After saying goodbye to Suzanne and Stephanie, I needed a weekend pépère - a French expression for a relaxing, veg-out weekend. Saturday was spent in bed, living pépère to the fullest extreme.
Sunday, I felt rested and ready to be productive, so I headed to Rue Mouffetard to visit my friends at the market. After picking up my favorite strawberries, I decided to start delving into the heart of Paris - its shopping! Ok, I have to admit, the shopping in Paris is not quite as exciting as I had hoped. There are, of course, the expensive designer labels, but the affordable clothes are nothing that special. Regardless, they come from Paris so I had to indulge.
I strolled along Rue Mouffetard, picking up just a few goodies along the way. I know I just wrote that Dublin blog comparing the awful French dressing room girls and the sweet-as-pie Dublin girls, but Sunday, I was proved wrong. I went into this one boutique, and there were two sweet French girls around my age working. I told them I was looking for a certain outfit, and they spent 30 minutes dressing me up in dresses, belts, shoes, etc. It was the most fun I've had shopping since I arrived in Paris.
I'm reading this new book called ''Sixty Million French Men Can't Be Wrong'' - it provides insights into why the French are the way they are. In the first 50 pages, they discussed customer service at stores. According to the book (and I learned this soon after my arrival), it's polite to say bonjour and au revoir when you enter and leave a store. If you refrain, you are almost guaranteed bad service. Not that those magic words mean the French melt into a puddle of sweetness, but there's a higher chance they will be moderately helpful. However, the book says that in big department stores and chains, it's harder to exchange greetings when you enter, therefore, service is often poor. And it's true! In stores such as Zara and H&M - that's where the dressing room girls and sales representatives are awful. But in the smaller boutiques, though not overly friendly, there is a connection established and the facade of rudeness is lowered (slightly).
About Me
- Michelle Hershman
- Washington, D.C., United States
- Michelle Hershman has always been enthusiastic about eating, but it took her a little longer to become passionate about cooking because she wasn’t allowed to use the oven unsupervised as a child. Her first cooking experience involved baking a cake in the microwave. But, Michelle persevered. She attended Virginia Tech, where she received a Communications degree and mastered the quesadilla. Then, she headed to University of Richmond Law School, and when she wasn’t hitting the law books, she devoured cookbooks and food magazines. In 2007, she began a job as a Presidential Management Fellow with the Federal government. Her love of food reached an all-time high when she was sent to Paris for work. She spent four months eating creamy cheeses and crusty baguettes and frequenting farmer’s markets for fresh produce. She ate pasta in Italy, Hagis in Scotland and street food in Istanbul. She vowed never to eat a frozen dinner again. Now, she works as an attorney during the day and experiments with recipes for her food blog, Healthy Recipe Ecstasy, at night. In her spare time, she’s planning a wedding with her wonderful patient fiancé, Alasdair Cain.
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