Midweek voyage

A few weeks ago, the MGEN (the mutuelle, our supplementary health insurance) sent all the assistants in Martinique a letter saying that because we hadn't sent them our (nonexistent) payslips, our subscription rates would be raised to 1089 euros. Up approximately ten and a half times from the 104 euros it was supposed to be.

And on Thursday, I was called in to the official "hygienic site" of Martinique for the official visite médicale to validate our visas. There, they wanted to do both a chest x-ray and a skin test to determine that I didn't have TB. But I've already been in the country for four months, so if I have TB now, I've already contaminated everyone.

The point is that to régler all this, I had to take a midweek field trip to Fort de France. I stayed there for two days and consequently had a lot of time to kill.

Just for fun, I took pictures of all the stores in the downtown area named after American places. There are, surprisingly, a lot of them. In no particular order:

Wall Street.

Miami Beach. For one reason or another, Miami is EVERYONE'S dream vacation here.

New York Ave. Complete with the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline, at left.

Beverly Hills.


San Diego, CA.

Here's a bonus one, not taken in Fort de France but in the Galleria, the huge shopping center in Lamentin.

MGEN à la merde

Warning: This post is purely for complaining. I have lots of lovely, lovely things to say at another time.

Ok, so I got the 34304854021 letter that MGEN has sent to me, requiring the 2453445431 photocopy of x document for their files (they have got to have links to the French equivalent of the FBI). MGEN is a type of supplementary health insurance that they recommend you buy (it covers things like the dentist, the eye doctor, and is supposed to lower your co-payment).

So, in the letter, they asked me for a copy of my birth certificate and I also needed to include a copy of the letter they sent me. Why? Who knows. There is one copy of the letter for me and another copy I need to send back to them. So basically they sent me paper that they want back, but I don't need to change anything on the paper. I just need to add more paper.

Wouldn't you know...the envelope they provide for you to mail back the stuff is too small! Their own letter that you have to mail back barely fits in the envelope...and my birth certificate? Um, yeah right.

Somebody please explain.