gaspard et lisa

I enjoy trying to figure out where the customers are from as they come downstairs. Some obviously don't speak right away but within entering the room they usually say a few words. Some of them address me directly, ruling out whether they are French or not right away. The Italians and the Spanish generally don't try to speak French much past Bonjour so they're pretty easy. Portuguese, too, except whether they're Brazilian or not is more difficult. Americans I spot a mile away but the other anglophones take a bit more time to pick out. Got to get them talking. Accents I love are Irish, Spanish and French speaking English. I also enjoy the Japanese because they're so different from any other people I've met. I love their way of interacting, bright, quick, quiet and polite.

Today I got to watch some nice Japanese tourists. First a mother and her two young daughters. Both girls had their hair in a bob cut, only different lengths and texture. The older daughter who looked about eight had fly-away puffs of hair while her little sister had silken hair with that baby sheen. The mother approached me with a nod and a palm raised in question and asked in percussive French about Gaspard et Lisa aux Grands Magasin. It's the one where they go to Galerie Lafayette, a fancy department store and a monument of Paris.

I frowned at first and said I wasn't sure, remembering another customer earlier this month who almost bought it. A stylish Spanish woman who braved the dusty top shelf to bring down the oversized book in question. I had forgotten all about it frankly. I had also forgotten whether or not the woman had bought it, which today I delightfully discovered she had not.

Offering this delightful book to the lovely little girl from Japan today, seeing her face light up when she held it in her hands reminded me of what I love about this job.