Commissariat Central du 14e Arrondissement

No, that’s not a mob of striking migrant workers, it’s the line to get into the police station, but don’t worry, you don’t go in that line unless you have a problem with your carte de séjour, and there’s a macho guy with a machine gun standing there just in case (in case what?). I’m pretty sure they set up the steel fence to make the long line of immigrants watch as other people freely enter and exit the building on other business while they’re there hot, cold, and unmoving. Everything here is preposterous. To file a change of address you must go to ‘Objets trouvés’. This is but one example. Once you realize that this is not actually a police station but a police-​themed clown house providing the public with free entertainment and occasional public services, I promise that you will leave there with a smile. Bring your honky red nose to fit in.

This place is — well — a bummer. This is where you go for temporary visas if you live in Paris and cannot get your new carte de séjour before the old one expires (this is frequently the case). The lines are normally long — but that’s life right?
Now they have shut down one of the other centers to treat temporary visa applications in Paris. So now you have to get here at 5am and wait for 4 hours before it opens — or risk coming later and having a line so long that you can’t get in at all… The best part is that this is not even for a real visa — it’s just a temporary one. Even with requesting an appointment 5 months prior to the expiration date of my present visa — I could only get an appointment one month after my visa expires.
It’s the same every year so basically I have to waste three days of my time annually just to be allowed to pay taxes in France. Such an incentive! One day to get a temporary visa, one day to ask for a real visa, and one more to go get the new visa! And that is if everything goes well… So where do my taxes go? I’d sure like to see a bit more invested in the visa system :-/