all i want is a parapluie ...

Last week, I was in one of the largest, most organized, and elegantly decorated French Department Stores with my visiting friends. I was helping Kayla shop for tea when Andrew remembered that he needed to buy an umbrella (sincle his had been lost at the Louvre). We were in the "maison" = home part of the store, which is seperate from the others, so I was not sure if they would have one...but Kayla said she remembered seeing a display of them in the window on our way in. So, Andrew and I set off to find one...and 3 floors later, though we found a sweet 6ft. tall rubber ducky...we had yet to see anything resembling an umbrella.
I finally was able to hunt down and employee, who told me that the umbrellas were on the ground floor. So we went all the way back down there, and when I asked another lady who worked there she replied:
"do you want one for a man or woman?"
Me "we don't really care, but i guess for a man"
Her "well we don't have any umbrellas here, but if you want one for a man you can go to that men's section of our store across the street"
Me "okay, but my friend saw some in the window here"
Her "nope, no umbrellas here"
Me "okay then, thanks"

Then, after deciding that even if they had one I would not buy it b/c of the simple in-efficiency of the store...on our way out we saw a window display of nothing but umbrellas. Oh, life in France...