How'd you do that?

To obtain a long-stay visa in this wonderful country there are about 56 steps to go through. While there are multiple steps that happened previosly (visa paperwork, trip to Chicago to get said visa, visa sent back to me, filling out paperwork again in France, copying info from passport to send in again and then having a letter sent back to me) now I am at the stage where I get to walk all over the city taking care of miniscule pieces of paperwork. Yesterday a friend who had already started the process gave me the phone number for the x-ray office where I need to get a chest x-ray (I don't know why). So I called and scheduled an appointment, which was not without utter confusion (side note: the French are hard to understand in person, almost impossible over the phone). Anyway, got the appointment for this morning at 11. Went at 10:56 and was done by 11:02. Fantastic. X-ray in hand I walked to the office to schedule the appointment to get a physical. It took me 25 minutes walking to get from one building to the next. No where in the city usually takes more than 15. The places aren't close is the point. I get to the building and go into the office to schedule the appointment. When I arrive I ask to schedule an appointment. The guy immediately becomes confused because I have my x-ray in my hand. (in an envelope, but he recognizes the envelope). He immediately thinks I have already scheduled an appointment and am there for the actual visit. I tell him no, that I need to make the appointment and he's essentially dumbfounded and asking me how I got an appointment for the x-ray and not the doctor, because usually people have to schedule appointments through him, to schedule both appointments, and then proceed. I skipped a step because I had a friend that had already been give me the phone number. It literally took this guy about 2 minutes to get a grasp that I had skipped a step. So American of me. Didn't I realize that it was his JOB to schedule appointments? (don't worry he didn't say any of this, he was really really nice, just confused how I could possibly have not seen him first to get an appointment) Anyhow, after I semi-explained what happened, he just kept saying "Ce n'est pas grave" and "C'est bon". ("It is not serious" and "It is good"). Got my appointment for next week. I'm progressing through the checklist quite nicely.