The Saga of the Titre de Sejour, French Paperwork in 4-parts. Part II

We submit our visa application to the French Consulate in Andorra (the last place we lived). It’s September and we are 4 months into the 2-month process (there was July and August in there – when nothing is done...summer holidays, you know).  The French Consulate says we must come in person for an interview. Fine, I could always do with some shopping.  They didn't actually need to talk to us; they just needed us to give them the '90 euros each' processing fee.
How long, we ask. Ten days, they answered.  Fifteen days later, they said: Who told you such a silly thing, it's always two months.  Everything in France takes two months.  So we wait two months. I sent a fax asking the status. I am told it is ‘en cours’ (in process). Another month goes by…another fax….another reply ‘en cours’.  Then it’s Christmas. Nothing is done over the holidays, which start on December 8 and go through January 6 (Remember, it’s the Andorran workers we are dealing with. They celebrate the French holidays, the Spanish holidays and the Andorran holidays.)
It’s January, 9 months into the process.  I send an e-mail as well as a fax asking the status. I get an e-mail back ‘What visa?’ Hmmmmm this could be a problem….  I gathered up copies of everything and faxed it off. ‘We’ll look into it immediately’ was the response. Now, for some reason, I have their attention.  It seems the file was ‘misplaced in the Paris office’ somehow but they (the Andorran people) would follow up closely. I start to receive status e-mails every other day informing me that, while they still do not have the visas, they are monitoring the progress through the paperwork maize.  In the beginning of February, we finally receive the joyous news: our visas will, in fact, be issued on the 14th of February and we may come by the consulate to collect them on the 15th.
We drop the dogs at the kennel and off we go to Andorra.      Part III on Friday