(Stereo)typically French

Three French workers come into the office to fix the heating. One guy does the work (or pretends to). Another guy "supervises" and the third guy wanders around looking lost.

1st weekend

My first weekend in my current apartment was nearly two years ago. At the time, I wasn’t shocked but now that I look back at it I’m amazed I didn’t immediately start looking for a new place to live. There was a big sporting event going on and my new roommate went out with her boyfriend at the time and another friend who it turned out was one of her ex’s. In a previous post I referred to him as Francois, so I’ll stick with that name to avoid confusion.

I woke up Saturday morning to find Francois, in briefs and nothing else, passed out on the clic-clac in the main room. I wasn’t home when the roommate, her boyfriend and Francois left the previous night so semi-naked and unconscious was how I first “met” Francois. The roommate had left a note for me, which I didn’t see, explaining that Francois had a run-in with a drunk and violent guy the previous night. The encounter resulted in Francois getting hit, falling and hitting his head on the ground. Rather than taking him to a hospital, the roommate and boyfriend brought him back to our apartment. In her note she also mentioned that this was the first time something like this had happened and I shouldn’t be concerned. The funny thing is that I wasn’t concerned. Even though I didn’t see her note I didn’t even blink at walking out to Francois in his underwear in the main room. I just thought “oh, there’s an undressed guy I’ve never seen on the clic-clac”, got some breakfast and went about my day. It has to be a result of living in France, because I think my reaction would have been quite different a few years earlier...

(stereo)typically french

The roommate had one of her infamously long dinners last night. Usually I decline, but decided to participate in this one (and didn’t get to bed until around 2 this morning). Here’s a run down of the guest list.

Roommate’s best friend: let’s call her bf. Roomy and bf share the same first name and have known each other since childhood. Bf is here for the weekend with her boyfriend and both of them are still married to other people (I have no idea why they don’t divorce). Bf separated from her husband, was then with another guy who committed suicide and she got breast cancer. Now she’s with the current guy, I think they might’ve met on Meetic, but I’m not positive. Side note - bf tends to stare which, with my American sensitivities, I find rude.

One of roommate’s ex’s: roomy has dated several men (the boyfriend and I refer to them as the Pepes) during the year and half that I’ve lived with her. I’ll have to explain the Pepes in another post because it would be too complicated to add them all here. The Pepe at dinner last night is the one she was with when I moved in. They were off and on for a while, seem to fight whenever they’re together and he’s still in love with her. She claims they’re not getting back together, but she slept at his place last night while bf and boyfriend stayed here. I suppose they can have a friendly overnight “visit” without getting back together, however I’m skeptical.

Friend of roommate (who is also an ex): let’s call this guy Francois. Francois is a serial dragueur and every time I see him he’s with someone different or on the prowl. He and roomy dated briefly before I knew her, but she soon figured out that he was dating several other women at the same time. They’ve remained good friends. The last time Francois was here a few months ago he was with a woman from South America. They met in NY while he was working there under the table as a waiter. Since then, they’ve been PACSed, have broken up and even though they’re no longer together she works for him sometimes. Last night he was with a new lady. They met at a party and have been together 2 weeks. I give it another week or two before he moves on to the next one…

(stereo)typically french

I had lunch with a friend and she told me about a couple she knows, let’s call them Mr. and Mrs. X. Mr. and Mrs. X have been married for about 20 years and during part of this time (if not the entire marriage) Mr. X has had lovers. Mrs. X is aware of this and does not object as long as Mr. X remains discreet and his affairs do not interfere with Mrs. X or the children. A short time before Christmas, Mrs. X called Mr. X’s office and an unfamiliar female voice answered. Mrs. X asked to speak to Mr. X and the woman on the other end asked who was speaking. Mrs. X had an odd feeling and told the mystery voice that she was Mr. X’s wife…she was immediately transferred. When she asked Mr. X about the woman who answered the phone and where his assistant was, he replied that the assistant no longer worked there and the woman who replaced her was someone Mrs. X knew. It turns out that Mr. X's mistress was now working as his assistant. Mrs. X hit the roof and asked Mr. X how his company (based in NY) would respond if she informed them that Mr. X was employing his mistress – who had no training or previous experience as an assistant.

A day or two later, Mrs. X told Mr. X that she had thought about what to get him for Xmas and had settled on the gift of divorce. Mr. X grumbled that he didn’t want a divorce (even though he’s mentioned it a few times in the past), but Mrs. X met with an attorney anyway. The attorney advised Mrs. X that filing for a divorce was not in her best interest financially because even though Mrs. X works part time in a family member’s business and earns a fraction of Mr. X’s salary, the apartment is in her name. This means that if Mrs. X files for divorce, she will have to pay alimony to Mr. X and she’ll be better off if Mr. X files. I suggested to my friend that Mrs. X should find herself a boyfriend and maybe that would push Mr. X to initiate a divorce. It so happens that she already has one and Mr. X knows about him. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried…