Your money isn't good enough

Yesterday, I went to the Marché St-Pierre in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. This is where most of the fabric stores are clustered, and so I headed over there because I forgot to buy some nude-colored silk chiffon to use under my wedding dress. (I bought some really nice off-white silk chiffon in New York at $18 a yard, but it is really really sheer and transparent even if I use two layers, but it completely slipped in my mind while I was at the fabric store in New York to buy some nude colored chiffon too).

I climbed up the stairs at Dreyfus, one of the larger fabric stores, and headed over the Bridal/Silk Chiffon section. The salesperson completely ignored me despite the fact that I was standing there for about 5 minutes and there was NO ONE around. Finally, I cleared my throat and offered "Bonjour".

The salesman peered at me through his glasses and said all dubiously "Bonjour" in the same manner as one would say "What the hell do you want?" I asked him if he could show me the silk chiffons behind the counter, the light nude color and the dark nude color. Sighing heavily the entire time, the salesman picked them up and brought them over, and I proceeded to whip out a tiny scrap of my wedding dress fabric I had brought with me, to see how the nudes would look underneath. The salesman, watching me with his bespectacled hawk eyes, said, "Your fabric is off-white." I looked up curiously at him and he sighed heavily and was all "Your fabric. That scrap. Is. Off. White." It was my turn to sigh heavily. "I know that," I said. "But I need a nude color chiffon to use underneath because my off-white chiffon is too transparent." The salesguy stared at me. Then he said, "We have the same exact chiffon downstairs for much cheaper. You should get it downstairs." I looked at the price of the nude silk chiffons, which were at 22 euros a meter. "Okay, but I want to look at THIS one," I said. The guy rolled his eyes, then said, as if he were going to hit me at any moment, "I. Said. Get. It. Downstairs. It's cheaper downstairs and it is the same off-white." "I. Know. But. I. Want. This. Color." I said. Then the salesguy picked up the silk chiffons I was looking at and put them on the shelf behind him. "No. I told you, that off-white chiffon is downstairs. 8 euros a meter. Polyester chiffon." I protested, "I told you, I want a nude color SILK chiffon, not poly. It's for my wedding dress." The guy completely ignored me and walked away.

I mean, how rude is that?

In a similar incident, the BF and I were having drinks at a café when a large group of German tourists showed up, obviously tired and hungry. They started to sit down at a large table set up outside and the owner came running out in a panic and made them leave because "c'est réservé". It was too bad, because there were at least 30 people in that group, and I bet the restaurant would have made a lot of money that night. Apparently German euros are not as good as French ones.