Frog Blog

waiting in line today at the grocery store, buying laundry soap and milk, i caught a strange whiff i immediately identified as "old lady living in apartment with 15 cats."

i love smell!! not nasty cat smell but smell in general!! it's amazing to me how smells can knock you out of your shoes or instantly take you back so some old boyfriend you had during the summer you were 12 and wore love's baby soft perfume. i love how smell either enfolds you or repells you (or sometimes, both). this particular cat smell today in the store was so insanely putrid that i couldn't stand within three feet of the woman. she was slow paying for her groceries and had lots of questions for the cashier, to whom i sent telepathic messages of pity.

the thing that gets me is that france is relatively scent-free, at least, people-wise. i smell car exhaust and the occasional bakery, dog shit, the cafeteria, etc., but it's pretty rare that i encounter an individual who smells really bad. on the contrary, usually i run into people who smell really good-- enough to make me think, oh, i wonder what perfume she's wearing, or, wow, maybe more men should wear aftershave because that guy smelled pretty good. for all the stereotypes i heard about the french smelling bad, i've been rather surprised.

now, after an hour of class with 10 teenagers, my classroom can smell pretty ripe-- and i have only lived here during the cold months, so i might change my mind come spring when more skin starts to show. but what gets me is how people don't usually know when they smell bad. i don't notice my stinky classroom until after i've stepped out and stepped back in again. i'm guessing cat lady is so used to her little furry friends that her nose is perfectly immune to the ammonia-piss-dander smell that the little kitties leave in their wake.