Looks mean nothing, this really is
a modern book and magazine shop.

Number 1.05 - Metropole Paris, Friday, 22. March 1996:- This has not been a lazy week here at Metropole, but it is late now and I've missed the deadline on account of factors that are of no interest to anybody; so I will do a lazy diary of the week - by copying out some headlines - mostly from Le Parisien:

Monday 'Bernard Tapie Counter-attacks' is too long and boring to explain, so I hope you will settle for 'Claudia Schiffer Stars at Saint Laurent,' but the main photo is of a bicycle racer, Laurent Jalabert, who won the Paris-Nice for the second year in a row.

Tuesday: The big headline is a depressingly common story that is not Metropole fare; the substitute therefore is: 'Health: Fatigue is the First Sign of Depression.'

Wednesday: Under a band, 'Justice and Politics' there is a quote, 'The Actual Situation is Prejudicial,' by the Minister of Justice, Jacques Toubon, who was commenting on the unsavory financial affairs of political parties in France. (This is not about Bernard Tapie. That is another affair.)

Thursday: The good news is above the masthead: 'A Detailed Map of 50 Kilometres of Bicycle Paths,' and these are within Paris; but below the masthead there is 'Violence in the Schools- How to Protect Our Children.'

Friday: One word, 'Bravo!' sums up the Paris' football team Paris-St Germain's win over Parma of Italy, 3 to 1 last night, making the Paris club the third French team, after Bordeaux and Nantes, to qualify for the half-final of the Europe Cup championship. Meanwhile, Libération didn't see it that way and their headline today was 'Death to Cows - France Forbids English Beef,' which means France will join most of the rest of Europe in trying to stop 'Mad-Cow' disease from spreading to Continental consumers - although this danger has yet to be conclusively proved.

The selection is small,
but the catalogues are big.

And where do I get this stuff? Why, from my local bookstore, the 'Libriarie Moderne.' In a place as small as this we are lucky to have such a shop; with its daily newspapers, magazines, greeting cards and paper products - and books.

If I want a rare or out-of-print book I have to go to Paris - but that is a whole other occupation; one that can take days... of poking around, for fun.

The 'libriarie' also has a heavy-duty photocopy machine and the latest wonder to arrive has been a fax machine. If you send a fax to me, madame at the 'libriarie' phones me up and I take the five-minute walk over there and pay about a dollar for it, depending on how the franc is doing.

I don't mind the walk, but I'd rather get email. The most it can cost is 73 centimes. I can almost buy a café in the tabac with the what I save.