I had my first encounter with the infamous truculent French waitress of accepted cliche today and I loved it…sat down outside a bar over the river from where I am now.Pretty empty,waitress strolls over and I asked for a grande beer,I can tell straight away she’s unimpressed.Brings the beer,puts the receipt under the ashtray and stays there with her hand out “oh you want me to pay now?” “Of course” The bill is €7 and luckily I had loads of change so I painstakingly count out my 50,20 & 10 cents making a few mistakes on the way cos’ this is a game now and neither of us is backing down.Meanwhile she’s side on looking into the distance palm still outstretched and I’m sure she tapped her foot a few times…so all good,I drop the coins in her palm,she equally painstakingly counts them and looks at me “Merci” as dry as you like.So I give her the cheeriest “ Merci” I can muster…then it got truly awesome…
I’m sitting at a table next to the door,an American couple come to the door as my personal Medusa is going back in “Excuse me miss can I use the restroom?” A sharp turn and “quoi?” “Your restroom,you know bathroom,B.A.T.H.R.O.OM” “Non” and with that she was gone and the ashen faced woman looked at me and all I could do was give her my best Galic shrug…it was a tour de force and I loved her for it all…
Got two important things done today.Laundry & yet more train reservations.Both turned out pretty cool.Laundry close to the hotel like Trieste and like Trieste I was the only one there and could suss out how to use it.If it’s empty I can take my time and work everything out,if not I get flustered & embarrassed about not knowing what to do( sounds daft but hey ho)anyways all clean again…
Went to the mainline station for my reservation for the French leg of my trip to the Black Forest on Friday ( I think it’s only French & Italian trains that do this) The train I wanted had one seat left in first class.I explained my Interrail was 2nd class.The girl held her finger up and printed my seat ticket( a thin paper ticket) and then handed me a thick cardboard ticket “ you are now first class” Libertre,Egalite,Fraternite…
Talking of the Age of Enlightenment I’m in a bar that sells only Belgian beer and they have Stella on tap.I happily enlightened the barman the connections Stella has in the UK with casual violence…international solidarity and all that…
Anyway Lyon? Well to be honest it’s been too dammed hot to have a proper look around but from what I’ve seen it’s sound.Very beautiful in a historic European way etc .Now that my main two chores are out of the way I’ll have an early breakfast tomorrow and then get a good look around the place before the heat stops us all in our tracks and I’m forced to go into a bar…
Stay cool you muthaflippers…
4 comments:
Mornin Gareth
Each day your blog throws me a reciprocal memory…a kinda reminiscence therapy somehow 😁.. Your truculent barmaid reminds me of meeting a chap during my time in London. My nearest boozer was in Barons Court, twas an Oz backpacker place at the time,one lunchtime there was an altercation at the bar, I was stood at the bar and was therefore witness to something awful/shocking/ugly but brilliant all rolled in one ..the barman was a Kiwi and didn’t quite grasp that tipping in an English pub wasn’t the norm. He was also quite an abrupt chap, obviously bar work wasn’t going to be his chosen career path,the bloke next to me had asked him if he enjoyed his work…”what do you think assole”…said fella proceeds to chuck his beer all over Kiwimon,I’m bang in the middle of someone else’s war !! I attempt peacekeeping…huge mistake as I then receive the contents of the dregs tray which is launched by Kiwimon …punches are thrown and you can picture the rest !! The 3 of us end up outside the pub as head barmon pushes us all out the door…we all burst into hysterics…Kiwimon became a big buddy and the other bloke became my travelling partner on my 2 nd jaunt around Europe…I still get texts from him today !!
Keep your stories coming my mate if only to keep my memory bank alive as I’d forgotten all about that story until your morning read just now !!
Keep having fun mate…Nige
Glad to be of service…you should write a blog!!! Haha
I have written parts 1&2 of my book !! You are providing me with added content mate !!
Good for you!
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