“Un grand échec” would be the French words I would used to describe my potential hat buying adventures yesterday. My friend Anne-Laure, who is getting married this September, offered to take me to the hat shop where she recently found and bought her had for the wedding this weekend. As we approached the bright green colored shop that neatly displayed hats of all colors and sizes in its two windows, I became overwhelmed by the beauty of these creations. “One hat, two hat, red hat, blue hat,” calling to mind the silly poem in the Dr. Seuss book. I forgot to bring both my shoes and my dress with me, so I had to try to describe in detail to the hat-lady and Anne-Laure the exact color of both. We decided that my dress was “midnight blue” and my shoes were a darker shade of beige. I quickly found a hat that I adored and the hat-lady offered to change the colors in order to match my dress for the currently model that I tried was black and turquoise. At this point, Benoit was on his way to meet us at the shop and put in his two sense about the hat. He quickly gave his approval and just as I was ready to say, “Je le prends,” “I will take it,” the hat-lady offered to give me the price. Grand total: 91 euros. Dollar equivalent: $132. Oof! That is more than double the cost of my dress. I told the lady I would have to think about it… a lot.
We went to a few other shops that afternoon, however, that’s the problem whenever you a foreigner looking for a hat on a low-cost budget because the euros to dollar exchange rate is so high and it is the middle of wedding season. “Il n’y a rien,” “There is nothing.” I now currently have three options to solve my hat dilemma: 1) Suck it up, bite the bullet, and buy a hat that would cost me about 2 and half days working at the Madison Club, 2) Go to a fabric store and see if I can find what is necessary to try and make a “hat-like creation” myself, or 3) Go and visit Benoit’s mother and see if she has a hat that a) she no longer wears, b) would match the color of my shoes and dress, and c) would fit my head.
Sometimes I feel like I left every comfort that I new in the United States for something completely unknown and different (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). For example, it has been cold and rainy since the day that I arrived in France and I am found without an umbrella and nearest store that sells umbrella is about a half of a mile walk…in the rain. Also, Benoit and I currently have no television connection and as of two days ago, I entered the wrong Internet password (three times), so now there is no Internet access either. Since most French businesses and enterprises do not open until 10am and close between 5pm and 7pm, Benoit has no time to call before or after work to fix it. We also find ourselves without a car—Benoit’s car died completely a week before I arrived—and the garage from where he bought a new one called him yesterday and said that it wouldn’t be ready for another two weeks. Benoit rides his bike to work everyday and since Nantes is currently doing construction on what seems like all of the roads in the center of down, the public transport runs less often. Yesterday, after our “hat escapades,” Benoit and I road home tandem on his bike, which is normally only meant for one person. I replaced the basket usually found behind the seat and Benoit did his best to pedal us both home safely.
I think that some of the things that I had eaten that day, definitely made up for my small disappointment about my hat and the soreness of the my legs from having to keep them propped up and out of the way to prevent them from hitting into the pedals of the bike on the ride home. Benoit and I had lunch together again that day and I surprised him by stopping by the pâtisserie and buying us a few macarrons for dessert. I chose a chocolate for me, a caramel and sea salt butter macarron for him, and a peach and a raspberry-violet one for us to try together. While shopping for a hat, we stopped by the bakery and I bought us each a “pain au chocolat” for a snack and for dinner that night, we had a tomato salad for an appetizers, veal cooked with onions and potatoes for the main dish, cheese, and a chocolate mousse for dessert. This wonderful 2 and half hour dinner was accompanied by a bottle of 2008 Bordeaux that we had bought for 3 euros and a strong discussion about capitalism. Trust me, it was more romantic than it sounds lol.
I love you and think of you often J
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