On 7 May 2018, as a lone tourist visiting the very glamorous city of Paris, I was hit with a very…read morepainful infection in my gum, so I had to find a dentist at short notice as I was leaving Paris in about 4 days. A very charming pharmacist in Avenue Neil, recommended very highly Doctor Alain Papiernick whose surgery was a couple of blocks up the same avenue.
When I arrived at Dr Papiernik's surgery, apparently it was lunch-time and consequently out of hours, but how was I supposed to know. Despite the obvious inconvenience, Dr Paperienik asked me to come in. I instantly found out he English was about as half as good as my school-boy French. However, we instantly got along very well. He even laughed at my jokes, which was an excellent sign.
He apologised for not being able to see me straight away, but could I return in late in the afternoon? When I returned about 6.40 pm I asked if he stayed back because of me. He said it wasn't a problem and that he could tell I was in great pain, which was very true.
After the examination, he regretfully told me that I would need some serious root-canal treatment and it would be, again regretfully very expensive.
The amusing thing was that I assumed from my experience in my own country it would blow my travel budget though I did have travel insurance. So he said, look I cannot go cheaper than (struggled for his English translation) two zero zero Euros. I thought he left out a 'zero', so I asked, "do you mean two, zero, zero, zero Euros?" He laughed and repeated 200 Euros but you can pay me 2000 Euros if you wish! He laughed again.
I said, Doctor, 200 Euros is not expensive. When can you start? I had to see him two more times and for that and his professionalism and being a very lovely human being, I give an extra Euros.
Alors, Docteur Alain Papiernik, je m'excuse d'avoir pris tant de temps pour vous remercier, mais je voulais vous envoyer mes meilleurs voeux pour Noël et la fin de l'année. J'espère que vous et votre famille avez passé un merveilleux Noël et que votre 2019 aura beaucoup de succès. Mon adresse e-mail: brustep at gmail dot com..
