Comment du Jour

The Curious Case of the Place Colette

Just having arrived at a fashionable café on the Place Colette (next to the Comedie Francaise) we were seated next to a well-dressed American couple. They seemed agitated—not over the service, but the fact that Madame’s purse had just been snatched right under her nose. The garcons de café had noticed a dubious duo, one of whom offered to take the couple’s picture, while viola, the other, you guessed it, blithely snatched the woman’s handbag.

Stereotypical Paris in the Summer. Beaucoup d’Americans and beaucoup de bad guys looking for fast moolah. The waiters were sympathetic and the Café owner, ( I shall be discreet and not mention names), was shattered and allowed the couple a gratis meal. Then they told the distraught couple where the nearby police station was, and I presumed, with a shrug of the shoulders, they were passing the buck. End of story. Round up the usual suspects.

We ordered, enjoyed, and by the time we were finishing an amazing salad, I noticed some plainclothes police types hovering about the establishment and taking notes. The Perps, as they say in the Big Apple, were from southern climes, and I expected just a perfunctory shuffle of paperwork to close the case. Les tourists should know better, non?

But as we ordered desert, the patron de café proudly told us that the police had just caught the culprits a few streets away. The Police had retrieved the handbag and its contents.

In less than an hour, the police cracked the Case of the Place Colette! Bravo Paris PD!