Bureaucracy, what bureaucracy

Today I went to see my accountant here in France. His name is M. Fraysse, which means that I always think of him as Mr Strawberry - I know, it would be spelled differently but it does sound the same. I have a French accountant because he understands the system and the rules and the law and I went to see him today to complete my first ever tax return for the business here - my return for 2008.

I am registered as a micro-enterprise. This form of business was introduced to simplify the tax regime for small operators like myself - below the TVA threshold, employing no staff etc.

I have always been told that French bureaucracy is a nightmare, but setting up the business couldn't have been easier - just two letters from M.Fraysse at the beginning of last year - one to the Mairie and one to the tax office.

Well the tax return was even easier - name, address, date of birth, UK address, type of business, turnover, signature - done - blimey. Did I need an accountant to do that? I guess so, I wouldn't have known that was all I needed to do without him.

So that meeting only took half an hour to do, and that included the ten minute formal introductory handshaking and the ten minute formal departure ritual of thanking and kissing everyone who happened to be passing through the office at the time plus the receptionists of course who had made the whole thing possible it seems - weird country. I just imagine everyone is so polite and then you walk out of the office and they all turn to each other and say 'What a wanker', or some such French equivalent, as soon as you have gone. Or am I being paranoid?

No matter - the tax return is done and we await to see what the damage is for payment in September. Not much is what I am hoping and am indeed led to believe - fingers crossed.

Apart from that it was a fairly usual sort of a day. One breakfast delivered at 8am to a very happy and grateful client who wanted to know where she could buy the fabulous fruit compote and granola (home made, so you can't, I'm afraid). One suite cleaned and prepped for new clients tomorrow. One visit to the market for fruit and a slice of calves liver for my supper (for the first time in two months I didn't buy any asparagus - I may have peaked on asparagus consumption for this year). One bike ride and sit-ups in a vain attempt to recover a figure that was last seen about 25 years ago. One set of sheets and towels ironed and aired in readiness for a room change tomorrow and finally, two games of boules in the evening sunshine - one won and one not won (lost, in fact).