And here's the final proof:
A lovely, crisp, shiny brown (though it looks plum-colored in this photo) French/European passport with my name and horrible prison-mug-shot photo inside. Good until 2023. Fingerprint data already embedded which means I can go straight to the ultra-fast passport control line when arriving in France -- I don't even need to sign up, I'm already in the system! (And the fingerprint scan definitely works, as they had me scan my right hand in order to pick up the passport.) When going to the U.S. from now on, I'll need to travel with both passports, using the French one when leaving and re-entering France, and the American one when arriving and leaving the U.S. That's how both countries want it, and fine by me.
I also got a Carte Nationale d'Identité which I know a lot of people don't like the sound of, but since I don't (yet) have a French driver's license or any other photo ID other than my two passports and NJ driver's license, I thought the official French ID card would be useful to carry around with me in case I need to show ID at the bank or when traveling within France. And it didn't cost anything, unlike the passport. It's always safer to leave passports at home when not traveling outside the country.
And I got to turn in in my Carte de Séjour, once and for all. After all the aggravation I/we went through for the past six years getting or renewing that card FOUR times, after all the countless documents and dossiers and photocopies and translations and expense... my "resident foreigner" status is over.
France has decided that I'm a keeper.
