A coupé

Adj. – sliced
The neighborhood where we live in the 7th is filled with commerce. On our block alone there are two bouchers (butchers), two boulangeries (bakers), two hair salons and even two pharmacies not to mention a dry cleaner, supermarché, wine shop, tea shop, floriste, several boutiques and jewelry shops and eight restaurants. So you could say we are spoiled for choice.

As such, we can afford to be choosy so we have our favourites. The butcher directly across the street we may have gone to first for that very reason, but he is a delightful man sort of like a slimmer version of Santa without the beard. We buy lovely roasted chickens from him as well as gigots d’agneau (legs of lamb), which he’ll even prepare for us so all we have to do is heat them up. One time I was looking for merguez sausages, which he didn’t have and I actually felt guilty going to the other butcher down the street.

There is a baker directly across the street as well, large enough to eat in with beautiful ceilings. However, the women who run it are almost mean and as such, we will make our way further down the block to the one run by a super friendly woman who greets us with a kiss if she hasn’t seen us for a while. She is closed on Mondays so I was forced recently to go to the meanies. I was excited because I had the exact change for the bread I wanted, a triangle pavot (poppyseed loaf). The grumpy face behind the counter asked if I wanted it sliced, which I did and once finished she asked for 10 cents more than I expected. I was confused and looked again at the price to which she responded by rolling her eyes and pointing to a little sign that said “a coupé – 0.10.” Seriously, 10 cents for slicing? I never noticed at the nice baker, but perhaps that’s because I’m distracted by her kindness or perhaps it’s because she doesn’t charge extra although my husband told me it’s common.

My husband’s boss has a favourite expression, “You live, you learn.” And clearly with each passing day of my life in Paris, I do just that.