Think about the irony

I won't stop chiropracting unless you think about the irony. Sorry for the non-Simpsons fans out there, but I had to make the reference.

Anyway, getting to the irony of the situation:

In 12 years of driving I have never had a speeding ticket. I have slid a couple of cars off of the road - never hurt the vehicle, people or small animals. I have been stopped by the cops twice in the US. Once when I was 18 at 2 in the morning. I was speeding, sure, but the cop was nice and let me go. The second time was at 19 or 20. I got clocked at 78 in a 65. The cop again was fairly nice and I got away with a "failure to obey a traffic device." 2 points and 60 bucks. No big deal.

Anyway, I've been in France for a little over 2 and a half years now. For the first 2 years and 5 months I had a US driver's license that allowed me to drive, but gave me virtual impunity from any traffic related issues - yeah if I got caught speeding or whatever, I would have had to pay the fine, but let's face it, the French government isn't going to contact the NYS authorities to say that I have been speeding or running stop signs. In this time I never had any problem with the French authorities. Now that I am married to a frenchwoman, I had to apply for a French license - I had one year from the date of my marriage - so I had until September 24th 2006 to do this. I figured it was better to do it sooner, rather than later. I spoke with many people about the issues of getting a French driver's license. I couldn't transform my NYS one into a French one because of asine bureaucratic rules. So I moved to CT in October and applied for my own French license in December of 2005. I received my wonderful pink (I don't know why pink) license on the 31st January of 2006. On the 17th February I was clocked at 62kmh (~39 mph) in a 50 (around 31 mph). DAMN IT! Less than 3 weeks! Ok, it's not the same as in the US. I only got 1 point (out of 12) and your insurance premiums are not based on any moving violations that you have - so I really only have to pay the hefty 90 euro fine, but I just can't believe the terrible timing of this freaking ticket!