An American in Provence

Yep. It is that time of the month again.
Time for me to complain about La Poste.
Seriously, could they make my life any more difficult?

When we were moving, the post office directly across from old place decided to close for two months for renovations (which it really really needs). So I had to shlep to the one several blocks away to change our address. You can change your address for 6 months or 12 months. Why the difference? The price of course. For six months I think it was something like 22 euros. For a year it was 45 I think. Yikes. I took the six month option. When I think of all the times I changed my address in the US- at least once a year while I was in Charlottesville.

So since the one post office is closed, all the others around it have much more traffic. The nearest to our new place is very very busy all the time. There is one a little further that is good if you want to send something, but if you want to pick up a package (since they don't bring it to your residence) you have to go to the one indicated on the slip, which for us is the high traffic one.
A few weeks ago I was in there and one lady tried to jump the line. Apparently, the ATM machine outside had swallowed her card. It was quite amusing in a way to see the Grassroots Uprising of all the other customers putting her back in her place. It made my day to see old ladies elbow her out of the way so that they could get to the counter. Then she started talking loudly on her cell phone (completely ignoring the sign saying "Please don't use your cell phone while in line). One of the workers yelled at her to talk quieter.

The two times I have wanted to use the automatic weighing/stamp distributor it first wouldn't make change (and since I didn't have exactly 1.19 I had to leave because there was no way I was waiting in line for two stamps) and the second time it was out of service. Real useful that.
A few weeks ago La Poste was on strike. Why? Because the government was thinking about privatizing it or opening up the mail system to private companies. (I didn't really care or sympathize, so I didn't pay too much attention). When it is a universally acknowledged fact that you do your job inefficiently and at a high cost, why be surprised that you might actually loose your job?

Yesterday I did the queue to mail a small package that I had sold on Ebay. After waiting 40 minutes I got to the front of the line and the lady told me it was too small to send. What do you mean it is too small? You handle post cards all the time for goodness sake! Nope, too small. She offered me the option of sending it in one of the those pre-paid boxes to send anything anywhere in France. The price was over 8 euros for something about as heavy as a letter. Considering I had sold it on Ebay for 5 euros and had estimated 3 euros for shipping, it was going to cost me more than I had made just to send it. (Lesson for the future- weigh it at the post office before listing on Ebay). I sent it in a large envelope for five euros. Grrr.