In France, the "mairie" is the town hall, the place where the city administration works and functions. Sometimes also known as the "hotel de ville", in Paris there is actually more than one such place. There is the main "Hotel de Ville" (Aimee just posted this great photo of it) where the mayor of all Paris lives and works, and it's a stunning building right on the Seine. Frequently, the city sets up fun attractions right in front of the building, and right now there's a big ice rink there; last summer there were some volleyball courts set up, with sand and everything.
But Paris being a very big place, with twenty "arrondissements" or districts, there is the need to decentralize some of the administrative functions. This is where the local mairies come in. Each arrondissment has it's own mairie and it's own "mayor" as well, and if you have any bureaucratic red tape to deal with, that's the place you go if you live in that arrondissment.
I had my first visit to the mairie in the 15th today. I had two missions: (1) get a list of official French-English translators so I can find one who will translate the stupid letter I had to get from my American bank to satisfy the French bank, and (2) inquire about French lessons for foreigners. This latter item is something I learned about from the guy who helped me move my boxes over here back in December; he told me that the Mairies offer French lessons at a very cheap price to foreigners who live in the neighborhood.
I found the address of my mairie online (thank God for the Internet, because the French really do make good use of it for administrative purposes as well as tourism), and had a nice walk to get there, about 15-20 minutes. I could've taken the bus but it wasn't that far, even though the 15th is a very big arrondissment.
Not knowing what to expect, and having forgotten my French dictionary at home, I walked into the vestibule. Ah, good - an information desk! I waited my turn (not too long a wait) and started by explaining that I needed a list of official "traducteurs" for a letter that had to be "certifié conforme" (which is the term the banker used). Happily, the young lady at the desk seemed to know exactly what I wanted and located a large printed sheet that listed all the official traducteurs for every single language. Excellently well organized; so far, so good!
Then I asked about French classes for étrangéres (foreigners) and voila! She produced an entire book of classes offered through the mairie (kind of like our adult school programs in the States), and a sign-up form. The French classes begin on the 12th and the deadline for registration is THIS Friday so it's possible for me to get in just under the wire, but I have a petite problème -- I have no idea which is the right course for me. Some are geared towards people who are pursuing a college degree so they're "serious" courses, others involve learning math as well as French (I don't enjoy math in English, let alone French, so that's out), and some are clearly for people who are barely literate in their mother tongue. I think I've got it narrowed down to one that sounds appropriate, but then there's the issue of what level I'm at, and who decides which is the right level? Merde! So I think I will need to go back to the mairie tomorrow to find out how this is supposed to work, and moreover, how I pay for it given that I don't have a French bank account (yet) and I have no idea if they accept cash or a non-French credit card (the French ones have these micro chips embedded in them and some businesses only accept those card with microchips).
Last but not least, I noticed on the application form that they want as proof of residency in the 15th, the same utility bills the BANK wanted, which I do not have and will not be able to get. <sigh> Who knew that having all my utilities included in my rent would prove to be such an issue? But I hope it's an issue I can resolve because these classes are about 90 Euros for 15 weeks and the classes meet either two or even four times a week for two hours, and I could take them during the early part of the day so it won't conflict with my working in the afternoons or my social life in the evenings. My French skills should certainly progress much faster with that kind of pace.
So my first visit to the mairie went pretty well. I can only hope (but am not optimistic) that future visits will go as smoothly, especially in the event I decide I want to stay here and need to apply for a residency card (quel cauchemar!)
Of course, I may not end up getting into the mairie's French classes, but there are other programs in Paris I can look into. But the mairie's course catalog isn't limited to French; they've got classes on other languages, business and computer classes (including some pretty hard-core computer programming classes, which was quite a surprise), secretarial courses, and programs designed to help people learn skills in areas such as automotive, fashion and couture (bien sur, c'est Paris!), cooking, art and design. And the catalog programs are available all around the city - they're not limited just to my arrondissment.
So, if you're living in Paris and need to brush up your French skills or want to take some other program, this is clearly the place to start. Bonne chance!
