New Members! New Members!

Kati and Alan Lewis, in 'real' person, at the
Café Metropole Club!

This Is the New 'News of the Week'

Paris:- Thursday, 30. March 2000:- Last week's fake spring broke down last Wednesday afternoon and it has been gloom and the mopes since then. Today throws in a damp wind from the northeast for all those who didn't get enough wear out of their winter clothes.

Luckily, La Corona's over-enthusiastic decor actually seems sort of tropical compared to the grim reality out on the quay. There are more people in the big 'salle,' taking refuge from the elements - or having a bite to eat while putting off going outside again.

I take all of this in while I make notes about what I will write if no new or old members show up to become 'real,' or no real charter members show up to let me know this club is alive and well in Paris.

For example, I study the little plastic menu card on my table. There are eight teas and five 'infusions' offered on it. I wonder if 'infusions' are injected - requiring no cup and saucer - because they cost five francs less than the teas.

There are eight different crêpes too. From a simple to a 'crêpe normande' which has caramelized apples, 'flambée au calvados.' Sounds great for 50 francs. For only 12 francs extra, it can be had with a scoop of ice cream or a blob of chantilly. I'd like to see what either of these do to the 'flambée' effect.

In the ice cream sector, because it is Paris, there is a 'banana slip' for 50 francs. When I look up I see all of last week's Coca-Cola parasols leaning against an inside wall. Do you remember what I wrote and the 'red' in the café last week?

The other occupants of the 'salle' keep hanging around, which prevents me from photographing the decor again. The club's waiter, Patrick, is keeping busy serving 'vin chaude à la cannelle' to the ailing and the snifflers.

Just before I start playing the solitaire version of x's and o's, at 15:50, Kati and Alan Lewis come in. They have very cold hands but they are both in a good mood, because they have become new apartment owners.

Hey, wake up! These are new, 'virtual,' club members who are becoming 'real.' Francophiles too; Alan says he has a 2CV van back in Carmel, California. 'Used by the fire department, only on Sundays.'

Well, this makes Carmel today's 'City of the Week,' and it is not made up, and it does not have anything to do with crêpes, even if the Lewis' have a restaurant in Carmel.

We all have the same kind of café, in three different kinds of cups; so I guess this is good enough to make café the 'Drink of the Week.'

It is very exciting to have a new apartment in Paris because it needs to be filled up with new furniture. Kati and Alan have spotted some really slick recycled Renault factory tables - considering the way the cars look, I guess the good design has to go on something - but on reflection, it is the chairs they saw while going out the door that they are thinking they 'must have.'

They saw two - only a half-hour ago - and Alan gets out his portable phone to call up to say he wants them - even though they want four of them.

Imagine. Ordering chairs by phone from the Café Metropole Club! This is a definite 'first.' Then Alan growls, "Merde" into the phone. Somebody went in and bought one of the chairs, just like that.

After nothing much of anything happening at the club since Thursday, 2. March - except for the server-lady's empty Cuban rum bottle - there is all this excitement.

Alan says the apartment business is stressful. Here they are - supposed to be having their usual laid-back time in Paris - and instead they are involved with this Parisian business of furnishing an apartment.

Whoops. It is 38 minutes after they've arrived and they have to be off again. The virtual ink is only virtually dry on their virtual charter membership cards and they are heading out the door already.

A little blarney holds things in place until Alan says I can go too in five minutes, so we all pack up and head out into the grey and cheerless cranking roar of the Quai du Louvre's rush hour.

At this point I want to thank all virtual and real members for the emails you've been sending, to keep me cheered up through these past few club meeting rituals.

Many virtual members have also been announcing their imminent arrivals - from Easter to June, and even in August and next September. Your club went through a bit of a quiet patch in March, but I think it is on the move again.

Unlike last week, I can run today's 'report' in next Monday's club news page, so you won't have to link back to here. But anything can happen between now and then, so maybe you'll have to.

Thursday, 6. April 2000 is the date for the club's next 'real' meeting. Come to the meeting if it is Thursday and you are in Paris. If you don't happen to be in Paris, wherever you are you can say "It must be Café Metropole Club day!"

The café La Corona meeting place will be as open as usual next Thursday, so the time for your club's meeting remains from 15:00 to 17:00 - which is also known as 3 pm to 5 pm in certain livre-sous-derniers time zones.

Come as you are, especially if you can. If you cannot be present - unlike today - you can read the regular - this week's - Monday page for your last week's club's non-news as a substitute.

Instead of PR, instead an account of last week's meeting, it now features a string of words unrelated to club affairs - luckily - minus whatever scheme-of-the-week I've run up to see if anybody salutes. The café's location is:

Café-Tabac La Corona
2. Rue de l'Amiral Coligny
Paris 1. Métro: Louvre-Rivoli or Pont-Neuf

A bientôt à Paris,