The Corkscrew Mystery

    The line for the Pompidou was moving along. I watched the line directors moving us this way and that and felt a strong sense of admiration for a job well done. That's a job I think I could be super successful at, if I do say so myself. 

    When the couple in front of us were at the security table, the woman walked through the body scanner successfully.  Her partner fumbled with wallet and keys before placing them in the plastic bin. Then he squiggled his hand deep into his pocket and plopped a small swiss army knife in to the bin as well. The kind with a prominent corkscrew.  When I saw the knife in the bin in front of me, I thought, "I should get one of those. We're always forgetting a corkscrew." But come to find out, the security worker, a tall man, said something in French which seemed to mean that the man could not bring the knife into the museum.  The man pointed at his wife and said something about putting it in her purse.  The wife held up her purse with both hands as if to say, "We'll put it right in here."  No Monsieur.  The man pointed to a trash can a few feet away.  He was so desperate that he was willing to throw his precious knife away.  But... No Monsieur.  The security man pointed outside, but the man did not want to go.  He was intent on finding a way to solve the problem and to get into the Pompidou. It took awhile, but the security man motioned us around and through.  At that point I was curious to see what would happen next, but I didn't want to stare at someone's misery, so we walked to the ticket counter. We never saw the couple again.

    The moral of the story is to not bring a knife to the Pompidou Center.  But maybe if you put your knife in your wife's purse before you get to the security check table, you can get away with it.  I'm not sure, so better safe than sorry.