Wednesday, October 13, 2004
The Circus on a rainy day
If it's Wednesday then we must have spent the afternoon at the Jardin D'Acclimatation. Today something strange happened. I got two things free -- on purpose. While this might happen often in the US, with samples, for instance, this does not usual happen in France. The first incident happened while I was eating lunch with my son, his friend and my daughter. My son and his friend play golf at one, so I leave straight from school, find a parking spot, find a bench right outside of the golf school and have a picnic lunch. While we were eating, a man from the circus came by with a paper. Usually it's a phamplet for the show, but today it was to inform people that the new show was for FREE! What a wonderful way to spend 90 minutes. The kids had a great time, and it worked out well because it was raining when while the show was going on. After golf, but before the circus show started I bought 50 new tickets to use on the rides at the Jardin. I took four tickets out to give the man at the trampoline area (two tickets for 7 minutes on the trampoline -- a great deal) and he gave me two tickets back. My son could use the trampoline for free. I figured I probably misunderstood, but he insisted on giving me two tickets back. I was so flustered that I left my debit card, the carte bleu, with the man. He had to come up to the trampline platform (there are twenty trampolines) to give the card back. I think the reason might be that for the last three years my children have shown up every Wednesday after my son's golf lesson to jump on the trampoline. He must have felt like doing something nice today.
-- said Auntie M in Paris
6:11 PM