French passports delay... a lit bit of France out of France!

Going to Florida (hopefully!) on vacation in just 7 weeks, I had to have my passport renewed. Any continental person not used to travelling outside of Europe won't have one of those (at least in the countries where an ID card is mandatory), so of course mine was expired by about 5 years!
Anyway... a day off and £23 later (train fee), here I am in Edinburgh looking for my Embassy!
11 Randolph Crescent, just off Princess Street, so far so good, it's right in the middle of the town.

But right then you know you're back in France!
I was feeling like I was back in my ol' university asking for a form or another... jeez I had forgotten just how slow the French administration is.

On top of that, I wasn't feeling too good going to 'France', I mean I left the country for a reason and just going to my embassy was like being back in my country... weird I know, but there you go!

Anyway... the French gouvernment has decided that we had to look stupid on the photos now! No smile, no fringe, a huge head... and if the distance between your headline and your chin is 1mm less than what it should be, your pics get refused!

But still, so far, so good... the person who dealt with my request was a really nice lady and you could see that she was willing to help me (she was Scottish, it might explain!). I've been asked weird questions but hey, you'd do anything to get a passport!

Even though I wasn't overly enjoying myself, it was still pretty ok, until I asked the question whose answer I dreaded... how long will it take to receive my passport? 6 weeks!
And bam, right there I was back in France facing its oh so slow way of dealing with everything!

So now it's fingers crossed, hopefully I will receive it on time to fly to Florida!

May I add that you can apply for a new passport or a replacement ONLINE in the UK... oh and yeah... they do have one of these options where you can get your passport urgently if need be, gotta love these guys!

A couple of tips to speed up the process (I'll let you know if they really work!):

- Pay for your passport (£42) on the day you make your request, otherwise you'll have to send the money at a later time and it will delay the shipment of the request to France where all French passports are made

- Do not hesitate to have your picture taken 2 or 3 times (happened to me), looks like your request could get very easily refused if the format isn't standard

- Specify to the person at the embassy that it's a urgent request and panic, it worked for me, she wrote urgent and the date I'm taking my plane on, on the form! ;-)

If you need more information of the French ambassy in Edinburgh or on passports:

- Official website of the Embassy