Young Americans in Paris Part VII

My pockets bulged with all the Francs I carried. I stopped a child and offered him a thousand Francs for his back pack. He quickly emptied it out and sold it to me. After all the exchange rate was good so I basically paid 125 USD for a child’s USD back pack. I then went to a couture shop. I remember it as well as it was Loius Vuitton. In the window there was a sign, “No Jews”. But it seemed there were quite a few Jews going in and out of it and a few working there as well. I waited until the shop was empty and there was only the sales girl on the floor. And then I went in my ghastly American clothes.

In French I asked her if I could rent an outfit and told her I would make it well worth her time. She looked at me up and down and then came out with three outfits. I tried them all on and found a gorgeous red dress I adored. The girl pinned me into it. There were not time for alterations and she assured me the dress would have to be back by tomorrow as the purchaser would be back the day after to pick it up.

This dress was to die for and it had a very lovely wrap that accompanied it. But I had no shoes. The sales girl went into the back of the store and can out with shoes they have on hand for the models. I tried them on and they were exquisite as well.

I paid the sales girl a large sum of cash and stuffed all my American belongings in the back pack I had just bought and headed to for the Euro rail station.

At the locker at the Euro rail station I pulled all the cash out of the brief case and it was considerable. I put my America clothes in the brief case and then the money, out traveler’s checks and the passports in the tattered back pack. We would pick up the back pack on the way out of town. And without passports Stephan could do nothing with either of us. I then locked the locker and carried the brief case out of the train station with me.

I returned to the restaurant which I had picked up the brief case. I was certain it was missed. Confident that no one would recognize me in my beautiful Loius Vuitton dress I dropped the case off and collected the billet and had a cup of coffee. When the gentlemen returned for his case he would only find American clothes. And given the large sum of money he would be returning. I finished my coffee and left for Café’ De Flore on St. Germaine but this time I took a cab.

As the cab raced through the streets of Paris I was struck with a pain of grief. Paris had not been at all how I had hoped it would be and I couldn’t really even blame the Parisians. This was American on American action in Paris. But it would end tonight and tomorrow I would be on my way to Nice to finally start my very French holiday.

And then I realized that I was in a beautiful dress and on my way to a wonderful supper. How could I possibly feel sorry for myself? Besides I had several hundred thousand francs in a locker at the Euro rail station. It was not the French holiday I planned for but one I could still manage to enjoy.

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