From my previous post, you know that Sunday morning of my bartending weekend, I lost my iPhone. This is terrifying because all of my contacts, email addresses, regular addresses, passwords, credit card information and more is all saved to that phone. By losing it, I lost valuable connection with the world, including my ability to facetime etc. Needless to say, when I realized I lost it, I began to sob.
While discussing my loss with the various people at WOS bar that Sunday, I lost any hope I had of finding it. Every single french person said "you lost your iphone in a cab? it is long gone." Continue sobbing. I email my parents and let them know what happened and that I am going to call all the cab companies in Paris to try to find my phone because of course, I do not remember what kind of cab it is that I took.
Starting this plan in motion, I realize that there are 20 something cab companies in Paris. joy. So I start googling "I lost my iphone in Paris, what should I do" out of desperation and sleep deprivation. I find the Paris craigs list classifieds lost and found section. No dice, but someone did find a nice wedding ring on the steps of the Opera that they would gladly return if someone can describe it.
My next google query "paris lost and found" takes me to the Canadian Embassy's website explaining that Paris has a very intricate Lost and Found system. Cab's are supposed to turn in any found items to their dispatcher and after a few days the dispatcher is supposed to turn in any unclaimed items to "Le service des objets trouvés" which is a subset department of the French Police. (website in french located http://www.prefecturedepolice.interieur.gouv.fr/La-prefecture-de-police/Objets-trouves/Le-service-des-objets-trouves just in case you were interested) This is translated as the Service of Found Items; which has happily in my life become known as a magical place that seems like it stems from a Harry Potter Novel.
They keep items worth less than 50 euro for 3 months and worth more than 50 euro for a year and 1 day. I quickly email them, give them my name, address, phone number and a description of my iPhone and tell them I lost it in a cab in the 5th Arr. and I desperately need it back. They request the IMEI number in the emails, but I tell them I do not have the IMEI number because it is written on the box in the US, but inside the leopard print case should be 250 dollars worth of monopoly money that a guy named Guillaume insisted I take the night before as a tip. Charming. Sorry, Found Items office. They tell me they will let me know in a maximum of 10 days if they found my phone, until then I should try to find the IMEI number.
I get the number from my mom, and finally decide to start calling cab companies. I call the first one and it is an epic failure. I do not know enough French to do this, I am HORRIBLE on the phone in French and I cannot understand a single thing anyone is saying. I voice this frustration to another friend named Guillaume (very popular french name) and he says he will help me call the cab companies and that it will go much faster since he actually speaks French. I punch him.
We call the first cab companies with zero luck, but they all say the same thing. If one of our drivers found it, it's at the office of found items. bahhh okay thanks.
I spend the next 4 days iPhone-less and miserable, trying to contemplate life without FaceTime. Every time I begin this thought, my eyes well up with tears. I watched the entire series of Arrested Development instead of thinking about life without iPhone.
I finally get an email a few days later that says an item appearing to belong to me has been located at the office of found items, to retrieve it I need to bring 11 euro, the printed out copy of the email saying it had been located and the IMEI number. I instantly started to cry from thankfulness. In one of the cities most famous for pick pocketing and petty crime, I had an honest cab driver who followed the rules and turned in my cell phone.
I print the email, write down the number, google the address, grab 11 euros and head straight for the office. I finally found it, inside the police department in an area of Paris that I had never been to (terrifying) and I have to go through a metal detector and a bag search to go inside. I don't care. I would let them TSA style cavity search me if it meant getting my iPhone back. I walk upstairs into a room full of smiling government employees and step in line behind a woman about 55 who can't stop smiling either.
Why is everyone smiling? It's Paris. People don't smile here. What is going on? I have decided that the Service of Found Items is actually the happiest place on earth. I walk up to a window and hand her the email print out. She hands me a number and directs me to sit down on these wooden benches that face about 7 glass windows. There are probably 20 people sitting around me, but my number is only maybe 10 away. There is an anxious teenage boy, an obviously American couple, a super fabulous gay man in a belly shirt that says "army" (he is my favorite), the older woman from in front of me in line, a man in a business suit, me and then some other people whose items I didn't notice.
The American couple's number is called, she lost her wallet complete with passport, drivers license, credit cards and money. They tell her to sit back down and hang tight. Teenage boy lost his backpack, fabulous gay man and older woman both lost their wallets and some other people ask about other items that I don't pay attention to and then it is my turn. I walk up and hand the smiling man my email. He asks for some sort of identification and I hand him my Indiana Drivers License. He has no idea what this is. He asks me about it. I explain that its a drivers license. He laughs. Most people in France don't have those. (mental note to pay more attention when walking) I give him the IMEI number and 11 Euros and he tells me to have a seat.
Finally the man in the suit walks up to the window and begins describing something that he has lost. I don't listen because I don't want to be rude and I am also too excited about the prospect of getting my iPhone back but then I realize everyone else in the room is paying attention to his description. The man behind the window walks away and comes back holding something that I can't see what it is. The man's face lights up and then he instantly blushes. He tells the man working that that is indeed what he was looking for, gives him the 11 euros and walks out holding a tattered stuffed animal, obviously belonging to a child of his who had absent mindedly left it somewhere. This is what amazes me. Some French person came across this ragged stuffed animal (I think it used to be a dog) with squish lines through the stomach where it had been hugged to death and instead of thinking, gross this toy is disgusting and throwing it away, realized that it was loved by someone, and turned it in to the office of found items, where a dad had enough love for the child to go retrieve it on his lunch break. Every single person in that office stopped and did a collective 'awwww' and a sigh. It was undoubtedly the cutest thing I have ever seen.
Finally, one of the men behind the windows gets up and goes around a corner. He starts calling people up to get their items. The wallets are all found, including paperwork, money and all credit cards. The teenage boy got his backpack back and then it was me. He brings around a small thing wrapped in white paper and I see a little leopard print sticking out. MY iPHONEEEEEE. I don't even wait for him to call my name I just sprint to the counter and jump up and down like a little kid at a candy shop window. He tells me how extremely and incredibly lucky I am and cautions me to be more careful. I would have jumped over the counter and kissed him if there were not a glass barrier (probably placed there after someone like me had that impulse). I wished everyone in the office a nice day and half walked half skipped out the door. It started to rain the second I got out the door. I didn't care.
When I told my mom the story she said "Well this says two things about France; 1. the french are really superior and 2. Socialism works"
I don't know if we could go thaaaaat far :)
Stay tuned for:
1. the nantes guy on the bench story AKA how to lie to french people
2. the beach with the host family; subtitle: pretending I don't know anything about stars
3. becoming frommers; how I became a tour guide
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