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| Felicity Huffman as Lynette Scavo in Desperate Housewives |
Frustration. Hair-pulling frustration. That is what June in Paris means. More than the heat, it's the endless, mind-numbing lists of "documents" needed for all the different "dossiers d'inscriptions" that do me in every year at this time. If you want your kids to do any kind of "activité" or be enrolled in any kind of day-care program or school for the following September, you need to fill out an application and provide various "documents." And we're not talking about online forms and PDFs here. Sometimes you actually have to call (often several times before being able to speak to the "directrice") in order to set up an appointment just to collect said list of "documents." It's almost enough to make you consider not working so that you can home-school your kids (and somehow also teach them violin, ballet, piano, tennis, and taekwondo). But if reason gets the better of you and you decide to enroll your children in activities with other children, then be warned: don't toot the victory horn too soon. One morning after waiting a week for my daughter's medical form to come back from her pediatrician's office, I naively thought I could tick "fiche sanitare" off the list for her "garderie" application. I recognized my self-addressed stamped envelope when I opened the mailbox and could already feel the elation of being able to proceed to the next step: calling the "directrice" to set up an appointment to drop off the completed paperwork. But when I picked up the envelope, it was suspiciously light. That's when I saw that it was in fact torn and empty. I couldn't believe it. Not only would I have to go back to the "garderie" for a new medical form and call back the pediatrician's office, but I was also going to spend part of my day filing a "réclamation" form with the post office. Please don't tell me you need
a "dossier" to buy a bottle of rosé.
