In our great European adventure we finally arrived in Paris. Wow! we couldn't believe we were in the City of Lights, we felt like this was a dream, soon enough, though, the Parisians brought us down to reality. As we tried to use our dictionary French, they let us know that our pronunciations were not to their liking.
I wouldn't say they were rude and nasty--but rather condescending as in: oh, look at the dumb Americans, they can't even speak the right way! but we didn't care one bit, and actually--just to annoy them--- kept mispronouncing the words on purpose--take that you snobs!
Anyway we really loved the food and the wine, say what you will, but the French have some of the best foods and wines in the world, and Paris is a beautiful city. So we decided to enjoy the culture and the place and ignore the nasty people.
In that spirit, we decided that to live the classic fantasy, we just had to east lunch at this really nice outdoor cafe near the Eiffel Tower, and picked a table that would give us a clear view to it. Dictionary in hand, we scanned through the menu and ordered some really good food and wine. We felt so cosmopolitan that we forgave the waiter for his bad attitude and just enjoyed the meal.
We got caught in talking about this and that, and then one of the group reminded us that, hey, we had a train to catch, so we just collected our stuff, go up--pushed the chairs back, and just started walking down the sidewalk towards the Tower.
As we are walking, we hear somebody shouting: Monsieur, Mademoiselle, Madam!--we start laughing--look at that crazy man run! wonder what's wrong with him? So we stop, and the man catches up to us--panting, he says--thank goodness I caught you..what are you doing? trying to get me fired?! We look at him--what in the world are you talking about? Do not play the fool with me--he says, you people ate the big lunch, and then just casually walk away without paying! that's what!
We stood there shocked, oh no--we had been so busy talking, that we genuinely forgot to pay the bill. We tried to apologize, but the waiter wouldn't hear it. You must come back and talk to my boss! I do not believe any of you--you hate us and tried to eat for free--but I was wise to your tricks--now you must pay!
Fine, we said, so we went back to the cafe, kind of placed the blame on the snippy waiter and paid the bill. The whole incident made us agree that the act the waiter put on was so entertaining that we gave him a really nice tip, just to spite him--as he was looking daggers at us while mumbling stuff about miserable Americans...
