Thursday, February 21, 2008

My Friend Miss Vancouver

So I have this friend Amy here in Paris and she has been my partner in crime in many of my Parisian escapades and we've jokingly nicknamed her Miss Vancouver. Initially, she protested against the nickname but now she pretty much embraces it. If you met Amy you would realize how fitting the nickname is on so many levels. For the record, I consider Amy one of my really god friends here in Paris.

Now, with that said, I must put Amy on blast. Several weeks ago when the sales started Amy decided that she wanted to buy a new pair of boots. I agreed to tag along with her as a shopping buddy to offer feedback on any purchase. We travelled to multiple boutiques and large department stores but were unfortunately unable to find the specific style boots that she was looking for. About a week before the sales were to end Amy asked that I accompany her to the mall in the St. Lazare area. I insisted that there was no other mall in the area that we had not already checked out yet she assured me that a mall existed and went on to explain that it was fairly large and that it had 7 floors of stores. Intrigued I agreed to meet up with her. After waiting for Amy to arrive for 15 minutes we walked down Boulevard Haussman to the address that Amy had identified. To make a long story short the "mall" that Amy was referring to was actually les Galeries Lafayette. Folks, les Galeries Lafayette is not a mall rather a large upscale department store.

Fast forward to today. I had recently purchased some books for a language course at Gilbert Jeune. After purchasing the books I decided to change the course I was taking and this in turn required that I had to buy new books. Amy is taking a language course as well but hers is located in the St. Germain area. Since Amy and I were hanging out today I decided to go with her to class and then stop by the bookstore nearest there. I go into the store, asked someone for assistance, picked up my books and went to the register. In French I told the cashier that I wanted to do an exchanged because I had purchased the wrong books. The man looked at me like I was absolutely crazy because I wasn't in Gilbert Jeune, I was in Gilbert Joseph. That's like trying to return a book purchased from Barnes and Noble at Borders. I scraped up any dignity that I had left and walked out of the store all the while cursing Miss Vancouver in my head.

3 comments:

islandgirl4ever2 said...

C'etait tres rigilo!
Demain je pars en Pologne... on va se voir pendant les vacances, j'espere... A bientot... Leesa

Euronewyorker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Euronewyorker said...

Hi, I found your blog through a link from another one (Passementerie) and I love reading about your adventures in Paris. Bon Courage, fellow New Yorker ;)