Posts
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Tire shopping in the Geneva / St. Genis area
For those only interested in the result, please skip to the last table.
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The road to driving, part 3
I tried calling the number I got from DRIRE (04.37.65.13.10) twice, but I got no answer. So I tried looking for the "Brigade de police de Lyon" in the Pages Jaunes (Yellow Pages). There were no exact matches, but I looked under the heading "Police" and tried the first number, to the commissariat du 1er arrondissement (5 pl Sathonay 69001 LYON) @ 04 78 28 11 87. I could swear the officer answered something like "Good day, Mr. Engmark"... After I had explained quickly what I was calling about, the officer asked me whether I rather wanted to speak English. Now this went above all my expectations, and the officer seemed to have the whole story on his desk(top) already! I heard that I was supposed to have received the "notice descriptive du type" with the "certificate de conformite partielle". I probably have, and just delivered it to the sub-prefecture. I was also told that the engine of my car had never been registered in France, and that they therefore couldn't perform the necessary tests to produce a "justificatifs concernant le niveau de sonore" (sic). But I was told that my engine was very close to one identified as B202L, and was adviced to try to explain it to the DRIRE technicians in order to get a "justificatifs concernant le niveau de sonore" for this engine instead. So I called...
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The road to driving, part 2
After telling SAAB to please reply in plain text, I get an answer which is just barely accepted by the spam filter. I have to wait for the "Homologation Department"...
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Thwarted attempt at "unauthorized" CERN access
I tried getting to work by car via the new French "E" / "Charles de Gaulle" entrance this morning. As instructed (Update: sorry, the link is dead), I kept my access card and "Attestation de fonctions" ready. Before the gate, a person was walking past the cars to do some kind of check(s) before allowing people access. Approaching my car, I put up the documents and rolled down the window. But he didn't even look at them. He just explained that since I had a temporary car sticker, I couldn't pass. So I turned around and used the other entrance, which makes the road to work about thrice as long. On the way, I stopped at building 55 (Update: sorry, the link is dead) and got the new azur access card, no fuzz included.
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The road to driving, part 1
[this post and the following parts are a reprint of the "Getting an Italian car registered in France" (aka "The glory of paperwork, part 78") post. Stoopid me didn't realize the way blogs work... Note that the date of the first entry is uncertain.]
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The intricacies of the Norwegian tax system
Or: Clueless bureaucrats attempting rip-off
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The dangers of uninformed secretaries
In the letter saying I had to get a "justificatifs concernant le niveau sonore", the text "Brigade de police de LYON 04.37.65.13.10" was scribbled on the side. I showed the paper to a French person who has been very helpful in formal matters, and was given the advice to try calling the Annecy police, since they are closer. A quick call confirmed this, and I got an appointment for Saturday 16:00 (sic!).