A guy wth a car

When a girl finds herself far away from home, in a foreign land, without a car, facing a long bus ride into town, and laden with nearly 500 euro and many heavy pounds worth of bedspreads, sheets, towels and bath mats, what is she to do? Simple: call upon the most contentious yet quintessential of all lessons garnered from her favorite childhood stories. Quickly set out to find herself a Knight in Shining Armor. Or, at the very least, a guy with a car.

Today I returned to the illustrious Zone Industrie on the outskirts of Cannes to finish the mattress-shopping project I had started, and to purchase bed frames for the new mattresses. I went right after class ended, and thus landed along the roadside, amongst all these huge warehouses, smack-dab in the middle of the day. Ah, lunchtime. And the lunch hour here in Cannes means that for the most part, shops are closed - for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours… maybe even 4 hours in the quieter parts of town. It’s a good thing cafes and boulangeries can be found anywhere and everywhere in France! So I waited, had a yummy lunch, and then at 2:00 went back to see my friend Jon at the mattress shop. He remembered me, and was happy to give me a special deal (or so he said) on the frames - as well as same-day delivery. Sweet! That was too easy.

I decided to explore the many other massive-sized furniture shops in the area, and probably got just a little too excited when I happened upon a store as close to a Bed Bath and Beyond as I might ever find out here. Sorry, but this was a major moment for me! You see, I have been searching Cannes high and low for such a store for days now, ever since I arrived, and have been left utterly perplexed, wondering where the heck the locals buy all their sheets and towels. An oddity I discovered is that a (rather pathetic) selection of these items can be found hidden in the way, way, way back of dusty old fabric stores around town. Curious indeed...

Anyway this store I found also shares its space with a whole lot of roles of fabric, but also, to my happy surprise, sells a pretty large selection of sheets and towels (“large” meaning only one brand, but in a decent variety of colors and sizes). I was suddenly overwhelmed by the organized and inviting American-esque layout and the wide selection on offer. You mean I have more than two options of color? Not just pale yellow or pukey blue? Frantic emails and photos to a friend back home helped me narrow in on just the right ensemble of colors, and the very patient saleswomen brought out their best sign language to explain to me which sheet was for what. About 1 hour and a lot of money later, the beds and bathroom of my friend’s apartment were fully linen-ed.

But wait! How the &*@! * would I get all this stuff back to the apartment?

(insert "A Ha!" here)

The delivery truck! Bringing the bed frames tonight! OF COURSE!

With all those heavy bags weighing me down, I began to make a clumsy beeline across the parking lot, lumbering along, pausing once to carefully adjust my v-neck sweater so as to reveal as much cleavage as I possibly could muster (hey, come on now, God gave women breasts for a reason!). I sauntered back into that mattress shop with the absolute sweetest smile I could muster and my best ever Damsel in Distress expression lighting up my face......

“Jon?”... eyelashes batting…. “Vous me pouvez aider s'il vous plait? “

Ok, so the words didn't flow quite that eloquently. But Jon got my drift. And he was totally cool about it. Bien SUR! he could throw my bags on the truck and would bring them tonight! For me? Pas de probleme!

Again, too easy!

So now I am on the bus, heading back into town, with empty hands and a lightened load, smiling at the pure genius of it all. No one would mind if I oh, so briefly pat myself on the back for being so darn resourceful, right? McGyver would be proud, I think.

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