After eight days in Paris we were headed to the wine country. Making our way to the money exchange booths in the Gare de lyon while my girlfriend Julie went to the bar as I waited to change money. In France it cost ten francs to change money and the dollar was trading at 8.3 francs per, or if you changed more than $ 100 dollars the exchange rate was 9.2 francs per. It was busy this day and as I waited in line I noticed that the young girl in front of me had a dollar bill clutched tightly in her hand. I said to her, American eh? and she just about told me her whole life story(that was quite short at that point) and how she was in Paris on an exchange program and was in a terrible house with wicked people who didn’t feed her and made her do all of the housework and wouldn’t let her go anywhere and she had finally escaped and was trying to get to the other side of Paris where one of her friends was staying and she only had this One Dollar Bill.

And what a long sentence it was and she was almost out of breath when she finished it. A little more chit-chat and she went to the Kiosk to change her dollar for francs. Now you may already have notice her dilemma, but if not I will tell you it. She only had one dollar worth 8.3 francs and it cost 10 francs to change money. She didn’t have enough money to change money. As I approached the kiosk next to her she started to cry and I asked what was wrong and then i realized the problem. I took her under my wing doing my best knight in shining armor rimpersonation and told her it would be OK.

Off we went to the bar to find my cohort in crime, get her a drink, and assure her she would get to her friend toot-sweet. After plying her with wine we gave her all of the franc coins we had with us, about 6or7 dollars worth and sent her on her happy way to the Metro and her new home in Paris for the summer. We got to our train and headed east to drink some wine. We didn’t even get her name.