Shopping with a "Parisienne"

I've never been one for style, but one of my goals for this trip to Paris was to buy one of those striped shirts they always wear. One day right when I had gotten here, Alix and I went to the Berthillon salon de thé, and I told her about that goal. She told me I was crazy, that it was just a stereotype, and that not EVERY French person has one of these shirts. Then we walked out of the building and three people on that street alone were wearing them. When Alice was here, I told her I wanted to buy one, and she actually gave me a very useful piece of information: these shirts have a name, and are called Marinières. So, armed with that fact, I went to a store that I had seen every day on the walk to my study abroad program. It's a store called Armor-Lux, and the sign is a Marinière. I figured it was a good place to start. 

So, I walked in and started looking. Unsure of the sizes, I picked up a 5, because that seemed reasonable. A woman came over and asked if I needed help, and then she started laughing when I showed her what I had picked. Apparently I'm a 3 at the absolute most, that a 5 is for fat people! I almost said that I was American so she would reconsider that sentence, but I was so thrilled she seemed to think that I was only a totally inept French person. She didn't attempt to speak English even once. Anyway, I tried on a 3 and a 2, and actually bought both because I really like them. This is not me being a francophile! I used to wear shirts like this all the time in middle/high school, but with a basic color and white stripes. The difference with the Marinière is that it's a white shirt with thin stripes of another color. I got blue and a maroon. One short sleeved and one 3/4 length. I will wear one today!! The 3/4 length sleeve one most likely, given this might be my last chance to wear that without sweating bullets this summer. I have a feeling it will be unbearably hot in Italy. 

After that, I went to Longchamp to buy purses for Americans. This was an ordeal!! Really. I didn't mention with the Marinières, but a few days ago, the "soldes" began. In Paris, possibly all of France even (they were in Avignon at the same time as well), there are two giant sales a year. And not just at certain stores, but EVERYWHERE. I got my mom a 300€ purse for 200€ if you want an example. Normal Longchamps weren't discounted. In any case, the store was a madhouse. There were tourists of every nationality being helped by salespeople speaking their own languages. It was so impressive. I saw a French saleswoman speaking Japanese. And a French salesman speaking Spanish. And of course they were all speaking English. 

Finally, last night I went shopping with Andréa after she got off from work. In case you don't know about Andréa, she is half French and half Portuguese, so totally bilingual with those two languages. Besides those, she speaks Spanish, Italian, and English. I don't think she'd say she speaks them perfectly, but I've chatted with her in English and Italian and I can vouch for them. I guess it's true that once you learn a fourth language, additional ones become easier. I really need to learn a new language next year! Well, we met at her favorite store, Mango. It's Spanish, like Zara. She was late (which I expected, being half French and all), so I already had a few things in my hands by the time she arrived. And after examining my findings, she told me I had good tastes!!

To explain how much of a compliment that is, think about your mental image of a Parisian woman, or a Parisienne as we'd call them here. Please, take the beret off. That is the only part of the stereotype that is wrong. Other than that, you should be picturing a tall, thin, dark-haired, stylish woman, with a scarf, nice dress, nice shoes, possibly the Marinière if she's dressing down that day, a cigarette, red wine. Well, this is a stereotype, can't be completely accurate. Andréa doesn't particularly like scarves. Sure, she has a bunch and wears them, but she tends to go without more often than most Parisiennes. She prefers white wine too. What can you do? Her tastes in clothes is otherwise impeccable, and I have NEVER seen her dressed anything less than exceptionally. So, when she told me my choices were good, I squealed for joy internally. 

Mango was even crazier than Longchamp. There was just mass chaos, and so many of the good things in the good sizes were already gone. The line for the dressing room was longer than the Berthillon line was yesterday to put things in perspective. Actually, there was no Berthillon line yesterday, also they recognized me and said: "Hey, weren't you just here yesterday? And the day before? Are you coming tomorrow??" Just in time for me to leave! Well, I ended up buying a really classy-looking navy blue dress with a belt to go with it, and a pink/orange shirt all for about 80€! I love the "soldes"! Especially since, to my American native English-speaking brain, it sounds like everything is already sold! 

After shopping, we headed over to Opéra to go to a fancy French café for a glass of wine. She said that way, we'd be really parisiennes. I should have taken a picture of this café, but I'm sure that real parisiennes aren't tourists. So I restrained myself. Eventually Jérôme met us and the spell was broken...we went to Indiana and got dinner. Clearly, he's not parisien.