When trios of long-legged ados, free at last from the tortures of the bac, start strutting down rue de Passy in short shorts and slinky tanks, ready to raid the Gap--or at least the soft serve machine at McDonalds--you know another summer has arrived in Paris.And it's not just the sudden plethora of teenyboppers that gives the color of the season away. Tiny grandmothers shopping for even tinier baby clothes and soberly dressed career women combing through racy swimsuits are pretty good signs.
The important thing to remember is that being an innocent bystander is not an option. Be prepared to have complete strangers ask you for shopping advice. "Should I get the skirt or the dress? In black and white or brown and cream?" All notions of French reserve go out the window when soldes are in the air.
Hayley Mills as Pollyanna. [Online image] 1960.
