Bonsoir de Paris, Part Deux

Random crappy cell phone pics from my brief sojourn to Paris last week: first stop, Aerogare de Charles De Gaulle, where I was unceremoniously buzzed by an Air France Concorde.  Zut alors!

After a few days of work related crap, I dropped in at the Lavinia wine shop (Europe's largest) near the Gare St. Lazare to sample some of their famous grape juices. Alas, not a bottle of Night Train or Boone's Farm in sight, so I picked up a bottle of local brew to bring home to Tammi Jo.

Check it out! Wine vending machine.

Another great place for wine: French Mickey D's. This one (also near Gare St Lazare) was built like a Alsatian cuckoo clock.

After victuals I hopped the Metro for St. Germaine to meet up with my pal Professor Jonathan. The good professor is an American ex-pat who once toiled as a vagabond sailor and rock journalist (editor of Circus and press agent for Frank Zappa), and who moved to Paris in the early 70's to become a poet & counterculture bon vivant. Today he teaches university English in Paris, and has graciously agreed to join Bolus as a contributor and editor of our European bureau. Bienvenue a Bolus, P.J.!

After marveling at pair of $1700 shoes (WTF?) in a shop window, our first stop in St. Germaine was "Comptoir de Canettes." This little alley dram shop is famous as a launching pad for French folk troubadors for 60 years. We enjoyed a few shots of calvados and lovely female scenery.

Case in point: outside Comptoir de Canettes we met this lovely jeune fille, a graduate student who didn't seem off-put by our crude American philisinisme. Franco-American relations restored! As you can see, PJ was fairly pixelated at this point.

At 10 pm the soltice sun was still out, so we rambled over to the square in St Germaine where an antiques fair was underway. Saw some cool stuff including strolling Brittany folk musicians, a fancy pissoir (paging Marcel Duchamp!), and some WWII-era baseball equipment apparently left here by liberating GIs.

Another cafe stop, where P.J. pointed out this interesting site -- the apartment home of the hottest babe who ever lived: Catherine Deneuve.  Alas, we did not see her emerge.

Penultimate stop of the evening was La Palette, another St Germaine stalwart hopping with a throng of cafeistes.

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Later we headed over to the famous Deux Magots ("two maggots") to close the joint down.  I had a flight the next day, so we decided to leave about 2am.  Still I had a nagging feeling that my Paris experience was somehow incomplete. But of course! A good old fashioned French car-b-q! Luckily there was Citroen nearby, so we flipped it over for an early morning bonfire.

Merci Paris, and a bientot!

Comments

[Professor Jonathan]

Well! I can't say that I'm not honored by Burge's invite to join the august company of contributers to Bolus, but quite honestly, I don't have a hell of a lot to write about: my life pretty much ended the day I decided to live in this God-forsaken hole where nothing ever happens other than the occasional urban riot and the ineluctable progression of a rather inquieting demographic curve.

It's been a decades-long NDE, and still no light at the end of the tunnel.

If that weren't enough - and I've never had the courage to confess this to Burge - after a number of failed attempts to partner with the local floozies, I've ended up living with a pigeon.

My little friend Poopzilla is actually great company, but certainly nothing to blog home about.

I could let him walk all over the keyboard of the Dell and submit the results, but I've too much respect for Dave and his readers to try to pull a fast one like that.

However if ever an idea does occur to me - other than wishing I was behind the wheel of a rag-top cruising down Highway 1, heading for the Cadillac Hotel in Venice Beach

http://www.thecadillachotel.com/

I'll let y'all know.

In the meantime, and as I often do in such times of confusion and stress - which is most of the time - I'm going to seek solace in one of the few things that make sense to me anymore: the soothing music of Aphex Twin and the inspired video of Chris Cunningham in WINDOWLICKER:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7ovoPCZSQw

Have a good one, people. Me and Poopzilla is outta here....

[Professor Jonathan]

Addendum:

It was the arch-famous (Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir)* Café de Flore and not the arch-famous (Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir)** Deux Magots where we ended the evening, Dave.

*Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir: the late and much-regretted duo of one of France's most celebrated comic teams - sort of the Gallic answer to Abbott & Costello).

** Same as above.

As for the Cadillac Hotel, it's a dump - or was when I last stayed, but it still feels like home. Other than the fact that home is also a dump, there's something about the vibes of the place: I'm convinced that ghosts actually haunt it.

It does have an interesting history:

http://www.thecadillachotel.com/history.htm

And it's still the closest thing to the Chelsea in NYC that I've found in Los Angeles.

It's past three ay-am in Paris, and if I can't leave you laughing, the least I can do is to leave you with a song - one of my faves too. Just follow the instructions to download:

http://files.ww.com/files/47584.html

Hi, my name is Stereo Mike

Yeah, we got 3 tickets to the Bran Van concert this Monday night
at the Pacific Pallisades. You can all dial in if you want to answer
a couple of questions, namely,
what is Todd's favourite cheese.
Jackie just called up and said it was a form of Roquefort.
We'll see about that...

give us a ring-ding-ding! It's a beautiful day.

Yeah Todd, this is Liquid ring-a-ding-a-dinging
want those 3 Bran Van tickets man
ring-a-ding
Todd?
ITS ALIVE RECORD, ALIVE!

I woke up again this morning with the sun in my eyes
when Mike came over with a script surprise
a mafioso story with a twist
a "Too Wong Foo,Julie Newmar" hitch
get your ass out of bed, he said:
I'll explain it on the way

but we did nothing
absolutely nothing that day
and I said,
what the hell am I doing drinking in LA
at twenty six?
I got the fever for the flavour
the payback will be later
still I need a fix

and the girls on the bus kept on laughing at us
as we rode on the ten down to Venice again
flaring out the g-funk
sipping on juice and gin
just me and a friend
feeling kinda groovy
working on movie
*yeah right!*

but we did nothing
absolutely buttkiss
that day
and I'll say
what the hell am I doing drinking in LA
at twenty six?
*with my mind on my money and my money on my mind, beer beer!*
I know that life is for the taking
so I'd better wise up
and take it quickly

*yeah one more time at trader vics*

some men there wanted to hurt us
and other men
said we weren't worth the fuss
we could see them all bitching by the bar
about the fine line
between the rich and the poor
then mike turned to me and said
what do you think we got done son?

we've got a conclusion
and I guess that's something
so I ask you
what the hell am I doing drinking in LA
at twenty six?
I got the fever for the nectar
the payback will be later
still I need a fix

*we need to fix you up
call me monday
and maybe we'll fix it all up*

L A
L A
L L A
L A
L A
L A
L L A
L A
L A
L A
L L A

so I ask
you what the hell am I doing drinking in LA
at twenty six?

Its alive record, alive!
Yeah, my first - yeah right.

L A
L A
L A
L A

[B Moe]

Dang, dude. How much would they want for them shoes if they matched, you reckon?

[B Moe]

Dang, dude. How much would they want for them shoes if they matched, you reckon?