I Love Lucy – Paris at Last – season 5, originally aired February 27, 1956
In Paris at Last, when Lucy goes to exchange her American dollars for French francs, she listens to a con man and exchanges her money with him instead - unknowingly receiving counterfeit money instead, some of which she shares with Fred and Ethel. She also buys an ‘original’ painting for 1,000 francs to surprise Ricky with that evening. When Lucy, Ethel and Fred go on a sightseeing tour, where Lucy wanders off and tries to order lunch at a French cafe.
She unintentionally orders snails and does a wonderful bit of physical comedy as she tries to eat the snails, at one point hanging the special utensil for eating snails from her nose. She offends the chef by asking for some ketchup [via pantomime, since she doesn’t speak French], and moments later being arrested for paying with counterfeit money.
At the police station, one of the funniest moments appears, as neither Lucy or Desi speak French – but an inebriated man at the station speaks Spanish and German, and one of the police officers speaks German.
So Lucy speaks English to Ricky, who translates it to Spanish to the inebriated man, who translates it to German to the police officer, who translates it into French for the police captain – and the words go back and forth up and down the line, ending with Lucy paying her bill without counterfeit money, just in time for the Mertzes to come in, having been arrested for passing counterfeit bills!
Paris at Last is available as part of the I Love Lucy season 5 DVD collection.
Funny quotes from I Love Lucy – Paris at Last
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Honey, you can’t go running around Paris all by yourself.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Why not?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): What about your French?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): What about my French?!
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): Well, Paris is a big city, and not knowing the language, you’re liable to get in a lot of trouble.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Well, when you first came to the U.S., you didn’t get into a lot of trouble because you didn’t know the language, did you?
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I’m married, aren’t I? She told me that ‘I Do’ meant ‘Pleased to meet you,’ and then she introduced me to the preacher.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): A day off in Paris, hot ziggity!
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): You are coming on a sightseeing tour with Lucy and me.
Fred Mertz (William Frawley): Cold ziggity!
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Nobody speaks English. They’re all foreigners.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Waiter, this food has snails in it.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): [to snail] I think an American cousin of yours ate my geranium plant.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Since when is it a crime to put ketchup on snails?
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): [on telephone] Ricky, I’m in the Bastille!
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Oh Ricky! I’ve never been so glad to hear someone speaking English in my life. Even you!
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): Listen, thanks to me you got to do something that very few Americans get to do. You got to see the inside of a French jail.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Thanks to you we almost spent the rest of our lives on Devil’s Island.