I was in the Opera neighborhood today, cursing the rain and the fact that I had to go in person to sign papers…you know, one of those many sets of papers you have to sign in person with 12 forms of ID to get anything done in France.

But then something happened that made me appreciate the Byzantine bureaucracy of this country. I lost my wallet at Monoprix. An eagle-eyed cashier found it, and immediately counted the money inside and documented the cards in it. She then passed it on to management, which did the same thing–I imagine, so that in case an employee decided to snag a Carte Orange or a few euros, they would know at which step it happened. An hour later I got the wallet back with everything in it–after, of course, signing the Lost & Found notebook with the words “Remise en Main Propre” (“Returned in hand.”). Thanks, Monoprix.