The first time I ever saw the Pigeon Drop attempted was on Quai Voltaire. That was one August some years ago. I was back in November of that year and I saw it again. By the end of that November visit I really had the role of the stupid tourist down pat: "Vous avez bon chance, Madame!" I said to the drab little woman who was conducting the scam.
The Pigeon Drop has been tried on me a number of times since.
Today I had decided was an ideal day for image gathering on the banks of the Seine. I set out about 1330. I kiddingly wondered to myself if I would again be pigeon-dropped. "No, not after all this time" I said to myself. A distance down the quais, I was standing and wondering if I should take another series of images of the statue of Thomas Jefferson when I became aware of a small dumpy brown skinned and brown clothed woman – her clothes were some kind of trademark eastern European garb - sort of floating into my view as she stooped down toward the sidewalk.
She was stooping down toward the sidewalk to “pick up” (it was actually already in her hand) a shiny gold ring. She rose to her full 4 foot 8 stature and said to me, "Voila! Regardez que j'ai trouvé!"
I was so excited.
The drop was on.
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