Packing and politics à la poste

Since I'm going back to England tomorrow (tragic, I know!), I thought it would be a good idea to pack... So today I got up nice and early, 7h45 to be precise, and packed/tidied my apartment. Isn't it nice when your apartment gradually becomes magically larger yet at the same time easier to navigate? It's also rather fun discovering objects that I'd mislaid and forgotten about under thick layers of clothes, paper and/or Penicillium chrysogenum. For example, I found my violin rosin, which may actually be cello rosin, but that's a different story, my parker pen, and a roll of bin liners.

This morning I went to the post office to post a letter saying I wanted to leave my apartment with accusé de reception. When I arrived, there was a heated argument taking place between a woman and a man. Although I missed the beginning, to my palpable disappointment, from what I could gather is that the woman made a comment to the man behind her about how long the man in front was taking. I find that French people, who are usually reserved in supermarket queues, etc., make an exception at the post office and start talking to people around them (or maybe that's just what happens at my local post office). Anyway, the man heard her make a comment, and thus the argument began in haste. By the time I arrived, the argument was very heated, especially from the lady, much to the amusement of on-lookers, who were muttering among themselves. It even became racist, with the man saying "Je suis français!", with the woman who was from an ethnic minority shouting back, "C'est quoi, 'français, c'est quoi?", and then the woman serving the man got involved, saying that one of them would have to leave. The woman originally involved started muttering something about Sarkozy, I didn't catch what, but I'm sure it wasn't positive. What Sarkozy had to do with an argument at the post office, I'm not exactly sure. I think he might have been made into a scapegoat somewhat in this example.

Sarkozy - the cause of all our problems?

Anyway, I got posted my letter with accusé de reception. Even though I knew what it meant, I simply could not think of the English translation. On the way back it struck me: proof of postage. Bizarre the way our brains work.