My new Swiss Driving Licence

We are arriving at the end of our first year in Switzerland, which meant today we had a choice of either handing in our UK driving licences in exchange for a Swiss one or paying a fine and having to take a driving test. The driving licence was one of those small things we needed to get round to, but some how never had. It is the standard way of an expat. I laugh at myself because before I moved to Switzerland I knew plenty of expats in the UK who had to panic when the grace period on their driving licences came to an end.

Happy we are today then, since we have visited the Office cantonal des automobiles et de la navigation. We took with us a passport sized photo, a stamp from an optician to confirm we could see to drive, passport ID, residency permit and CHF150. The office kept our UK driving licences, and the CHF150. The office in Geneva is on the south side of the Arve, near Carouge.  Brilliantly the office building looks almost identical to the one I've visited before in the UK when I've had urgent business with the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority in the UK. It's like, in 1973 a architectural practice went out to all driver and vehicle offices in Europe and tried to sell them plans for a building.

The architects' sales pitch went something a long the lines of "look at this building, it's great! You've got exposed engineering brick, wood panelling and brown glazed tiles on the floor.  We'll even throw in a load of globe shaped orange plant pots with cheese plants and ferns in for you. Whadda ya' say?" Then the director of the office, whether he's English, Swiss, French or German, completely enamoured of cheese plants says a resounding yes to the plans, and from then on, the only place a European can get their driving licence, take their exam or register their vehicle is in a building that makes them think instantly of their favourite Fleetwood Mac record.

Amazingly the trip to the office only took 25 minutes, I was reminded a little of when I have to take a sticking plaster off my eldest daughter.  We have a full ten or fifteen minutes hopping around, complaining, declaring how much it will hurt, and then when you whip it off in five seconds she looks at me as though to say, what was the fuss? 

Getting our licence has been a similar experience for  us. We spent a year less four days not getting our driving licence, and then it took under three-quarters of an hour to do all the paper work and get the licence.  Last Saturday we arranged an optician's appointment, it took around 10 minutes and cost CHF20 each.  I had the form from him stamped and signed in less than fifteen minutes. Then today we did our passport photos, a cost of CHF8, and maybe that took five minutes.  So added to the time in the office we had it all done in only 45 minutes, and we were left wondering what all the fuss was about. 

It also got me to thinking about the many other small things that we should have got around to but have either yet to do, or took months and months to do. For example, buying a mobile and sorting out a broadband connection took less than a week, but putting a lampshade up in our living room took over six months. Interesting priorities!