Fishing in France

A very persistent 12-year-old boy’s 24-step process for catching a fish from the Loire River:

1. Order a collapsable fishing rod and mini-tackle box from Amazon at the very last minute so it arrives the day before departure.
2. Pack these items in your dad’s shoe in an overstuffed bag
3. Research fish that you can catch from the Loire River on YouTube. Start daydreaming about the enormous fish you can catch there.
4. Fly to France.
5. Take a 3 hr taxi ride to a town near the Loire River.
6. Ask your mom to look for fishing line, that you failed to obtain before departing home, when she takes a taxi to the "Marche” for groceries the day after arrival in your new town. She tells you they don’t have it there.
7. Start French language school.
8. Walk (500 feet elevation drop and climb back) to the same grocery store with your dad and find entire fishing section there that your mom did not see. Purchase fishing line.
9. Research fishing license requirements in France.
10. By the third day of French class - begin asking your teacher about local fishing and where you can get a fishing license.
11. Your teacher tells you that a “carte de peche” in France can only be obtained from a bar that sells tobacco?!
12. Ask your teacher if you can just order the “Carted de Peche” online and use the school printer. She laughs at you and tells you that this is a very funny idea… but that France is quite unlike the USA in this regard.  When something, like a fishing license, requires a permit from the Government to be able to sell it - you will definitely have to go that exact place of business with said permit to obtain it.
13. Walk with your dad to the “Bar Tabac” that your teacher recommends. Use google translator app and your collective limited French to inquire about your fishing license. They tell you they don’t sell it but refer you to a bar in the nearby town in the valley closer to the Loire River. The exact name and location of this bar is unclear after your short conversation with the bartender.
14. Walk to the tourism office and ask about fishing licenses there. The kind lady there with good English will tell you that she hopes you can get a Carte de Peche from the same grocery store that you purchased your fishing line. 
15. Hike to the grocery store again. The check out lady there confirms that they sell fish but clearly they do not sell fishing permits.
16. Have dad rent bikes so you can ride to the nearby town in search of a licence. For 14 Euros per day he rents 7-gear bikes with not totally inflated tires.
17. Ride to the larger town in the valley near the river with your fishing pole in your backpack.
18. Use Michelin GPS map app to find the Bar Tabac that you think you were referred to by the bartender in your your town.
19. They will tell you they don’t sell fishing licenses but that a bar down the street does. They point you in the right direction but it is difficult to know what distance they are describing (hope they mean meters and not kilometers).
20. Find the "Bar PMU" they referred you to just a few hundred meters away.
21. Unbelievably - when you ask “Vendez-vous carte de peche?” the bartender says “Oui!”
22. Provide your name, date of birth and address and she disappears behind a door marked "Privee" for awhile and then returns with your official Carte de Peche!
23. Continue by bike to the Loire River.
24. Real in a barbel (smaller than the ones on YouTube) on the first cast!