Duchesses and Markets

I was downtown with Marjerie the other day when I saw my first Duchess. I live in Marjerie's room, in her mother's house, while she is away at architecture school in Paris. She comes home some weekends and her English is about as good as my French so we have some interesting conversations. We had just gone to step into her mother's office for a minute and say hello before our movie started, and we passed a lady on her way in as we were walking out. Bonjour! We all said, and Marjerie and I made our way past the lady and out the door.
"She is a duchess," said Marjerie, offhandedly.
"She's a what??" I demanded.
"You know, the old royal families had cousins who were called dukes, counts..."
"Yeah, I know what a duchess is," I amended, "but I didn't think they existed in France. Or just walked around in Angers!"
And Marjerie went on to tell me that her city apartment was in the same building as Sofie's office and they saw her sometimes when she was in town, away from her, get ready for this, castle.
"She has a castle?!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, but a very little one." Marjerie said apologetically, as if this fact changed things.
"Oh, well, if it's only a little one..." I said, laughing now.
"Yes, it's only a little one." Laughed Marjerie, getting the joke of it all now. And then we went to our movie; and, I, at least, spent the rest of the evening wondering if the gentleman walking in front of the me on the street was a Duke.
~~~
Saturday I went with Sofie to the Lafayette Market to get coffee with Monica and to buy some fresh vegetables. But with Sofie, it was a little more interesting than that. She only speaks French to me and I only speak broken French to her, so she does most of the talking when we are together.
"That man is a womanizer," she whispered by the green beans. "He is sixty-five but he is with a girl in her twenties!"
"French men are never loyal," She murmured over our two café crèmes. She had just said hello to a male friend of hers, and to a woman with her husband and baby. "They are not like American men. They all leave their wives with the children and find a mistress."
One man cut in front of her in line to buy olives so she complained in a loud aside whisper to me that some people don't understand that there is a line and it starts in a certain place. Then she turned with a dazzling smile to the olive vender who held out his hands and said it wasn't his fault, he was just handing out olives.
Monica came to meet us for coffee and Sofie adamantly affirmed that Monica needed me on Wednesdays and that I had a visa so it was legal for her to pay me. I start next Wednesday at 10 am. All in all, it was a very lively morning at the market with Sofie.