13 November 2014

Eavesdropping in Paris

When I go to have lunch in a restaurant alone, I turn into a shameless eavesdropper. I don't like to sit in silence, and often the tables in Paris restaurants are too small to give you room to deal with a book or newspaper you might want to read while you eat. Listening to the conversations of the people around you is the most satisfying sort of entertainment in such situations. (If you ever notice me alone in a restaurant, watch what you say!)

This café at Saint-Germain-des-Prés was clearly not "ripe" — too empty. Besides, the lunch crowd might be a little young for my tastes.

The restaurant, preferably in Paris, needs to be lively enough to have some interesting conversations going on at neighboring tables. The people talking need to be Parisians, or at least French — there's no need to listen in surreptitiously to people speaking English; the conversations they have in France are usually boring.  If the conversation is not in English or French... well, what's the point of trying understand snippets or sentences of a language you don't really understand?

These people were American. I couldn't help but hear the odd sentence, but I tried hard not to focus on their voices. The French woman next to them, wearing the purple scarf, ordered and slurped down a dozen oysters on the half-shell.

Parisian diners have the most interesting conversations. Maybe it's because they're used to spending time at the dinner table, whether at home or in restaurants, and talking things over. They talk about politics, their families and relatives, their work and travels, and their daily tribulations and joys. It's real life. They gossip. Listening to what they are saying is like being in a movie theater watching — or plutôt listening to — a good, talky French movie directed by, for example, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer, or Sautet.

 This place was a definite possibility, but street noise might have been annoying.

In the ideal eavesdropping restaurant, the tables have to be close together, and there can't be enough noise to make one conversation indistinguishable from another. It's nice to be able to sit outdoors, but then the din of car, bus, and motorcycle traffic can be irritating. The best situation is the one I found myself in the other day when I was wandering around Paris — glassed in, but in a space open to the sky.

Here's the perfect situation: outside with sunny weather, but in a glass-enclosed space with little extraneous noise.

When I sat down, I chose a little table next to a man who was obviously finishing his lunch. I figured he wouldn't stay long, and he didn't. He finished his dessert, drank his coffee in one big gulp — cul sec — and was gone. Then two young women came and took the table on my other side. I could just barely hear their soft voices. A few minutes later, though, just as my salad arrived with a glass of Pouilly Fumé white wine, two men d'un certain âge entered the restaurant.

The people closest to me when I first sat down seemed to be German — a boy with his grandparents, who kept telling him to finish his lunch, if I understood correctly. He didn't seem enthusiastic about the food.

I was happy when they sat down next to me. One man was probably 70 or older, and the other closer to or beyond 80. They apparently lived in the neighborhood (the Marais) and they were regulars, I think, because all the waiters seemed to know them. They both ordered the plat du jour, and they asked for a half-bottle of Côtes du Rhône red wine to go with it. They immediately started talking. I pretended to be lost in my own thoughts...

19 comments:

  1. I love listening to conversations during dinners they fantastic and so amazing but strange sometimes.

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  2. it's killing me - the ashtray on the table. verboten over here (thank the dogs and cats)!

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    1. It's verboten here too — inside. I was sitting outside. Glassed-in but with an open roof.

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    2. Oh, and I don't remember noticing anybody smoking.

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  3. Oh Ken, you devil! I do the same thing. When you’ve been married as long as we have, eavesdropping is sometimes the best way to have a good lunch conversation.

    One of my most memorable lunches was when an English man and a French woman sat right next to us. They had a lot to catch up on. She must have assumed that she was surrounded by French people and that English wouldn't be understood–our conversation was quiet--and she told him some pretty personal stuff in English. For a while I tried to catch his eye or hers to let them know we understood but that didn’t work. I was uncomfortable on her behalf, but finally I relaxed and enjoyed hearing about her life as a wealthy, single French woman.

    Another time I wished I were an industrial spy. Three French co-workers were putting their case to a would-be foreign investor for their company's breakthrough in ceramics technology. Their conversation was entirely in English. Too bad I was enjoying my lunch too much to catch it all.

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    1. What I wouldn't give to be a wealthy, single French woman!

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    2. Carolyn, are we the only two indiscreet ones.Thank you for sharing your stories. I won't stop eavesdropping, and maybe I'll feel less guilty about it thinking of you. More tomorrow.

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    3. LOL, BettyAnn. Wealthy would be nice, single or not.

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  4. It just keeps getting better! Oysters still playing a role. I hope we get to hear a story or two from les mecs. I wish I could still eavesdrop (interesting word on its own)- I'm lucky now to hear conversation at my own table even with hearing aids.

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    1. More tomorrow... But we have people coming for lunch, so I might not have a lot of writing time in the morning. Saturday then...

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  5. i think an "Eavesdropping in Paris" should be a regular segment when you go there. just love it! i used to go to Paris every year but then i'd go for the "silence" and i couldnt really follow a fast conversation. so i loved being with people but i could read and not have to hear/understand anyone else. the best exchange i had in a restaurant was entirely without words. i was exhausted from traveling my and gaze happened to fall toward where the waiters were working. without realizing it i was watching a young man cut and serve a tarte for a customers. he got some cream on his finger, and without thinking, licked it off. then he realized i was watching - he was mortified and froze. then i smiled and he smiled and we both laughed. i loved that moment.

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  6. That's a vivid and very funny memory to have, Ohiofarmgirl. Thanks for writing about it. Something about it is so Parisian -- the public vs. the private persona, with the second inevitably showing through, and the willingness of the one caught in the act to 'fess up, with a smile. I love it.

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  7. You wrote a post a while back about waiting in line at the pharmacy and listening to many people's stories until it was your turn. I was telling someone about it today, in fact.

    Ohiofarmgirl, I once passed an open kitchen in Italy; the cook offered me a taste of the sweetened ricotta, I ate it, and then he put the spoon back in the bowl!

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    1. Chrissoup....
      he would have been tasting it and putting the spoon back in as he cooked it...
      all cooks do!

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  8. Okay I hold up my hands - I love eavesdropping too. I do it mainly on trains and mainly mobile phone users are the unwitting (or uncaring) victim. I once listened to a young man describing all details of the court appearance he had just undergone for drug possession. Another time an employment lawyer sitting opposite me spread out her case files on the table and began ringing clients. How can people be so indiscreet? I can guess it goes without saying - you'd walk straight past a restaurant full of people shouting into mobile phones, and waving their hands like madmen over a skinny latte (whatever one of those is)! Or is half a conversation better than none? Pauline

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  9. Ken, do you think that part of your enjoyment in eavesdropping is listening to French conversations, or are you jus

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    1. Just. As interested in conversations in English? (Sorry for the split comment. I'm writing my very first comment with my new iPad Mini, and it's kind of awkward!

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    2. I enjoy listening to conversations in French much more. In Paris, they give me a picture of everyday life, of the experiences and opinions of the people doing the talking. The conversations that English-speaking people have in Paris usually have to do with tourism and plans for the rest of the day. Those are not so interesting.

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  10. Wonderful photos. Wish I were there. I love the open roof. Which restaurant was it?

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