It's hard to make friends in a new country! So when we noticed that the convenience store around the corner from our flat has a Turkish flag, we seized the opportunity to establish a relationship with a bakkalcı (In Istanbul, the bakkal is the shop downstairs that's open early/late, is generous with credit and will accept your deliveries. Your bakkalcı is trustworthy enough to hold a set of keys for your visitors but gossipy enough that you need to be careful about who enters and leaves your apartment and at what time). Everyone needs one.
Carpetblogger, in Turkish: Are you Turkish?
Bakkalcı: *Eyes grow large* Evet!
(CB explains, in Turkish and French, the nature of our relationship with Istanbul, and now Nice. Pleasantries exchanged.)
Bakkalcı (if you don't know which question comes next, you have never ridden in an Istanbul taxi): Which city is more beautiful? Nice or Istanbul?
CB: Ummm. Nice.
Now, instead, we patronize L'Arabe sur le Coin (the Arab on the Corner, the other corner, opposite the ruffle-feathered Turk), who's open later, keeps the rosé cold and never asks which city, Tunis or Nice, is more beautiful.
