If you're outside of Quebec, occasionally say "Merci" instead of "Thank you," especially if someone holds the door or does a small favor.
Merci for Mercy, indeed, GCSE French fans!
Even this area, where a prima fashionista, the fashion blogger Diane Pernet, in her trademark mantilla, was shopping, and which turned out to have both men's and women's wear, packed the Merci punch of both comfort and confusion.
Moreover, he would begin a sentence in Italian and conclude in French or German, like "Signori, prego, cominciare a battuta achtundzwanzig, merci!" A flurry of page-turning and mumbles of "Where?" would occupy the next few minutes, while Italian musicians queried their German colleagues about the number, and we poor non-polyglots would just wait for a nearby translation.
Merci is one of the most inviting stores in Paris, where customers, mostly of the boho-chic variety, prefer shopping at their leisure.
The mix appeals to the "bobo" Parisian, not least in its charitable mission: all of Merci's proceeds go to underprivileged children in Madagascar.
In a cross-Channel collaboration, Marie-France Cohen, founder of Merci, has collaborated with Liberty, and the London store will offer the same goods in its Tudor building.
"Not everyone can afford the designer gown, but an accessory can give you the look for less," said Jacqueline Weppner, a New York wedding stylist and owner of Merci New York.
So much so that I wasn't sure the little coffeehouse-cum-bookshop with floor-to-ceiling books was even part of Merci.
While I still didn't want any used books in French, we sat and had an espresso among them and felt full of merci, but were not quite sure why.
