Metropole Paris:- Monday, 3. February 1997:- It was a long grey week and at the end it was a cold week too. I'm not sorry a new week starts today, but I am not hoping much from the weather.

If I don't think too hard all I can think of are disagreeable things - like the coming 'vacances d'hiver' which throws the kids out of school for a week or ten days - like the rapidly approaching deadline for filing tax returns; although mine will be easy this year: all zeros for income and after last spring spent in illuminating discussions with the tax inspector, all zeros for the expenses too - and I have to renew some permit or other as well, but I may get an 'illuminating' feature out of this experience.

Because last week, in Paris, ended a day before the end of the month, I haven't got the 'futures' for February; but what the heck! I forget to look at them half the time and learn about coming events from what I see posted underground in the métro.

Without my 'futures' I am not without feature ideas; but I can't announce them in advance because they involve lining up their subjects and everybody is busy and it is hard to tell in advance when a subject is going to be free enough to nail down.

The January readership statistics came in prematurely and therefore incomplete but I'm happy to say that even with partial results - there are more of you, and each and every one is a treasure. Just so nobody gets discouraged, some readers write astoundingly glowing letters; but I cannot publish them without looking like I'm making advertisements for myself - I just want everybody to know that they are greatly appreciated and I keep them in a semi-safe place and re-read them after I have been out in the cold greyness a bit too long.

If you don't write or haven't gotten around to it yet - do not feel pushed to do it. There's time. Metropole is for everybody who reads it, no matter where you are, no matter what you do, no matter what you really think about Paris. Obviously, if you never think about Paris, I doubt if you read Metropole - and I could leave this sentence off because non-readers aren't reading it anyhow.

Saint Valentine's Day has never been one of my favorites because when I was in grade two some young lady I had my eye on had her eye on someone - an obvious ruffian - else and he got the card intended for me, and since then it has just been a total bunk.

All the same, as a concession to popular manias, I will 'do' something in the next issue of Metropole for Saint Valentine and if any of you feel like tossing something into the pot I'll see what I can do with it.

There are major events coming up before Easter and I intend to throw these at you, unless I break a leg and have to fill up the magazine with canned stuff I crib from the papers and TV.

Next week there will be a report about 'Retromobile,' which I think will be a salon featuring old cars. If you are in town, the dates are seven to 16. February and it's down at Paris-Expo at the Porte de Versailles.

The big Salon de l'Agriculture will take over the Paris-Expo location at the end of the month and it is so big that I don't think I'll have much trouble not duplicating the report on it that appeared in Metropole last year. It is followed by the good old and also big Salon du Livre in mid-March and Metropole has to go there in order to find out the name of the winner of the Grand Prix for the best 'bande dessinée.'

There are some other cultural expositions starting around now and they include one about the 1930's, at the Modern Art Museum; and one about the 1950's at the Hôtel de Ville. These go on for months to come. Actually there is quite a lot of interesting stuff coming along this winter and spring, so I'll have to get my 'futures'-act together and get it in here on time.

Cheers for Mr. Eddy

A long time ago when rock-n-roll crossed the ocean on 45's and may have been dimlyheard from offshore pirate radio stations - such as Radio Caroline - it was taken up in France. For some reason or other, known probably only to continental music promoters, French practitioners of the art adopted American- sounding names for themselves.