Paris Weekly: A Bizarre Night, Saint Malo & The Police

This week’s entry focuses on a memorable evening I had this week. I went to the Indiana Café near Odeon, a big chain, pseudo Tex-Mex restaurant with locations throughout Paris, to have a happy hour drink with my friend The Conquistadore. The Conquistadore goes to Indiana Café frequently because their happy hour deal offers drinks for 50% off the normal price, which is quite good for Paris. Our night started quite ordinarily but ended up quite memorably.

We arrived at Indiana at 7:50pm, specifically because we knew their happy hour deal ended at 8pm. We sat down and of course couldn’t find a waiter. About 1 minute before 8pm, we flagged down a waitress who looked at her cell phone and confirmed that we made it before 8pm. She took our order and when she returned with our drinks, she gave us a bill that had the full price on it. We were stunned. She said there was nothing she could do because when she put the order in the computer it was 8:02pm. We asked to talk to the manager who came over to us. We explained that we came here specifically for happy hour, waited 10 minutes for a waitress, ordered before 8pm and therefore we weren’t going to pay full price. One important thing to note in this whole drama is that the difference in price between happy hour and normal prices was 5 euros for me and 3 for the Conquistadore.

The manager basically didn’t want to hear anything we were saying and just rudely said that we had to pay full price. We laughed at how unbelievable the situation was and jokingly told him that he’d have to call the police to get us to pay full price. We continued chatting over our drink when about 5 minutes later, two police officers came to our table. The manager actually called the police on us. We asked the officers what they wanted with us since we hadn’t done anything wrong. We hadn’t tried to leave without paying or anything. We were having our drinks and had the bill on our table. The officers didn’t want to hear it and told us that we had a “litige commericale” and that he needed our IDs. We initially refused but then relented when he said we’d have to come with him to the police station if we didn’t show him ID. To end the long story, we paid the full price, asked the manager’s name (to which he replied “you don’t have the authority to ask me my name”) and decided that it was unfortunate for the manager that he decided to do this to two motivated individuals that have a lot of free time. The Conquistadore and I are going to the tribunal soon and with a little luck, can continue our case for 8 euros all the way to the highest court in the land. They’re going to be sorry.

From there, the evening continued its bizarreness. We went to have a bite to eat in at a popular falafel place St Michel. I ordered a falafel which came completely overstuffed with condiments. When I asked the lady working there for a plastic fork, she refused to give me one saying “we only give forks to those who order salads”. I of course thought she was kidding but true enough, she wouldn’t give me a fork. The next customer ordered a salad and was given a small plastic fork. I was stunned. Unfortunately for them, the people who have to clean the tables will learn what can happen if one tries to eat an overstuffed falafel without a fork. ☺

Made another trip to Saint Malo and walked along the beautiful beach and explored the inside of the walled city.

And finally, my happy hour incident wasn't my only run in with the police this week. I got to photograph the music group The Police at a private party along the Champs-Elysees after their big reunion concert here. It was quite a jet set crowd because it’s also the start of fashion week here so all the pretty people were out in force. Below, Sting arrives at the party with his wife.