We arrived at Gare de Lyon in Paris and caught a taxi to our Paris apartment. I booked through Vacation Rental By Owner or http://www.vbro.com. The apartment sits on the road that leads directly to the Sacre Coeur or the Sacred Heart of Paris. Little did we know that hoards of people use this street daily and on that Sunday barriers blocked it off. The taxi dropped us off at the bottom of the hill, not a big deal. Walking up the hill past the tacky tourist t-shirt shops the crowds thickened around a makeshift box table.
A Moroccan man is moving 3 black discs quickly between his hands barking out at the crowd in French. I don’t need to know the language to recognize the familiar “pea and shell” game.
Of course the kids are fascinated, and should be. Winning money…it looks so easy. When we get to the-cutest-little-apartment-yet, I have to explain to them that the person winning the money is a plant.
Watching from the window, Jackson and Violet are still convinced that they know where the disc with the white circle underneath has landed. I know if they try that they will loose their money and it is only when they realize that it takes 50 Euro to play, they decide that the stakes are too high and loose interest.
About this time a French police car rolls by. The tables disappear and the crowds beginning moving up and down the hill. Guess the stakes just got too high for the scammers too.
Today as we are preparing to leave, I counted eight boxes and men set up to take the tourists money. Earlier in the morning the police came and gave someone a ticket, so I guess they figured the cops had already been out today. Game on.
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