Now we are official.

Our French license plates have finally arrived! Why, you may ask, is this such a happy occasion that it warrants its own blog post? Well, the answer is two fold:

1. We receive extremely weird looks everywhere we drive because of our Florida plates. While this is sometimes a fun conversation starter, it is not as fun when you are driving through customs into another European country or passing a police officer.

2. We (by we I mean Peter) have been in the process of jumping through all of the necessary hoops to apply for these plates for over 3 months. Quick example of one hoop....... To apply for French plates, the celica had to pass a "road readiness" inspection at a local garage. Of course, we were a little nervous about this, but it turned out okay. There were no large, costly issues that needed to be addressed. There were, actually, only two small things that we needed to do and the mechanic would sign our papers. The first was pretty simple, change the turn signal bulbs from yellow to white. Peter did a great job of figuring this one out and had it taken care of in a few days. The other, though, was a little tougher....okay, a lot tougher. Per the road inspection, we needed a license plate on the front of our car. This is required in France. We tried to explain that we needed to pass the road inspection so the embassy via the French government would issue us French license plates.

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I tried to explain that Florida doesn't require license plates in the front and I don't have French license plates because I need this inspection to apply for them. But to no avail... it made no sense to car inspectors. So, because I don't have French license plates on the front of my car, I am unable to apply for French license plates...to go on the front of our car.
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We pondered and laughed over this catch 22. Luckily, Peter came up with a great idea that involved a 3 ring binder, a large sharpie and a Black and Decker drill. We returned to the garage with our new turn signal lights and our home-made front license plate with our fingers crossed. The mechanic laughed, called our plate ridiculous, and signed the papers. But, now that we have our lovely front and back "plaques d'immatriculation" we are extremely proud. (and relieved.)