Getting Things Done the French Way 3½!

On Tuesday I had my trip with the Toyota to DREAL in Caen.  And it went reasonably well. Although it was lucky that Rosie had bumped into the post lady before I left for Caen, as there was a letter from DREAL saying I had to go for the test at a garage and not at their offices.  This I hadn't been told either on the phone or in the confirmation email.

New Fog Light

I arrived at the garage and to very nice gentlemen proceed to crawl under the car and rubbing mud off the chassis.  After a couple of minutes of watching them getting steadily grimier I asked what it was they were looking for.  'The vehicle identification number' was the reply.  I said there was one under the bonnet, which they looked at but they also wanted to check the one on the chassis.  They seemed rather surprised when I got the manual out of the car and looked at the location of the number - simple.  That done they measured the distance between the centre of the front and rear wheels (which is also in the manual).

Then the bit I had assumed I had had to go all the way to Caen for - the headlight directions.  One of the men looked at the lights and then asked if they had been changed.  'Yes' I said. 'C'est bonne' was the reply and that was that regarding the headlights. Not even a test to check.

They then went around the back of the vehicle and told me all was okay.  And then one of the men looked at the rear lights and asked me to turn on the fog lights.  Mine was on the right and he wanted one on the left (although it is not obligatory).  And then he wanted the weight of the vehicle. 'That's in the manual' I said.  'No, no' he replied 'you need to get it weighed'.  After I gave him a look of disbelief he added that it must be full of diesel and no people in it.

When I asked if I had to come back he said there was no need and I could email him the copy of the weight from the weighbridge and a photo of the fog light.  Those have both been dealt with so now I wait until I hear from them.