AAROOO! The New Poussette's Here!

I interrupt my narrative of our trip to the Loire Valley to celebrate the arrival of the new poussette!  Mom went to the post office today to pick it up because the USPS notice had arrived that it had been delivered to the post office in France.  Well, can anything be easier than that?!  Wait...no...this is France.  The land of bureaucracy.

On the first trip to the post office, Mom was told that they couldn't search their computer files for it with the U.S. tracking number.  They needed the French tracking number.

"Do you know, Madame, there are 13,000 post offices in Paris?"

Mom asked if they could search for it under her name.  No.  They needed the French tracking number.  Mom couldn't remember if she had been given a French tracking number in the email so she went home to see.  Nope, only the US tracking number.  So she went back with her name, the US tracking number and the name of the internet vendor who sold it written on a piece of paper, and said she wasn't coming back without it.  Years ago when she had a problem with the telephone company who wouldn't reinstate the service because the owner of the apartment hadn't paid the bill, she refused to leave until they solved the problem, so she was prepared to do it again - wait it out until someone was willing to think outside the box.  This time she decided to try a different tactic - the helpless American.  When she gave the paper and explained the problem to a different employee, she asked if there was any way they could help her.  Again she was told that only with the French tracking number could she search for the package. Throwing herself on the mercy of a French postal worker, Mom said, What can one do?  The woman then said she would go look in the back, but couldn't promise anything.  As she was coming back, she noticed a box BEHIND HER COUNTER that had the same words on it as the piece of paper Mom had given her!  It had arrived two days ago.  Quelle surprise!  She let Mom take it even though the proper paperwork was missing; she asked Mom to sign a paper that she had made some notations on (the French tracking number).  What flexibility!  We hope her job wasn't jeopardized!

So Mom and my two aunts put it together and we took it for a test run.  I was really excited to be back in my poussette again and not be left at home.  It's just like the first one except that it's clean - it even has that new car smell.

French Tracking Number

U.S. Tracking Number

                        I'm so HAP-P-P-Y!