4/22/11

Pardon my "French" on this Good Friday

Ladies and Gentleman, it's Good Friday and I'm about to do a good bit of cursing. I held back on assaulting an elderly man today, so I feel as if the cursing about to follow will be forgiven for the good behavior I demonstrated in front of the children today.
Welcome to my day.
Walking the isle in my local grocery store with the kids right in front of me, I see an elderly man, about 70+ looking at tuna. He looks up and in English says, "How are you?" I say, "Fine thank you. How are you?" His reply, "I don't care."
I shit you not, it felt like a knife went through my chest, a literal heart pain. Many, many things go through my head as I stop and look him in the eye, but I have children within ear reach and I'm trying my hardest not to raise assholes in a city filled with them. I simply say, "That's not nice" and cowardly walking away he says something in a language I don't understand or recognize. Then in French without any accent but very smug, he was pure French, not a transplant like myself, he says, "I bet you don't understand Afrikaans" (Nope, he was not African) and continues walking away slowly. So in French, I say, "No, I don't understand Afrikaans, BUT, I DO understand French."
It was effortless as it came off my tongue. I was proud.
He turns, gives a surprised smile and the Universal French I still don't give a fuck shoulder shrug and walks off. In my head I said many things after this...
Sadly, this sort of behavior does not even surprise my kids. I'm telling you it's Paris, it's not France. In the North they are nice. In the South they are nice. In Paris they can be downright assholes, but cowardly assholes. That's the thing about them, they have quick tongues and high and mighty thoughts about themselves, but NOTHING to back it up. They can't even look you in the eye when they behave badly.
It gets better, it always does.
On the way home from the store he is walking down our street. I give him a I don't give a shit smirk either and say, "Look kids, it's the grumpy old man from the store." You know what the little SOB says!? "Yes."
This time the kids happily made fun of the way he said Yeeesss. The man from the grocery store who does my deliveries was walking with me pushing the cart down the street and starts laughing. So I tell him the story of what happened in the store and of course it doesn't surprise him at ALL. The best part, he IS African and a "foreigner" like me and totally understood.

While I'm at it, let's talk about the metro today.

A lady boards the train and announces she does not want any money, she just wants to sing on this evening of Good Friday. She not homeless, not dirty, just a happy Christian woman on line 8 singing "OH Happy Day".

This really did not sit well with the woman of my same age across from me. True to Paris style, making no eye contact with anyone she jumps from her seat and pretty much says "Oh fuck, not this". Lady, it is Good Friday! There is a reason behind all of those chocolates in the windows right now in the streets of Paris, plus this three day weekend you are about to enjoy is for a reason as well and it's called JESUS. As the doors open she rants something else, of course not looking at anyone, and then jumps into the next train. Can you say coward?
Paris people, if you're going to be an asshole, be a brave one for crying out loud!!!
Cheers and thank you for this therapy session.
We are off for a weekend of camping in the trees, I swear I will be nicer when I return.

2 comments:

Mary said...

You handled the old FART quite well, as to the witch on the metro it's too bad the door didn't slam on her head,arm,leg...some part of her body!!
Take lots of treehouse pics & enjoy getting out of Paris.
Love ya & Happy Easter!!

patty said...

Hahahaha, my sister and I are laughing at your blog post! :) Well done Peg. Next time, try kicking their can out from under them accidently. :) South Africans can be real arseholes. I've met a few!