I Got Stopped by Border Patrol

Yesterday on my way back from CERN, I got stopped by border patrol. This is actually a much bigger deal than one might think. The border patrol have rarely (never on the French side) been there when I've driven through. I had no frame of reference on what to do. I thought that I was supposed to drive by slowly and keep going. That's what I had been doing when no one was there! Apparently, that is not the proper procedure. There were no cars in front of me to mimic, so I did the wrong thing and drove by without the nod of approval. As soon as I realized my mistake I stopped. A fairly nice (I mean I was in trouble) patrol officer told me that I was to stop at the border. ( I have never seen anyone stop.) Then his co-worker, a woman in aviators, came up and scowled at me through her sunglasses the whole time. I was so frazzled I forgot that yes, I had something to declare, which he quickly noticed in the back seat of my car. Thankfully, I just got a stern talking-to. But for those of you who know me, that was enough to ruin my day and make me feel like I was bad. I've never been pulled over in the States before, so I take these things hard. When I do something wrong I feel bad. Needless to say, you should stop or at least go super-duper slow at all border crossing.

Funny thing though, when I returned to the border about 3 hours later to pick up Ronny there was no one on the French side. I got a stern look from the Swiss side, just for effect, and that was it. I came to no stop. Ridiculous!