94% of Parisians live within a 5-minute walk of a bakery.
When was the last time you walked to go get a thing? Like, I need bread, so I'm going to take a walk to the bakery?
We have a local bakery. I've walked there. It's a destination more than an errand. I go to sit there and eat my pastry. I don't go there to buy a loaf of bread and take it home for dinner or anything.
I'm thinking about this because I have taken one of the cars in for its annual dealer visit. It takes a minute, so I sit here and do work. Part of my "work" is watching this dealership operate. It's a fascinating setup. I bet if you sat down and started a car dealership today, you wouldn't design it to be like it is. After 100 years of selling cars, it's morphed into its own weird world.
The center of this world seems to be the finance manager. It's the last stop before we get to take our new ride home. The last place for the dealership to make a little money.
I watch a nice couple go in the room. I feel their excitement. He is wearing jeans with wool socks and Birkenstocks. I know that look. I have that look. Growing up in Colorado, it was almost de rigur. I know how comfortable it is, but looking at him, I begin to doubt my fashion choices. Do I look like that? Looking around, I start questioning everything.
Within minutes, I find myself hating this waiting area with its piped in Muzak. Hating my time spent in cars. Hating that I don't live in a walkable city. Why aren't I in Paris right now?
My name is called, and I walk by the general manager's office. His last name is the same one on the building. He's looking at something and shaking his head. We make eye contact, nod, and smile. Both of us wondering, how did we get to this point?
He goes back to his paper, and I go home to change into a fresh pair of wool socks and walk around in my Birks.
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