TRANSFORMATION D'UNE BURGEOISE 3

TRANSFORMATION D'UNE BURGEOISE 3

by Conchita
translated from French and adapted by Monica 

I followed her instructions like a robot. I was about to finish filling

the tub when I heard her voice form the bedroom : "Marie Benedicte, could

you come here for a moment?" I went back to the bedroom, she was wearing

one of my bathrobes. She looked mischievously at me : "I decided to test

your good intentions, I thought that when I'll be having my bath you can

go down and finish the housework that I left undone. Would you like to do

that for me?" I was about to refuse it, proposing something of the type

' I can wait for you to finish your bath and we can do it together like

partners', but she didn't give me the chance. Instead she continued :

"I won't take no for an answer, be a good sport and play our little game."

I blushed again and said meekly : "Ok Monique, I'll do it, tell me what

you want me to do". I thought I saw a triumphant glimpse in her eyes but

she kept her cool and said in a 'giving instructions or orders tone':

" Just finish the dusting and vacuuming in the living, dining area and

then do the kitchen properly, do the dishes, clean the tops and mop the

floor thoroughly. Ok pet?" now she started calling me pet. I started to

go out of the room but she stopped me again : "Did you forget something

Marie Benedicte?" I turned around looking puzzled and with a big grin

she indicated at the pile of clothes on top of the bed. "You forgot

your working clothes dear!" And she was pointing to her overall dress,

apron and head scarf.

This time I did turn red from embarassment. "But Monique I don't have to

be dressed like you to do the housework, I can do it in my T-shirt and

jeans." This time she got red but from pure anger and said to me abruptly

: "Listen to me Marie Benedicte, either you do it my own way or I get

dress and go this instant and you will not see me again!" She stopped

to catch her breath, boy she was angry now, and continued : "I have been

doing that all my life and I am over 40 now, cleaning houses and offices

and public toilets and being an hotel maid and anything menial you can

think off. I am fed up of being a Portuguese maid, probably you can get

the feeling what it is like not to be an arrogant bourgeoise and be in

the other side of the fence."

(3- à suivre)

TRANSFORMATION D'UNE BOURGEOISE 1

TRANSFORMATION D'UNE BOURGEOISE

by Conchita

translated from French and adapted by Monica

Translators Note

The story is happening in Paris of the early 1970s and could be based on real facts. At the time Portugal was still a very poor country and not a member of the European Union. Lots of poor girls and married women were coming from there to work in France as factory workers, cleaners and maids. Many of those girls were working as live in maids in many Parisian bourgeois houses or apartments. If they were working in

apartments they had there own separate rooms at the top of the building, usually in the 6th floor, at what was called 'la chambre de bonne' (maid's room). Of course there was no elevator in those buildings of the late

19th century and the maids were going down from the back service stairs

to the kitchen door of the apartment they were working. They were not

allowed to use the font entrance of the building even when they were out

of uniform and not on duty. For them there was the back or side service

entrace to come and go, the same way that the garbage was coming down as

well. All those apartment buildings had there own live in concierge who

had a little place to stay either by the entrance or in the basement. The

concierge was usually the 'terror' of all live in maids because she was

checking on them all the time, reporting back to their employers.

So the term Portuguese maid/housekeeper or 'femme de menage Portugaise'

was synonymous to a poor backwards peasant girl or woman often illiterate,

coming form the rural areas of Portugal to work in the sophisticated

Paris. The rich bourgeois Parisians had the tendency of course to look

down on them.

At the time they were lots of specialized shops in those rich Parisian

suberbs, selling 'domestic workwear' for those in live in service. Those

shops were called 'blouses et tabliers boutiques' (overalls and aprons

shops).

In today's Paris, as elsewhere in the western world live in maids are a

rarity. Portuguese women are rich and elegant an go to Paris for their

shopping and the 'blouses et tabliers boutiques' are nearly gone.

CHAPTER 1

My husband left me!! I simply can not believe it! It finally happened

and it happened just like that. Yesterday he announced to me that he had

an affair with a nurse (how banal Mon Dieu!) Working in his clinic and

they were moving out of the country to start new parallel careers in an

exclusive private clinic in Milan, Italy! I simply can not believe it,

my husband decided to leave his beloved Paris for an Italian city, even

if that is Milan? Later I understood that this was planned well ahead and

it was me in my notorious innocence and naivety that didn't pick anything.

He packed a suitcase of clothes and personal things in a haste and left

yesterday evening directly for the airport, they had a late flight to

catch. He said that He didn't need anything else from the house which

belonged to me anyway, through family inheritence. But in a goodwill

gesture, as he said, he left everything that we bought together for the

house the five years we stayed together.

We parted as friends without unnecessary scenes, we both were low key

people and we didn't like screams and abuses. He even managed to convince

me that he wasn't good enough for me, he wasn't the type of man I needed

etc. Probably he had a point. I really don't know. Of course after he

was gone a terribe emptiness overtook me and I started crying bitterly

on my own. It took me some time to calm down and only after I took a

sleeping tablet I was able to go into a deep dreamless sleep.

I opened my eyes quite late the next day, it was past ten in the morning

and I could hear the familiar noise of the vacuum cleaner from the floor

below. God I forgot! It was Monique our Portuguese cleaning lady. I felt

uneasy I had to explain to her what happened. She was coming to the house

3 times a week and we were quite happy with her. All of sudden the feeling

of emptiness came back to me. I was still thinking in terms of WE, but

I was alone now! Tears started coming up tp my eyes and I desperately

tried to control myself.

Soon I was in the dining room where usually breakfast was served when

Monique was around. She saw me and I must have looked quite a sight

because she stopped what she was doing and came towards me, a concerned

look in her face. She looked very neat in her light blue overall dress

and her matching bib apron and head scarf. I was a firm believer that

a domestic in the house should look the part, nothing fancy, just a

practical maid's uniform.

"Bonjour Madame, you look terrible this morning, is everything

alright?" "Non Monique pas du tous, everything is not alright" I said

and tears started coming up again. "Pauvre Madame, please tell everything

to Monique"

And I started and I said to her in detail what happened, sobbing softly

at the same time.

(1- à suivre)

LAST DISH: MAIDS IN RUBBER GLOVES & RUBBER APRONS

MISTRESS AND MAID