Pleasantly Surprised - Mailing a letter in France

Living in a foreign country is definitely different than visiting one.  As tourists, we pop in, take pictures, see the sights, stay in a hotel, and then pop out.  Living here I deal with issues a tourist never really has to think about.  One of them is the postal system.  

My Bishop (evangelical leader) in NYC lost his mother last week and I wanted to send him a condolence card.  I found a sympathy card (I hope what it says is kind, my Bishop is French so he'll understand what it says), signed it, and put it in the envelope.  For some reason the glue on the envelope tasted like fish.  Weird.  

I decided to google how to address an envelope in France, because it seems like everything is done differently over here.  Yep.  They address envelopes differently than we do too.  I found a step-by-step tutorial with pictures.  

http://www.wikihow.com/Address-a-Letter-to-France

After I got the envelope addressed, I needed to get a stamp.  I got on Google Maps to find out where the closest post offices are.  The reviews of every post office is awful!  Seriously, if you want a good laugh, read the Google reviews of the post offices in Lille.  The complaints range from rude postal workers to not even opening when it says it will be open.  I can attest that this is true.  

Three years ago, I tried to pick up a letter that the postal worker claimed I wasn't home to accept.  (Not true, I had been home all day that day.)  It took me three days to retrieve the letter.  The post office was closed at random times, all day on Monday, and wouldn't let me have the letter without my passport or a letter from my husband giving me permission to pick it up.  Totally not kidding.  

So I knew I didn't want to try my Bois Blanc post office.  It has a 1.4 star rating on Google.  I'm shocked it got anything higher than a 1.  I wanted to see what other offices there were.  I found on in my all time favorite part of town, Rihour.  

Rihour is like Soho + Union Square from NYC with a little Temple Square from SLC thrown in for flavor and history.  I'm always happy to run down to Rihour.  

The reviews of the post office in Rihour weren't much better than Bois Blanc's but it had a few key factors in its favor.  1. It was open all day, didn't close for lunch, and 2. It was large enough to handle crowds.  In fact, outside of the post office next to it's hours is a graph showing you when it is most busy.  

I ended up walking into the post office during its peak busy time (lunch time).  This is when Bois Blanc closes their post office.  Seriously, Bois Blanc, get it together.  The office was extremely crowded and overwhelming.  So many queues, I had no idea what to do or where to go.  

A man smiled at me and said, "Bonjour."  This jolted me because service people don't smile.  I thought he must have been some stranger just being friendly.  Except strangers don't smile either.  I stared at him confused.  Then I noticed he was wearing a jacket with the La Poste log on it.  I realized he was standing there offering help.  

I walked up to him and asked "Anglais?"  English?  He shook his head and said, "A little."  I said in French that I can speak a little French.  I pulled out my envelope and showed him the New York City address letting him know that I wanted to mail an international letter.  He asked in French if I wanted to pay with a card or cash.  I told him cash, but that I also had a card if that was necessary.  He said, "D'accor." (Alright) and took my letter and walked me to a kiosk. 

Then he did something extremely kind.  He weighed my letter and made all the selections on the screen so that I could purchase my stamp.  He told me that I needed to pay 1 Euro 30 (I'm still amazed at how low postage is considering how far it goes) and I handed him the coins.  He put them in the kiosk.  A sticker appeared in the tray below.  He pulled it out, pulled off the backing and stuck it on the envelope for me.  Then he took my envelope over to another box and put it in the slot for me.

I can honestly say that this kind of service was nothing even close to what I had been expecting to receive.  I was mentally gearing myself up for this errand promising myself a treat after it was all done. Yet despite the building being crowded with people, I got VIP treatment and wasn't made to feel like an idiot, or that I was personally insulting him because I speak broken French.  I felt like hugging this man.  


My envelope is (hopefully) on its way to New York and I'm tentatively having faith in the goodness of people in the French postal system.  Except of course in Bois Blanc!  

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