Just as my Amsterdam experience would not have been complete had I not partaken in the smoking of marijuana, so too, would my Parisian experience not have truly been complete without an authentic gypsy encounter.
Nancy, Marshall, my father, and myself were all heading to Notre Dame Cathedral from Pont Alexandre III bridge. We had just finished exploring the beautiful bridge and had taken many pictures. We were immersed in conversation when we saw a rather small lady that was walking our way stop and bend down to pick something up off the ground. Naturally we were curious, as she stopped but a foot or two in front of us, and then came over and asked if anyone had lost a ring. She then held up what had been on the ground. A rather large wedding band. Obviously belonging to a man. Upon further inspection we noticed that it was 18k gold, as there was a stamp on the inside of the ring indicating so.
We congratulated her on her find and were about to go our merry way when she asked if any of us would like the ring. She indicated in her broken English that it was really of no use to her and she did not want it. Right away I thought this was strange, and figured she was up to something, but if she wanted to give me the ring, fake or not I would take it. It would make a great souvenir with a great story behind it. So, I took the ring.
We then started again on our trek to Notre Dame. We got only a few feet however, before the tiny lady came running back up to us. She asked for money in return for the ring. Then the light bulb went on in all of our heads at once. This was a gypsy. She had planted the ring on the sidewalk, or used her pro gypsy magic to make it appear as if the ring had been sitting there..who knows, these people are masters of their craft. Now here she was, trying to sucker money out of us. I started laughing and said, "ohhhh, this is a scam, I get it. If you needed money you could have just asked for it." With that I gave her one Euro. But she obviously had had much more in mind. So, I simply gave her back her ring, saying that she was a great actress. We all applauded her performance as she walked away...and she in turn, gave us the finger.
I couldn't believe we really just had a gypsy encounter. We were told to beware of gypsies the whole trip, but just like anywhere else I have been warned about - Mexico, NYC etc..I didn't really expect for anything to happen. She did get one Euro for her trouble, but that is one Euro I would have given her regardless - as I said, she could have just asked. I immediately knew this encounter would make for a great story, though.
Esmeralda she was not, but she was a great character in that little page of my life. Nice try, gypsy.
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