Friday, August 2, 2013
I have to return to the post office in Caunes this morning to post a check to the United States, so I get there by 9:30 a.m., shortly after it opens. The sliding door reigsters my presence and opens in enough time for me to slip inside, as the door closes behind me.
At the window is yesterday's servant of the people, the chef de service, who lectured me on the indivisibility of panoramic stamp pairs. Today he is speaking with a man who has come to the post office to pay his electric bill to Éléctricité de France, or as it is known to everyone in France, l'EDF.
The receipt from l'EDF is a major document in France, required for a house purchase, so that the account of the seller can be transferred to the buyer. This is a requirement even if the purchaser has never owned a house in France. How, then, does the prospective purchaser of a house in France who does not live in France buy a house in France? By having a friend who has a house in France supply a letter making reference to their EDF account, and stating that the purchaser is part of their household and shares their address. The closing of the transaction will be held up until the seller's EDF account is transferred to the purchaser, which cannot be done until EDF has processed the contents of the letter of the friend of the purchaser in their records. And I am told "bureaucracy" is a French word.
At the post office, the chef de service and the man with the electric bill are deep in a conversation about the cost of electricity, which will rise, I have read, 5% over the next six months, and another 5% in the following.
"The government said that privatizing electricity would make electricity cheaper, and the syndicats [the French trade union associations] said that when electricity was privatized electricity would cost 50% more. Electricity was privatized, and now electricity costs 100% more!"
"Who can afford it?" says the customer. "It will be tough if this keeps up."
"Meanwhile", continues the chef de service, "the 200 wealthiest families in France saw their incomes increase by 25% this year!"
"Yes! Yes! --And what did they do for that money?"
"I tell you what's going to happen" says the chef de service, warming to his topic. "After August, in the fall, in September, there will be revolution!"
"Yes! Yes! Revolution!"
"I don't like to say it, but when people have had enough...you know, capitalism isn't good, and communism isn't good --extremes on each side-- but I tell you these rich families don't create any jobs. I would rather subsidize the man on the corner who makes a living plying his trade and hires two or three to help him."
Hoping to bring the conversation to an end, so that I can be attended to, I offer agreement:
"In the United States, most new jobs are created by small businesses--"
"The United States, where there is no poverty because it's a capitalist country!"
I am getting nowhere now. Fortunately, the man who came to pay his EDF bill wraps the conversation up, and I am able to get the chef du service to supply the forms to send my envelope via the French equivalent of certified mail, return receipt requested, although not before he gets in a complaint about how difficult it is to find them. I fill out the forms while he serves another customer and then return to the window. I pay him, and ask how long it might take before I receive the acknowledgement of receipt.
"I don't know how things work in the United States. Within fifteen days you ought to receive the return confirmation."
"Well, I sent a CD there two weeks ago, and it has not arrived."
"Well, perhaps you sent something inappropriate--"
"It was a CD--"
"Well, there might have been customs duties. Everything gets scanned--"
"Look, I'm sorry, I just want to know whether I can count on this document arriving and my getting a receipt."
"I do not see why it wouldn't--"
"Ok, let's talk about another item. Have the new Marianne stamps come in yet?"
"No, not yet. They probably won't be here for...another two or three years!"
And the chef de service looks at me and smiles.
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