Number 2.03:- Metropole Paris - Monday, 20. January 1997:- This has been a curious week. I had a lunch is a real restaurant on Monday; something I do very seldom - and then I spent so much time talking, I don't remember what I ate. I do remember that it didn't taste bad though.

When I eat at home, I can remember what I eat because I eat the same thing every day. It is very easy to decide what to eat if it is going to be the same thing as the day before. I think I've been eating this particular lunch for about seven years now. Before I started eating the lunch I currently have, I had another one, that I had for about 12 years; but it had quite a few variations. I guess I'm getting lazy now.

On Wednesday I got a very late start after making some phone calls, and when I normally would have eaten lunch I was underground in the métro where there isn't much food, and when I got to Boulogne there wasn't time to have any. The days are getting longer, but the light goes early all the same and I had to hustle.

Boulogne was a pleasant surprise. I didn't really expect to find anything there - I have no 'guides' to the place - and was half-thinking I'd go down to the Pont de Sèvres that I'd crossed so many times, and take a photo of the closed and abandoned Renault factory. Between there and the Porte de Saint Cloud - all of Boulogne in other words - it was a complete blank.

A flic points me to the annex of the city hall, after I follow the signs pointing to the Musée des Années 30, and it is gone - but - there are always 'buts' in Paris - they are temporarily upstairs and best of all, they are there. The lady sees me, squeezes me in before a guy she has a fixed rendez-vous with, and gives me this ton of stuff - all of it new as a nail to me. A bit like looking for gold in the wrong country with my eyes shut; I stumble on a nugget.

And then to find out later in the afternoon, that buildings and ateliers I'd admired years ago while waiting for my sons to leave the clinic where they were born, are architect's treasures - well that was something! Better yet, the light wasn't gone by then. I was hungry too.

I remember another flic, a cop, on a stand at the Salon Nautique, who I had a long conversation with, who gave me all the details and names and necessary phone numbers - to contact, to do some sort of future feature on Paris' river police. I also half-learned the difference between the police and the gendarmerie, but still do not understand the 'why' of it.

And then on Friday, standing the roadway, trying to fit an English pub into the camera's viewfinder, the Italian in the yellow Fiat 500 - what's that in Italian? - wants the avenue d'Iéna; and we are both in it. Hey, atsawright!

During the week the weather changed by warming up and the skies cleared, causing everybody so much joy that they all drove to Paris at the same time and polluted the air.

I don't know how the automobile manufacturers foresaw this, but by week's end they put diesel-motored cars into heavy promotion - as if this might make some sort of essential difference; when it has recently been reported that studies show that burning diesel fuel throws off a lot of junk into the air that was previously thought to be harmless.

This is a real problem that the management is going to have to come to grips with, and soon. In Lyon it was so bad the city centre was closed to traffic for a time.

Meanwhile, in Paris expect that the Sunday pedestrian, skate and bike demonstrators will be active again - if they ever stopped, that is. One reader wrote to say she had a good time with them last summer. She also said she has some special skates that slip off so she can ride the métro to bypass unfriendly skate-user parts of the city.

Do I have any good news? Sure, hot off the Internet: Bill and family, heading back to Cahors after Christmas non-shopping in London on account of mis-laid plastic, in a car running slower and slower, in a blizzard on frozen roads, on a weekend with all the regular garages closed - finds a dubious mechanic with a 'Taiwanese' screwdriver, to change his old Opel's air intake, one half-turn, from summer - to the winter setting. No parts needed, just service.

An Event that May Have Happened, I Think

Opening of the Musée de la Musique

Paris has a new museum and it seems to be a secret. I mentioned it as a 'Coming Event' in the last issue and I did not forget it. However, I saw only one poster in three trips to Paris - see posters - and the promised press kit did not arrive. I saw nothing about it in the papers, and if it was mentioned on TV, I missed it. Unless it is disinformation of some sort, watch for a feature about the Musée de la Musique in an upcoming issue of this magazine.

Officially open to the public, Saturday, on 18. January - see collections, including 4500 musical instruments - from the Renaissance until today - that illustrate the sum of western musical history, popular music and music from around the world.
From 12:00 to 18:00: on Fridays from 12:00 to 21:30, and on Sundays from 10:00 to 18:00. Closed Mondays.

Musée de la Musique 221, avenue Jean-Jaurés, Paris 19. Métro: Porte de Pantin; bus 75 or PC. Tel. 01 44 84 44 84.