It's the Guillotine for Me!

I guess it's only appropriate that during the weekend of Bastille Day, I got a ticket. I'm so going to be deported!

The ticket itself was mildly stupid. I got onto the tram and had a 5-ride ticket, but forgot to validate it when I got on. The control squad boarded at the next stop, and one of them tagged me. The idiotic thing is, I had bought the ticket, I clearly had it with me, and all I really needed to do was validate it, but the woman wouldn't let me. But it gets better. She said it probably wouldn't be a problem to get the fine of 52 Euros annuled if I showed up at the offices to petition. For a 1-euro train trip. If it's not going to be a problem, why doesn't she just let me validate the ticket and save everyone - including the person who'll have to deal with me on Tuesday morning - the trouble? But no, this is France, and the one thing I've learned is that when the French people are very good at following procedure, and have very little in the way of imagination. I also think in some ways she was taking advantage of the fact I'm foreign to assert her authority, by taking the tact of pretending not to understand me. So I'm off to the ticket office on Tuesday morning, bright and early, in yet another bureacratic adventure which seems to be the hallmark of any extended stay in France.