another 12 euros. The clerk at our village post office told me I should buy a different envelope sold there because it would cost much less. I didn't dare do that. I thanked him for the advice.

The instructions say that the self-addressed, pre-paid envelope I need to send to the embassy should also be rated to hold contents weighing a maximum of either 500 grams or one kilogram. The problem was he didn't have one in stock. Instead, he sold me a pre-paid envelope that was rated to hold only 250 grams. He weighed my passport and said it weighed just 100 grams so the two passport the embassy would send me wouldn't go over the weight limit. I bought it, but almost immediately I had second thoughts and doubts. What if the embassy staff rejected my application because I hadn't followed their rules?

A friend recommended I go across the river to Noyers-sur-Cher and try to buy the envelope the U.S. embassy required at the mail distribution center over there, which is a bigger post office than the one in our village. Off I went. When I got there, the clerk said she didn't have the required envelope either. She said those Colissimo envelopes were no longer sold by the French post office. She said she could sell me a second one-kilo envelope, but it wouldn't fit inside the one I already had unless I folded it in half, and that was expressly forbidden by the post office. Once folded, it would not be able to be used by the embassy to send my passports to me.

The clerk was very helpful, though. She said she had a different envelope, a plastic rather than cardboard one, that might work. It was rated to hold up to a kilogram of contents, and it was half the size of the other one-kilo envelope; it would fit inside the other one. She said it was not sold as a pre-paid envelope, however. The embassy would have to pay the postage to send it back to me. That won't work, I told her. I myself have to pay the postage fee.

Well, she said, I guess I'll just have to put stamps on it. The problem was, the stamps didn't want to stick to the envelope, which was made of flexible plastic, not cardboard. She had seven stamps to put on it, and it took her a while to lick each stamp and then lick some of them a second time to get them to stick. We had to wait a while for them to dry to make sure that they really had stuck to the plastic.

The clerk said that government offices, including the French school system, were being more and more strict about the kinds of envelopes customers were allowed to use to send the documents in, and at the same time the post office administrators had taken a lot of the previously available envelopes off the market. It's a chaotic situation, she told me. When we felt sure that the stamps had stuck to the envelope, I paid her 12 euros for that envelope as well. I asked her if it was possible to put strips of scotch tape over the stamps to make sure they stayed in place. She said that was not allowed.

At home, I would need to write my address on the plastic envelope before sending it on its way. I asked the clerk if it would be easy to write on the plastic envelope with a ball-point pen. I think so, she said, sounding doubtful. Then she tried the pen she had on her counter and it worked. She said, here, take this pen with you. It works. No charge. I thought that was nice of her. I felt bad for a woman who was behind me in line and waiting very patiently. The clerk also gave me a tracking number I would need to make sure my envelope had actually been received by the embassy after I sent it.

Now I'm looking at the post office tracking site on the web. It says my envoi has been distribué. I'm not sure what that means. I hope it means delivered and received. Meanwhile, I don't like being without a passport. What if I need to travel back to the U.S. for some kind of emergency? I have a French residency card so I shouldn't have problems here while I wait, but officially, I think, that my residency card is not really valid if I don't also have my U.S. passport to prove my identity. By the way, the renewal fee for the U.S. passport is $130.00 US. It will be valid for 10 years, assuming I actually receive it before it expires.