Tell'em the tailor tale!

After 9 months of travelling, sitting on messed up bus and train seats, rubbing against my camera bag all day, and going through a bunch of repairs already, my jeans were truly about to surrender..

if you see what i mean..

So i went to the "Paris" store downtown -a Galeries Lafayettes / Macy's type store- asking for the 'mercerià' department, as spelled out in my newly acquired spanish dictionary..

The guy looked at me blank.. "the what?¿"

Now that's where it gets interesting.. anywhere (like in paris to not mention any place in particular) the answer would have been "none of this around here, thank you, ciao!"
But not here! The first salesperson took me to one of his colleagues to whom i tried once more to explain.. "por reparar les vestidos!".. blank again!
The colleague made a few phone calls to find an english speaker, and after a while here comes Morris -my saviour!- and i'm now surrounded by no less than 3 salesperson desperately trying help me!..
I manage to explain to Morris that i need to find the "thread and needles" department for i need pretty badly to repair my jeans!..
Now Morris looks at me just like you would.. "jeans are not that expensive you know!!"
But come on! these have travelled the whole world! They can't give up on me in the last run! I neither can i abandon them; i'm a sensitive man! (at least when it comes to jeans!)
So here are my 3 very comprehensive salespersons making more phone calls to find out where in the world i could find what i need..
I had entered the store a good half hour ago expecting more or less a "yes or no" type of answer.. at this point i'm really starting to feel embarassed!
There's an address. It's in the next street, but Morris will leave his workplace and accompany me all the way to make sure i find what i need!.. The first place is closed but we're directed to the next building.. We enter the building (not a store, just a residencial building) and ask the gardian... "2nd floor, appartment 102", he says.. and we find ourselves knocking at the door of someone's appartment..
Indeed, there lives a tailor!
Morris explains my case, makes sure i'm in good hands and being taken care of, and then only returns to work! Thank you so much Morris!

The lady looks strangely at me when i insist to have it repaired with pink thread, but hey, when a freak comes in asking you to resurrect his torn jeans, you don't ask too many questions, do you?

so it took a good hour of hard expert work to bring these poor pants back to life..

but now they're just like new!! (kind of..)