"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."
Henry Miller
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| London Tower Bridge |
In 1989 my daughter was 20 years old. She had the opportunity to do a college semester in England, and since Shakespeare is her subject, it seemed the place for her to be. She flew over in January 1989 and did 4 months of studying. She had a flat in the Kensington area of London, and a room-mate. She was able to take advantage of some school trips that took them all over England and even up to Scotland. At the end of the semester her classmates and room-mate left for home, and I flew over to join her. That was my first trip to Europe. We had 3 weeks, no reservations anywhere because we decided we'd just “wing” it, and see where we went.
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| Eiffel Tower |
We stayed in London in her flat for the first 4 days, then took the train to Dover and the hovercraft over to France. The train from there took us into Paris (this was before the Chunnel was put in). We found a hotel in the Opera district of Paris, left everything there and headed out to explore the city. We took a boat up the Seine, the elevator to the top of the Eiffel tower and did all the things that a tourist does on their first day in Paris.
Parisians do not eat dinner until 10PM, so we had had a late lunch in order to eat at the proper time. We found a cute little restaurant that was near the Eiffel tower. As any good traveler should, I had learned enough French to greet the waiter and to ask if he spoke English. He assured me he did speak English, and we went from there. He asked if we would like something to drink. Now you may think that a 20 year old who is in a foreign country where the age requirements would allow her to drink, would order an alcoholic drink, which I would have had no problem with. But Kim has never been a drinker, and she really felt like a glass of milk, which is what she ordered. The waiter raised his eyebrows and turned to me, I ordered a glass of wine. He came back with his tray held high. He picked up my glass of wine and placed it before me and said “Wine for my lady!” He then picked up Kim's glass of milk (by the tips of his finger, as if it were distasteful) and in a kind of snooty voice said “And MILK for the baby!” He winked at me as he went by. I started laughing, but I thought Kim was going to crawl under the table. It still tickles me to this day, and is a favorite story of mine. It is a typical French reaction, and I love their sense of humor. I don't think Kim has ordered milk in a restaurant since that day.
You are right--I don't generally order milk in restaurants and maybe this IS why! That was a humiliating moment.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, we found the people in Paris extremely nice and not at all snobbish or rude, but this moment had the stereotypical attitude that tourists are told to expect but actually will seldom find if they are polite and learn a few phrases to help them get by in a foreign country!