Warm Days - Cool Nights

The Café de la Paix, in the place de l'Opéra.

Parisians Think of It As a 'Cadeaux'

by Ric Erickson

Paris:- Monday, 6. October 1997:- Without doing anything in particular, we have really done it this time. Paris and much of France have managed to achieve 'Golden October' by merely being in the right place at the right time.

After years of continuous gloom, which commenced like clockwork on the 1st of September every year, the clock stopped this year and August rolled on throughout the entire month of September.

Parisians are walking around dazed by sunlight. Parisians are getting more than two week's worth of wear out of their summer clothes; for the first time that many of them can remember.

Visitors are showing up with their customary raincoats and wet-weather gear and are happily hanging them wherever it is they are hanging their hats.

It's sort of like a 'bonus' summer; a free one - one 'on the house.' While reports are appearing about places down south doing a roaring September business; not much is being said about the un-seasonal un-business being done in the city - but I'm sure these reports will not be long in coming.

Meanwhile, leaves on the capital's many trees are having a hard time making up their minds about what to do. Despite the extreme dryness, many trees remain green. Grass, on the other hand, which was green at the beginning of September, is going August-brown.

As we move into October, the mornings are cool. They feel colder than they are, and there are some morning fogs, due, I suppose, to the 15-degree difference in temperature between night and day.

With the intention of doing next to nothing this past week - take a little bus ride - check out a little fête on Montmartre - see some nags run around a track - I have ended up with much more than I intended. Some of it will 'hit the floor' and some of the things - what 'things?' - I intended to write here are either never going to be written or they are going to 'hit the floor' too.

There is getting to be a fair pile of stuff on the floor. It is there because I intend to pick it up. 'Intentions' are weak things at times, and I hate to see this good stuff to move from the floor to the dumpster - but we must move on.

Falling victim to 'intentions' this week are coming events. Even blindfolded I could hit a couple of hundred of them with a needle in a haystack - but I've run out of time and energy.

Therefore, because I've already done the images, I offer only two - in abbreviated form:

Until the end of October, an exhibition of the sculpture which has been awarded the Prix Bourdelle for 1995, will be on view at the Musée Bourdelle, 18. rue Antoine-Bourdelle, Paris 15. The sculptor is Takashi Naraha, and he does stones inside stones and 'stones filled with spaces.' From 10:00 to 17:40 daily, except Mondays and public holidays.

The Ville de Paris, the city of Düsseldorf, the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle and the Goethe Institut have associated themselves to present Heine in two Paris locations.

'La Loreley et la Liberté' is an exhibition at the Couvent des Cordeliers, 15, rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, Paris 6.

'Traces' is another and its location is at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, 22. rue Malher, Paris 4.

If I am not mistaken, the exhibition(s) will continue until Saturday, 1. November.

Issue 1.33 - 7. October 1996 featured the columns - Metropole Diary's 'Too Many Events and Oyster Problems' and 'Au Bistro' had - 'Bombs, Drugs, Bardot and Baseball.' The articles in the issue were 'Paris Car Show - Very New, Very Shiny Cars In the Glitzer Dome' - 'Montmartre's 48-hour Party - Wine, Wine, Wine, and Cocktails' and 'The Last Nice Sunday at the Arc - London Bookies Pay Free Dinner in Paris.' There were two 'Posters of the Week' and Ric's Cartoon of the Week rounded off the issue.

Only 817 days left to go.