Unlikely encounters

Improbable encountersA fortuitous, surprising and ultimately improbable encounters that will brighten your day and make you see the world from a different angle. Who could imagine that the simple need to change curtains turns into a beautiful afternoon encounter? And yet, on a somewhat rainy afternoon in June, here we are criss-crossing the alleys of the Bazaar de l’Hôtel de Ville, located a stone’s throw from the Town Hall, as its name suggests, in search of the ideal double curtain, which would be at once aesthetic, occulting and insulating. In short, this is an unthinkable feat in this consumer society. This product doesn’t exist, of course, and you have to waste hours comparing labels to see if this one isn’t better than that one…In front of our looks of tourists completely lost in the middle of the double curtains, here comes Kim. She’s a saleswoman at the BHV and curtains are her department. Super motivated, super knowledgeable and above all very attentive to your needs, she knows how to slip into your thoughts with tact and delicacy.

In no time at all, she succeeds in finding exactly what suits you, or even, it can be said, she finds us the double curtains that we would never have found on our own. But above all, she achieves this feat while pleasantly guessing and showing a keen interest in what you express about today’s society… As she starts to take us in – well, not us, but rather the curtains, to be exact – she continues the conversation with Jean-Yves, with liveliness.

On my side, I see a client who seems to be on the verge of fainting behind her mask. I smile at her, showing some empathy for her. She tells me that there is no need for words and that we understand each other, all the while sighing. I tell her, to reassure her, that she will soon be taken care of by the best curtain saleswoman in the world, and what’s more, an exciting saleswoman. The two of us begin to exchange. Imogène is a professor just a stone’s throw from Paris and worked at the UN in her youth. Passionate about English, she is undeniably one of those people over whom time has no control, except for a few traces of a deep commitment, a rich struggle, a real empathy neither calculated nor claimed. She looks exhausted but her posture betrays a rich and interesting personality.

Kim has a problem with her cash register – a roll of paper to be changed – which is a good thing and gives us time to talk about the world before, the world today and the world after. Anyway, the notion of time passing suddenly escapes us and now seems quite futile. We have, for a few minutes now, forgotten the discomfort of our masks and the gestures of prevention in this post-confinement period. The conversation is now going well. Jean-Yves slipped that he was a nurse, I mentioned that I was a social worker, Imogène is a teacher. Here we are, the three of us, like a beautiful tripod of today’s public service. A tripod that is both essential and shaky in this ultra-liberal world. We evoke the confinement, everything that has happened, both in the hospital environment and in the National Education system. Imogène, just like the caretakers, has devoted hours and hours of his personal time to do everything possible to ensure that his pupils do not drop out in the particular context of confinement. For both of us, we are sad to say that we have lived through a very similar experience: few instructions and regular reversals, through which we have had to find our way as carers, teachers, etc., while taking care of each other and always trying to do as little damage as possible.

Kim reappears, a brand new roller in her hand for her cash register, a big smile lights up her face. Imogène and I went off to dream of our young years, those when as teenagers we set off to discover Europe with an Inter-Rail card in our pockets.

We could then, with three francs six sous, go and enjoy the rails of Europe, have an excellent stay in London, discover with pleasure Picadilly, Portobello Market and so many other places that remind us of the magic of this English city. We’re almost there, it smells like Indian incense and, from the « baba-cool » shops of the district, some notes of music from the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith or Leonard Cohen. We then rediscover the taste of Fish and Chips served in their newsprint packaging. Imogène and I are only a year apart. She has dedicated her life to her students and struggled with life. Today, her curtains are twenty years old, they’ve seen so much, they’re a bit at the end. That’s what made her come to the BHV. And this is how, at this very moment, in the middle of the BHV, we let ourselves be carried away by our mutual memories of Inter-rail cards that we bought as soon as summer arrived like a sesame to England.

Kim has now managed to print the ticket, she now devotes herself to Imogene and guides her with a masterful hand to the ray of her dreams. We exchange our contact details for…just in case…isn’t that how beautiful stories are born in the aisles of a Parisian department store? Didn’t we unwittingly take a plunge into the past, back in the days when Zola met the customers of « Le Bonheur des Dames ». In our eyes, Kim is elected best saleswoman of the BHV. In just a few minutes, she was able to transform the chore of shopping into an exciting moment of exchange. Ah human relations, when you know how to take your time, what happiness and what richness!