The tip of the iceberg

Allow me to vent. France is a beautiful country, really a lovely place to live. But. It is a country in which no one can ever claim to be overworked. For example, today I tried to go to the prefecture to finally, finally pick up my Carte de Sejour (which was the world's most painful and involved process...paper work needed to hand in included: a letter from my land lord stating I lived in my residence, the contract of rent signed between my land lord and I, birth certificate, statements from my bank, letters of work contract from the government, a mandatory medical visit evaluation form, family tree, zodiac sign, blood test, palm reading, urine sample, retina scan, etc. etc.) however, the damn place was closed. At 4:15. Closed at 4:15 on a Friday. Can someone please explain to me how any normal working human being in France is supposed to be able to make the working hours of 9:15-12:15 (2 hour lunch break) 2:15-4:15? And why why why would you close such an essential office an hour early? This isn't the first time I've found myself vexed at the working hours of this office...of course I tried to make it to this office on Tuesday of this week and arrived during the normal working hours only to discover that the office was 'uniquely closed one hour early' that day. Similarly another office I tried to visit was closed 3 hours early every Tuesday and Thursday for 3 weeks. I should be used to this willy nilly approach to working but damn it, I'm not. I want stability, dependability, and less bureaucracy! But, like I said, France really is a lovely country. Really, it is.