'Real Estate' Is Not a Club Topic

A rainy, February day in Paris - perfect for
your club's meeting at La Corona.

News About the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Saturday, 12. February 2000:- Last Thursday was a thoroughly wet and somber day in Paris. If everybody wasn't out of town for the skiing, I would have expected the club to be overflowing with new members.

Regular readers will recognize the name of Allan Pangborn. Not content with a couple of hours of club time per week, he told me he is using La Corona as a 'base' café. Due to its central location in Paris, this makes sense.

Like a fair number of other members who have been to the club to change their membership status from 'virtual' to 'real,' Allan is looking around for an apartment to buy.

Kathleen Bouvier has been doing this too, so she can exchange her experiences with Allan. 'Paris real estate news' is not part of the club's official purpose, so I won't report on this. I have enough to do, trying to think up what should be in this column.

Other 'virtual' members have written to say that have neglected to drop into the club to change their status into 'real.' These members tend to send me emails after they get home; saying how close they were to becoming 'real.'

I am sorry about this too, but I say 'No regrets!' Although life is short, you will remember your error and will certainly not repeat it on your next visit to Paris.

There is a certain famous cave in Spain I always neglect to visit. I know that if I ever do, that'll probably be the last time I'll go there. Therefore, if I like a place, I always leave some unfinished business in it.

It is another way that Metropole gets done. It is full of unvisited sites, unexplored areas, undone activities. Even Parisians spend their whole lives un-discovering the place.

The only thing I don't do is set a deadline - as in, 'everything will be covered by June 2007.' Nah! There is endless time - both backward and forward.

So then, if you have been in Paris and have even been in the club's café La Corona - but not on a club day or time - do not worry. Your club in Paris will be carrying on for a long time to come as far as I know.

Last week I wrote; 'This [proposal] was outlined here three weeks ago [now four weeks ago] and I am working like a very slow beaver on this.' Since I have done nothing positive since last week, I would like to change the type of animal from 'beaver' to 'snail.'

In case you've forgotten what this is about, charter 'real' member Kathleen suggested that 'real' members be polled about having their names and email addresses on a list that would be distributed to the other 'real' members.

As club secretary, I can't distribute your names and email addresses without your explicit permission. Any 'real' member who is not in agreement will be left off the list - but will remain a 'real' member because pages cannot be torn out of the 'real' members' sign-in booklet.

Most of the work for this poll and the list itself is nearly complete, so I hope to get this to you this week. There! I've set a deadline for me to do this.

If you want to know how Austin, Texas got to be 'City of the Week' in club-overtime last Thursday, you can read the unofficial account of last Thursday's weekly Club meeting - even if you never read these reports.

The single purpose of the Café Metropole Club is to offer an opportunity for the readers of the online magazine 'Metropole Paris' to meet its 'Ed' in Paris, and each other at its weekly meetings. If no members are actually present at a meeting, you will be able to see 'Ed' quietly dozing in the Café La Corona, without a care in the world.

If you read Metropole, you will find that your 'Club' is astonishing value for what it costs - nothing - even though it has no actual real, pretended or 'virtual' benefits, except for being absolutely free.

Well, I must modify this a bit. The 'pretended' benefit is meeting 'Ed' and the club's members. Rising membership seems to show that some members think membership is a benefit, and I don't want to argue with them even if I suspect the 'free' part is more of a benefit.

I know that the tradition-bound official membership card is starting to look a bi frayed around the edges - it started out frayed in fact - but this is not a good reason for not having one.