Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Why the sales don't tempt me

I keep showing up in Paris in time for the soldes, the semi-annual affordable-Parisian-clothing bonanza. This time I will not partake, because...

-For reasons that are too boring to go into but that do not prove me as stupid as it sounds, I paid three times what I was supposed to for the pre-visa application (not the visa application).

-Flight, computer, same credit card bill.

-Bought dish detergent at Monoprix. Left dish detergent at Monoprix. 5 euros down the drain, and not literally, as intended.

-The shiny new water heater can't be plugged in at the same time as the computer, or this will blow the fuse. Fuse fixed, water heater (20 or 30 euros) kaput.

-Good thing I just bought coffee filters, coffee, and tea.

-Seems I'll be having coffee out from now on. Although at a euro a coffee, so be it.

-The whole free-room-in-Paris thing happened kind of last minute, and I'm still paying rent in NY.

Part of me is like, when else will you be in your 20s and in Paris during the soldes? Then I think of how 20% off Repetto's uglier flats is not so great, actually, and of how much more interested I am in using my free time to just walk around, spending whatever money is left over after the above on the occasional steak frites and on some kind of yet-to-be-determined hair refurbishing, something Parisian and fabulous, where I enter the salon Liz Lemon and exit looking like Catherine Deneuve.

6 comments:

Britta said...

Would it be a better deal in the long run to buy a new water heater? Presumably you'll want more than 20-30 coffees/teas while in France.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Hmm. I kind of like having coffee out, which factors into this. That, and with the wiring here, the next one would probably break as well. Maybe a regular kettle, even though that means going to the communal kitchen...

PG said...

on some kind of yet-to-be-determined hair refurbishing, something Parisian and fabulous, where I enter the salon Liz Lemon and exit looking like Catherine Deneuve.

Ah, you're not in "Scruples," you're in "Sabrina."

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

I've seen neither, alas, but I'd think the impulse to head-to-toe refurbish upon arrival in Paris would exist even without having been represented in film.

Jacob T. Levy said...

Are we supposed to be going along with the pretense that Liz Lemon is an ugly duckling in need of swan-ification? Or do you just literally mean that your hair currently looks like Tina Fey's and you're in the mood for a change?

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

I mean that I - hair included - all-around currently look like Tina Fey, and have since before I knew who Tina Fey was. My identification with Liz Lemon, however, is heightened by the fact that it's not done in a Parisian dorm to enter the hallway (the street, fine, I get it, it's Paris) in Old Navy leisurewear or a French equivalent thereof, yet I persist in doing so. Paris brings out the Liz Lemon in me because it makes me feel in need of a makeover, yet at the same time proud of the fact that I don't feel like I need to look chic to walk the 20 feet or whatever to the communal kitchen or bathroom. That, and a new cut or color from Paris would be fun.