Des Personnes Locales

These are some of the people I see and/or talk to regularly. First of all, the young girl at the boulangerie.
I don't even know her name, but I can tell you that she is just great, really. She has always been totally accepting of my efforts at French and has been helpful and encouraging all along the way. She even tells some of the other customers about me. Now she is saying that it's time to say au revoir as she will be going on holiday while I'm away in July, and she won't be back before I leave. Like many people she is a bit baffled by me and where I'm from. She sometimes needs to ask again why I am here, and she had NEVER heard of New Zealand before and still thinks it's Australia. But I am quite taken with her. One of those 'salt of the earth' people; good with the customers and able to whip a tartelette au chocolat out of the cabinet as quick as a whisker. :-) Unusually, the boulangerie is open on a Sunday - well, till 12 anyway, but is closed Mondays. (A bit of an in-joke that Louise will get!)
Next is the man from the Tabac. I don't know his name either.
I mostly just buy my bus pass/tickets from him, with the ocasional bit of photocopying etc. Or he will just talk to me as I'm walking past. He loves to talk about New Zealand and the All Blacks and we have had several quite long conversations. He is also really encouraging about my spoken French. He is open 6 days a week, but closes from 1.00 till 3.15 every afternoon. It's funny really, but because Mademoiselle Boulangerie and M Tabac are so supportive, I feel quite relaxed when talking to them, and certainly speak better with them than with some others.
And finally we have Emilie, my hairdresser.
Those of you on Facebook may have already seen her photo. The gals at the Hairdressing Salon have been pretty scared of me I have to say. They scuttle off when I come in - it may be that I sprout horns on crossing the threshhold. (Does that have one h or two?) Emilie is a very nice young lady but is a bit wary of me too, and after a few stuttered conversations we usually settle down to a reasonably comfortable silence. Somehow I can never think of the right things to say. However! Recently, quite out of the blue, I got a request from her on Facebook asking to be my friend, and we have exchanged a few messages. So fancy that! It was no doubt to see the photo I had taken, but it was still out of left field and she obviously is starting to feel a lot more comfortable with this strange foreign woman who wants stripes in her hair! In fact I have got just one more appointment booked, and that will be my last visit. The hair salon is closed Mondays (and Sundays of course) and also closes for lunch most days.
Now I still have my epilation girls to talk about, but don't have photos yet, so they will have to have a chapter to themselves!
And they are my people tonight, as Paul Holmes might have said.