It was a weekend, and Kevin (our director), had come to take us on a brief visit of Paris. We exited the hostel in our very obviously American group, chatting and laughing loudly. But so what: after all, we were lodging on the Boulevard Saint Michel, which is famous for being a tourist area. Suddenly a French man of about 25 stopped me and said rapidly: “Excusez-moi, madame, mais vous êtes tombée votre sourire juste-là.” Taken completely by surprise (sometimes when you’re jolted into a French conversation, your head takes a moment to make the transition), all I could manage was a “Pardon?” The man promptly repeated his line in English: “I think you dropped your smile just there.” Again taken by surprise, I laughed and he triumphed: “Oh, it’s back!” And that was that. It wasn’t creepy, he didn’t push the subject, and I even though I was initially worried that maybe he was trying to distract me and take my purse (after hearing all the stories, you can’t help but feel paranoid, even when it’s entirely illogical), it was very amusing. Even Kevin, who’s lived in France a long time, commented grandly: “Pas mal.” And that was the beginning of many, many more interesting conversations with Frenchmen.
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