It’s All Maya!

Part Three

A week after the “dog incident” we were on the Champs-Elysées after we had climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe.  Our plan was to eat pastries and have tea at Ladurée. I mean, where else would we have gone for a lemon tart (which is my favorite), but to Ladurée! They have the best lemon tarts in Paris, believe me, I know! 

The only problem was we were running late.  We had a rendez-vous with Jean-Pierre in an hour’s time to meet up at a restaurant near Beaubourg and eating pastries right before dinner was inconceivable to any French person!  So, we bought the pastries to go and one for Jean-Pierre as well.  We had a really nice dinner at Le Chant des Voyelles on the terrace and it was a perfect evening; the weather was just gorgeous.

After dinner we decided to walk over to the Pont des Arts and eat our pastries on the bridge looking at the Seine.  The Pont Neuf and the Ile de la Cité on one side, and the Eiffel Tower and part of the Louvre on the other side.  It was almost midnight when we arrived and there were as many people on the bridge that night as there had been at noon the day before, but we found an empty bench to sit on and opened the Ladurée box.

I gave Katia her raspberry tart, Jean-Pierre his lemon tart, Patrick his berry fruit tart, and I took out my lemon tart as well.  The four of us were swooning in Ladurée pastry heaven as we sat there eating, when all of a sudden this young guy tries to take a raspberry from Katia’s tart!

“Oh, can I have a raspberry?!” the kid said, already hovering his finger over Katia’s tart.

Katia said, “No!”

“Just one raspberry.” the young guy continued, still holding his fingers in mid-air over her pastry.

“No,” I said, “let her eat her tart.”

“I just want a raspberry.”

Katia had moved her tart to one side away from him and I repeated, “No, let her eat her tart, she doesn’t want to give you any.”

Patrick at this point said to him, “Casse-toi!”  Which, in a not too nice way, was telling him to get the hell out of here!

The kid got angry and said to Patrick, “You don’t have to talk to me like that!  I asked the girl nicely and what makes you talk down to me like that?”

I interjected, “Look, we told you nicely three times that she doesn’t want to give you any.  Why don’t you just go and leave us alone?”

“I’m hungry,” he told me.  “My mother died a few months ago and now I’m living on the streets.  You,” he motioned to me, “you’re okay, but your husband has no right talking to me like that.”  At this point he goes up to Patrick and takes a swing at him.  Patrick had a quick enough reflex to move and the kid missed, but it happened so fast and unexpectedly.  The kid then just walked away.  A good thing too, because no one was expecting it and all four of us were sitting there with our half eaten pastries!

As he walked away, he told Patrick, “I’m not through with you, I’ll deal with you later!”  We did keep an eye out for him when we left, but we didn’t see him again.

It wasn’t until we were on our way home that night that Patrick and I were talking about how strange it was.  Afterall, in 37 years I had never met any agressive Parisians, and then in a matter of days, first we encounter the man with his dogs, and then the young guy on the bridge that I said, “Oh my God, those were the two rats that you and Katia saw on her first night in Paris!”  Each incident concerned Katia and each time Patrick had to come to her rescue.  Although I was also there, it was like I was never the one in danger, …..perhaps because I had refused to look at the rats, Michelle might have said. 

Maya Muses:  Michelle, wherever you are, we should have paid more attention to you!  When you read the tarot cards and would go off on your political rants about Mitterand, and you said Chirac would be the next President of France after Mitterand, everyone thought you were nuts!  And when you said some crazy guy would follow Chirac,… we definitely should have paid attention!  I know I should have!  I would certainly take notes now!  Everything that I can remember that you told me in the cards, has come true, but you were seeing things so far into the future that no one in our circle of friends took your predictions seriously.  What a pity!

Photo Credits: Google Images, Flickr and Personal Photos