After we moved here, the wife and I set out one morning to get our DLs moved to this state. I had gone on line and found what we needed, it was a fair bit. With considerable trepidation and expecting the day to be shot, we ventured downtown to the DMV, parked, went inside, took a number, and sat down to wait. It was not overly crowded, there were maybe 30 people waiting, but they had 6 or 7 windows open and were processing people rather quickly. We were called up after about 20 minutes and they processed us quickly and we walked out with our new DLs, 30 minutes max. The wife was stunned, I was surprised.
She said that would have taken all day in France, and we'd probably have had to come back another time.
I was witness to a house sale in France, it is arduous, takes months, there is no single closing, it has step after step after step. And you get taxed.
