Scam or performance art

1 February 2008- Today is the first of the month. Hooray! No real cause for celebration. Just time going by faster and faster. the weather is gray and rainy so no pictures. It would just be depressing.
Today I encountered my third ramonage crew. these are fast talking French. They come in the building looking to clean the chimmneys (think I spelled that one right). Now we have an antenna that comes through the wood burning one, with a broken sash that we never use. The other one is for the radiator and hot water heater. I fell for the scam or performance the first time and was shocked at the cost. I even provided my own vacuum for clean up. But I wised up. We have a contract with a heating company so I will let them do it from now on. No money exchanged with them, they are already on contract.
This got me thinking about all the scams or performances you can fall prey to in Paris. I overheard an english conversation on the subway (amazing how you can tune your ear to hear) about the same topic. The most popular Paris scam is the gold ring along the river. "Bon chance" is what they say to you as they try to get you to sell the ring for the two of you but "split the money" beforehand. You get the 10 cent ring and give them $10. There are the "Serbian" girls with head scarves who ask you if you speak english then promptly hand you a card about their sick parents who need money for medicine. There must be like 100 sisters in this family with sick parents. Now I am Croatian by my mother so I could pull the ethnic card but I look too much like a Parisian to get bothered anymore with my dark clothes, no facial expression and Ipod blaring French lessons. There are the guys who work in tandem at the Eiffel tower. As you are busy looking up at the structure, they try to sell you a key chain. Their buddy then comes by to take your wallet. The women on the subway were talking about the razor cutting of purses, bags, and allegedly back pockets to get wallets, items, passports and such. Now this probably works on the crowded metro line 1. It cuts right through the city from the Arc, Louvre, Notre Dame and Bastille monuments. With a booming tourism trade, it is no wonder, that these scams work and probably sustain the people that get them to work. The phrase that pays "Laissez moi tranquille" Leave me alone!
There are the regulars in the neighborhood. One guy right by the atm (which reminds me of a sitcom where the guy asks why on earth would you beg there, no chance of getting a bill), the guy at the metro stop with the SVP(s'il vous plait) sign, the girls with the cardboard cut out to kneel upon. There is a guy I am sure is mentally deficient. He is always in shorts and within his reach a magnum bottle of wine. My favorites are the singers on the trains. We got serenaded on the train to and from the airport last week. There is a blonde woman regular on the 7 metro line. They have their karoake machines taped to a cart and jump off and on at stops. Some have fashioned little covers so their carts look like a regular shopping cart to get by security but presto chango. During an interlude, they come around with a cup/tamborine. The best part is the number one song to sing is "Besa me mucho" which is in spanish. Kind of butchered but it makes me laugh to think the most popular song to sing is not a French one. The woman on the line 6 train sings it all the time. The accordion players are the ones really having fun. Tourists eat that up. I must admit that is my cell phone ring. A jazzy little Parisian song ala accordion. Hee hee.
On the pedestrian bridge by Notre Dame is the roller bladers. The guy with the marionette that dances to James Brown is on the other side bridge. I think he was the one immortalized on the internet a few years back. The funniest performance is this old guy, I mean 80 if a day, who sort of tries to break dance. Too funny. I haven't seen him in a while, I hope he is still dancing away at some other popular location. off to get a bike lock and find out who is performing in this weather...