The Bold Soul: A Writer's Life in Paris

The Naturalisation Saga, Partie Deux

I sent in my dossier to the Bureau de Naturalisations on a Tuesday, having no idea how long I might have to wait until I received any sort of acknowledgment or response. I sent it via La Poste using what they call a Chronopost envelope, and I paid for next-day delivery before 10am; this gave me a tracking number so I was able to see that the Bureau had, in fact, received it, so no excuses about "Oh, Madame, we did not receive your file! Tant pis!" A little more than a week later, I got my first response, in the form of a letter telling me I had allegedly forgotten to include proof of my French skill level! (You can read all about that here.) Fortunately, a phone call from Georges straightened that right out, and later that evening I received an email from my case worker (hey, I have a case worker!), Mlle. H, with the date and time of my first rendez-vous. The letter didn't give us the option of picking another date and time, and both me and Georges had to be there, which meant he had to do some quick rescheduling -- because the appointment... Read more →

The Naturalisation Saga, Partie Un

(By the way, this marks my 2,020th post. 20/20 - that seems appropriate somehow.) As you know if you've been following along for a while, I've been preparing to request French nationality. And since I still get questions about how it works, why I'd want to become French, and what happens to my American citizenship if I do become French, I thought I'd go through it all again here. Maybe it will help someone else who is considering doing the same. First, let me say that everyone's situation is going to be different. There are all kinds of reasons foreigners living in France might want to take French nationality, and different rules apply depending on each case. For instance, the current rules about how long you must wait to apply for citizenship vary, depending on whether you are applying for naturalisation via marriage to a French citizen (you must be married for at least 4 years) versus all other cases (I think you must have lived here at least 5 years in most other cases). For married people, it used to be a much shorter wait time but in 2006 the government got a lot tougher on us immigrants in... Read more →

Walking into my future

Crossing the Pont Neuf a bit early this morning... Georges and I are en route to the Bureau de Naturalisations, which has been thoughtfully hidden away on a street dating back to medieval times. With a view like this to remind me of why I want to become French, I will hopefully come through my interview with flying tri-colores of blue, white and red. Read more →

Écrivain at work

This morning, up early to get blood work and now café-writing at the Mairie du XVIIIème. Crunch time if I really want to finish the memoir in October before starting on my first novel in November! Read more →

Do you hear the people sing?

Last night, Le Garçon (formerly known as The Little Guy; now that he's in middle school, he was due for an upgrade) was just starting his homework when he launched into a real tirade about something or other. When he's really worked up about something, he speaks very rapidly and his voice gets more and more high-pitched (he's only 11 and the voice-changing hormones haven't kicked in yet) so I couldn't make out all of what he was saying, but I managed to get that one day this week he will have not one but TWO tests ON THE SAME DAY! Quel horreur! It's so unfair! The teachers are horrible! They don't care about the kids! It's insane, to give two tests in ONE day! The world is coming to an end!!! Georges and I were sitting on the couch while this was going on, and we looked at each other with great amusement. I whispered: "Is he upset about having two tests on a single day?" (because as usual I thought maybe I'd gotten it wrong) and Georges nodded. He calmly responded to the tirade and basically let the kid vent about it for a few minutes before telling... Read more →

On the Pont Neuf

The view from the Pont Neuf looking toward the newly-cleaned Conciergerie just to the right of that small bridge, and the Palais de Justice. Marie Antoinette spent her final days in a cell in the Conciergerie before she, uh, lost her head to the guillotine. (Note to self: I still haven't visited the Conciergerie after going on SIX years in Paris; there is still so much I need to see and do here!) Read more →

First detour on the Rue to French-ville

I woke up this morning, thinking about my dossier for French nationality that I mailed last week, and wondering when I might hear something from the Préfecture. I figured there could be three possible immediate responses (and of course I'm paraphrasing): "We got your application dossier. Everything's fine with your paperwork. You need to make an appointment to come in for your interview and test in French history and culture." "We got your application dossier. We received everything we originally told you to send, but now we ALSO need additional documents blah-blah-blah." "We got your application dossier. You (i.e., WE) fucked up royally and you didn't send (i.e., WE ALREADY MANAGED TO LOSE) the following documents, so now (even though it's really OUR fault, although we'll never admit it), you'll have to get all new copies of those documents before we can go any further." Naturally, I was hoping for Response #1, but was putting my money on Response #2. However, I was also prepared for Response #3 because it seems in almost every story I've heard, candidates for nationality send in everything they are supposed to and somehow the préfecture manages to lose things. But of course they're French... Read more →

When stuffed animals mutiny and take over the world

Someone's looking pretty pissed off at being left on the floor like that. Read more →

Five million reasons to smile...

... and they all come from Georges. Today marks the 5th anniversary of our first date: what came to be known to us as the 26-hour first date that changed EVERYTHING. I'm going to meet Georges for lunch today, just as we did five years ago, and although the weather in Paris isn't going to allow us to dine outdoors in the Luxembourg, we'll take a walk there and immerse ourselves in the wonderful memories. If you're new to the blog and haven't gotten around to reading through all the past posts, you can start here to read through the posts of October 2007 (and continuing forward, if you like) to catch up. As an anniversary gift to Georges, here is a short excerpt from my book. It's still my favorite part. Merci, mon coeur, pour ces 5 ans ensemble. Thank you for the love you give every single day, in millions of ways both great and small. * * * * * Tuesday morning dawned, and in a moment reminiscent of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in the film You’ve Got Mail, before I was even out of my pajamas, I was logging on, hoping to see him there.... Read more →

Dangerous rain gear

I saw this hat in a shop window in the Marais recently. And all I could think was, if I saw someone wearing that hat, I would have no choice but to start poking her in the head, trying to pop the bubble wrap! Can you imagine, total strangers trying to "pop" your rain hat? Who's bright idea was this, anyway? Read more →