Ahem there is a use for it. Or there was in the part-French banking house where I worked. It was used discreetly from to time by a third person not annonced in thr conversation, to listen in to both sides.
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Needless to say no response, so looks like snail mail for SAUR as well.
And snail is the appropriate adjective “International Tracked and Signed” is 3-5 business days, even to France - FFS it’s closer than Glasgow to my UK address! 
Could it speed things up if you email the letter to someone in France to print and post the letter for you? I’d be happy to help…
Thanks for the offer much appreciated, I’ll stick with Royal Mail for now - ultimately I have two one week windows in June and August when they could come and sort things out so, in many ways, a bit of delay now is not critical assuming that they can send someone in those windows.
I’m sure RM used to have a next day airmail service but that seems to have gone the way of the dodo.
Connected to @_Brian’s thought, the annoying emails I get from La Poste seem to suggest you can to a virtual recommande of sorts, you type your letter online and they get it to the recipient, presumably with proof of delivery etc, I’ve no idea how it works since it’s just from their marketing emails I know this lol, but it sounds like an interesting concept so might be worth looking into in future.
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Thanks, worth knowing.
I knew it would come in useful
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Thanks @KarenLot - I wasn’t aware of that and it could be very useful given the French love for communicating by letter.
Absolutely the results of PCR tests are faxed to the hospital!
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Just a thought seeing that my details were hacked from the scanner in Macon, perhaps they think that fax is more secure.
Our mairie in Corrèze doesn’t even do telephone. If you actually go to the mairie you get things done! It took me a while to find out about that.
On the other hand fintech works by mail and text message, so I have gradually built up my list of banks and investment houses that work the way I want them to.
Before the pandemic, actually going into pretty much any government office was better than any other means of contact. I was very disappointed that CPAM seem to have maintained the appointments only policy hereabouts even as the pandemic fades - and of course you can only make appointments by telephone! I do hope they eventually reintroduce the ‘just call in’ arrangement - during our early years in France we often struggled with official systems online or by post - but a visit always cut through the red tape, and the officials were always really understanding and helpful.
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Is this the case? I’ve never tried so I will certainly defer to you @Geof_Cox but there’s certainly a process in my Ameli space to make an appointment online, as I say I’ve never tried it so I’ve no idea if you get to a dead end and get told to call but there seems to be a drop down menu for you to pick the type of query, with a time allowance attached, to make an appointment online. Perhaps it depends on individual offices or something if you don’t have this option? I look at my Ameli account once a year at best, then only to check it’s still working lol, so I imagine everyone here has had more use of it than I have, but I had assumed the online appointment function worked.
Hi Geof, something must have changed because 2 days ago I made an appointment online from my ameli espace for RV at CPAM in 46
Is this perhaps in the same light as the Fisc in that different CPAM offices are autonomous and what works in one place might not in another?
Yes - exactly Graham - which is why I was at pains to say ‘appointments only policy hereabouts’ - and yes, for us @kirsteastevenson the Ameli site links do ultimately lead you to the telephone… at least they did a week or so ago - maybe it’s changed again in the last couple of days @KarenLot - but I’m not sure about other areas anyway.
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So that’s one window then as France is shut for business in August!
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It is what it is (on both sides of the equation).
Well, my letter still hasn’t arrived but - hate to say it - it seems to be La Poste which is dragging its feet.
The last status, from Tuesday (the day that I posted it) is
But no update since then.
Their tracking isn’t all it could be. I have seen that on items that have been sent to me when I’ve had the package in my hands for the last two days.