Club Membership Climbs Dizzily

The Club's La Corona café meeting place in Paris.

News About the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Saturday, 30. October 1999:- Last week's popular meeting of our club was enhanced by two new long-time Metropole readers and brand-new charter club members, Jan and Dana Shaw, from Florida (winters) and Maine (summers).

The long-standing regular charters members who also attended were, in order of arrival, Heather Stimmler, Kathleen Bouvier and Mark Kritz. Although former Minnesotans were present, they were no longer a majority.

Right here and now I'd like to point out that the 'Café Metropole Club' is open to anybody from any other state in the union, plus its offshore dominions, client states, trading partners - 'most favored' or not - as well as - and this is important - anybody else who lives in the whole wide world, including France, the DOM-TOM and of course, Corsica.

Even if you do not have access to the Internet and the WorldWideWeb part of it, you are still welcome to come to the 'Café Metropole Club' in Paris anytime club meetings are being held.

Simply by doing so, with no obligation to buy anything except maybe a drink or a snack from the club's waiters, Patrick or Monsieur Ferrat, you will become a 'charter' club member.

This membership is valid worldwide and its duration is as long as you want it to be. You can even renounce your club membership without any formalities - other than standing in the middle of the nearby Pont des Arts, facing the Ile de la Cité, and repeating the following words in any language you chose, "The 'Café Metropole Club' is bunk!" three times.

Since this will be unheard in La Corona café where club meetings are held, you will have to consider yourself an ex-member yourself, because the club keeps no membership list which makes it impossible to remove you from it.

But, as Mark Kritz said last Thursday, before writing down three grouches in the club's 'book-with-no-name,' "We did too much grouching last time!"

So instead of grouching about the impossibility of officially becoming an ex-member, just remember for a moment that there is 'No Governor' anyway, and all of the club's two silly rules have been abolished, regardless of the inconvenience this may cause me, members, ex-members and non-members alike.

Last week in this column the possibility of becoming a 'virtual' member was raised. After a lot of blah-blah filler words, I wrote that the administration of this would be onerous, but that I would try to have a 'virtual' membership card to place here, for you to clip out, fill in, and carry next to your 'gold card' or some other valuable document.

During the week nobody raised any objections to this plan. This silence has led me to believe the 'virtual' card idea is a dubious or boring one, and I have decided not to make one - unless somebody actually writes opposing the idea.

Hand on heart, this is not a cop-out. I have the tools to make the card, I have the brown paper to do it on and I can 'see' the card in my head.

This is the proposed text on the card - which you will have to imagine too:

If found, please return this virtual membership card to the Café Metropole Club, Paris. No reward for finders.

If some of you silent would-be 'virtual' members doubt my sincerity, you can clip out the above text and use it as the 'virtual' membership card and it too will be as valid as the real 'virtual' card I may get around to doing someday. Please leave a space where '[some nominal date]' is so you can insert any date you like.

Here are the day, time and location details for you to note:

Café-Tabac La Corona
2. Rue de l'Amiral Coligny
Paris 1. Métro: Louvre-Rivoli or Pont-Neuf
Every Thursday at 15:00, until 17:00.

La Corona has a small 'salle' just off the bar and a large 'salle' behind the bar. There is a small terrace on the Rue de l'Amiral Coligny side, which faces west; and a big terrace on the Quai de Louvre side, which faces south. The club meetings are held at the rear of the big 'salle.'

The 'Café Metropole Club' held its first meeting in the above-named café in Paris on Thursday, 14. October 1999. The second gathering was held on Thursday, 21. October of the same year. The third session was held last week on Thursday, 28. October, still in the same year, which happens to be this one. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 4. November at the same time and place, also in Paris, as is now usual.

For an inaccurate account of the last week's third meeting, you are requested to hit this link in order to have it before your own eyes.

The 'Club' has no actual real or virtual benefits. Its sole purpose is to offer an opportunity for all readers to meet each other and me, the 'Ed' of this online weekly magazine about Paris, in Paris.

So that no one is excluded by virtue of not being in Paris, 'virtual' membership is not only permitted, but encouraged. It is not necessary to be in Paris - even 'virtually' - if you wish to do this.

All of the 'Café Metropole Club's Boilerplate Cop-Out' is Suspended

If, for any reason, you would like to know what this used to be, please consult All Past Issues. Do not look for any 'club' information more than three weeks old.

At the risk of repeating myself, if, for any reason, you would like to know what this used to be, please consult All Past Issues.

See you soon - A bientôt à Paris,