Taxis in front of the gare d'Orsay railway station. Paris, about 1935.

Source:
Paris en Images, copyright Roger-Viollet (FA-6369):
Click here to view source.

Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 10

Suitcases

There was another incident with another gentleman, the proprietor of five suitcases, whom I brought, early in the morning, to avenue Victor-Hugo.

After getting out of the car he curtly told me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “You’ll take these suitcases up to the fifth floor.”

He did not even take the trouble to add “please” or “if you’ll be so kind;” his tone of voice betrayed no hint of solicitude or doubt.

"Listen, my dear” – he spun around as though stung by a bee – "your hands aren’t paralysed, or so it would seem?"

"No, why?"

"Because I don’t see why I should carry your suitcases up to the fifth or any other floor. If I had to change a tire, do you think I’d ask you to do it for me?"

He looked me over.

"Are you a foreigner?"

"No."

Each time that incidents like this occurred, the matter was settled as soon as it was learned that I was Russian, that is to say, as soon as I showed my papers to a police officer.

These stories had no sequel – I hadn’t committed any infraction and the people who complained to the police about me did so not to defend their interests but only because I had upset their conventional ideas about relations between the social classes. [196-197]