Day: July 4, 2025

Sorry for the awful mis-spelling of Paris in the title of this post. But I’ll continue…

I had to go to Paris on 2nd July to provide my biometrics in the form of a photo and fingerprints to the Australian immigration authorities in support of my visitor visa application. This was not the best thing to be doing in the middle of ‘la Canicule’, the hottest heatwave for many years that had been dominating the French news for several days, but having made the necessary appointment and travel arrangements I had no choice.

So I was up at 5.30 am and after a cold shower and a quick breakfast I was off to Brive to catch the 7.56 am train to Paris Austerlitz. As is usually the case, the train arrived and departed dead on time and I was able to purchase a ‘café au lait’ and a quick snack during the 4 1/2 hour journey, with the train also arriving dead on time at Austerlitz.

So so far, so good. I’d already worked out and written down my itinerary so as to avoid any unnecessary mistakes and delays – Metro Line C at Austerlitz, four stops to Les Invalides, then change to RER Line 13 Direction St Denis Université and nine stops to Porte de Saint-Ouen in Clichy. I then had a 1 1/2km walk to my final destination, the office of VFS Global on the Boulevard du Général Leclerc.

Usually walking such a distance wouldn’t have bothered me – I’ve been doing much longer distances in Istanbul for example – but I knew that it was going to be challenging in the temperature and even more so on the way back, but off I went using my Waze satnav on my phone in order to get to my 2.20 pm appointment. I had about 1 hour and 50 minutes in total following my arrival in Paris so I had plenty of time to get to my destination, but it sure was hot and there was not a lot of shade.

Is the next shot of the highest graffiti in Paris, if not the whole of France?

I arrived at my destination with time to spare albeit by that time suffering rather in the heat. After taking the lift to the sixth floor I was greeted by a message on VFS’s office door saying that the office was closed for the whole of July and I and an Iraqi gentlemen were both bemused by this as we both had appointments within the coming few minutes.

Luckily, an attractive, tall, blonde young lady in a short skirt and on towering heels then turned up to open the door that we’d been banging on and took us with her into the office. I then received some bad news. She told me that as well as bringing my passport I should also have brought the letter I’d received from the Australian immigration authorities by email confirming their demand for biometrics. Without it she said that she could not process my application and I’d have to return with it.

It was my own fault as I should have read the letter more thoroughly but she said that I should search for it in my email or try to download another copy from the Australian web site while she processed the Iraqi. I was unsuccessful on both counts but as the office was closed to the general public and therefore not busy, she said she’d see what she could do by searching out my details on the immigration authority’s system.

By now, following my walk from the station I felt as though I was in a sauna and my shirt was becoming wringing wet. She offered me a drink of water from their machine which turned out not to be cooled (yuck!) and after several minutes she returned beaming. She said that she’d found my details and would be able to take my biometrics after all which was a great relief to me given how far I’d come and how much the trip had cost me.

She turned out to be Russian with a father in Crimea who has terminal cancer and became a bit tearful when she told me about it and how difficult it was finding a way to get back to see him, possibly for the last time. After she’d finished I gave her a hug and a ‘bissous’ which she didn’t object to before giving my face a splash of cold water in the toilet and departing back into the heat of the afternoon.

The next two shots were taken at Porte de Vincennes on my walk back to the Metro at Porte de Sain-Ouen (the final image) from where I returned to Austerlitz via the same route on which I’d come.

Once again, the 4.28 pm from Austerlitz left dead on time and despite receiving a message that it would be delayed by at least 20 minutes en route, also arrived dead on time at 9.03 pm at Brive. It only took a minute or two to pick up my car from the station car park (for what I thought was a very reasonable 9.70€ for the day) and another hour to get home again. So mission accomplished and what a relief to throw all of my clothes into the washing machine and myself under a cold shower. Now just Bordeaux next week for a medical.