Paris Incident
Posted on April 14, 2004
Last summer my mother and her husband spent 3 weeks traveling through out England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France. I got a call a few days after they arrived home and 90% of the conversation revolved around an incident in Paris. This was saved as a draft but somehow I forgot to publish it, so here it is. I asked them to write it in their own words.
"While on our trip to Paris, Elaine and i walked miles seeing the many historic sights of this beautiful and exciting city. One sunny day on a busy street we were approached by an excited Japanese couple who literally swarmed us and began pleading for help. Through hand signals and a brochure they held plus a few English words which seemed to consist largely of " thank you very much ",it became clear what they wanted.The brochure featured a display of designer handbags which were on sale for exorbient prices in a trendy and expensive looking store [luis vuitton] across the street.It was the kind of store i would normally avoid at all costs.
They wanted us to buy two purses for them. Apparently it was store policy to limit one to a customer, and since they had already bought one each they could buy no more. They desparately wanted another two, desparate enough to peal out 700 Euro dollars from a large roll and press it upon two astonished strangers. Elaine and i considered for a moment and with a shrug said " okay, what the heck". The store was staffed by well dressed and snobish looking sales people and security guards. We were informed it would be an hour wait in a long line; an hour we could ill afford from our precious time in Paris. However the deed was done and completed by handong over the purses and change to two very grateful Japanese. 700 Euros is over $1000 Canadian. It would have been so easy to walk away with it. However, they had chosen wisely.
The very next day we were astounded to be approached by another Asian couple making a similar request. Needless to say, we politely refused and walked quickly away. "
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