One of the things I loved while visiting Paris was watching the people. It was made all the more interesting since I didn't speak the language. It allowed me to stretch my creativity and figure out what their stories were.
So I thought we could have some fun today. I'll introduce you to four people I watched while I was there and I want you to pick one or more of them and tell me what YOU think their story is.
1) A bird of a woman cut in front of us in the long line to Saint Chapelle, when only ten people stood behind us. She carried an oversized bag and inspected the sidewalk before setting her bag down in a very precise manner. Then she danced out of line and looked down the street in both directions until the line moved forward, at which point she danced back into line, grabbed her satchel, and inspected the next bit of sidewalk before carefully setting the bag down again. She repeated this routine over and over.
2) A 60ish-year-old man rode on my plane back to the U.S. He had a scruffy beard and glasses and traveled with a European tour group. Every twenty minutes or so, he stood from his seat and wandered the aisles, then stopped at a different row to speak to the person there (almost always female). I was traveling alone and about halfway through the flight, he stopped at my seat, gave me a smile that bordered on flirtatious, and said, "Parlez vous Francais?" I shook my head and said, "No, no je parle Francais. Je parle Anglais." He responded by giving me another icky smile and speaking in something that was definitely not French or English. I figured it out to be German and again, shook my head. Twenty minutes later, he stopped two rows in front of me and found a beautiful blond woman who happened to speak French. Need I bother mention that he spent a few extra minutes there?
3) While we ate supper at a cafe one night, a young couple rode up on their motor-scooter and sat at a table outside to grab a smoke. They didn't engage in the usual PDA found in Paris. About 15 minutes after they arrived, another guy came up to them and greeted the girl with a kiss on the lips then sat across the table. After that exchange, the girl put her hand on the original guy's shoulder and sat much more cozily with him (not touching Guy #2 at all after the kiss) until they all parted ways.
4) An older man got me belly laughing at a Christmas Market near the Eiffel Tower. Take a look at this video and focus on the man on stage. He practiced this routine over and over again. Dancing forward then backward, then taking a minute to coach himself before he did it again. I couldn't resist capturing him on camera. :) (I had to cut it short, though, 'cuz my camera battery was low.)
So tell me...What are their stories?
UPDATE: For those of you begging for more pictures (Casey and Sherrinda :)), here they are...
The view from our hotel room. Hey, don't accuse me of rubbing it in. You asked for them. :)
Inside Saint Chapelle (where Bird Woman cut in front of us in line...I promise I'm not bitter.)
Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe (It was beautiful at night with all the Christmas lights, but alas, my camera didn't take good night pictures.)
View from the Christmas market (Can't blame the guy in the video for dancing with this as his backdrop.)
Me in front of my future residence, The Palace at Versailles. Well, okay, the closest I'll get to living in a place like this is in heaven.
