Perfect Breakfast Wine?

This is La Corona's Quai du Louvre terrace. See the cars?
See the trucks? Roomy, but noisy.

News About the 'Café Metropole Club'

Paris:- Saturday, 17. June 2000:- If I hadn't been reading about Paris for the first 50 minutes of last Thursday's club meeting, I would have noticed that La Corona's 'grande salle' had at least 78 empty seats free for members. There was me, the club's secretary, and the club's waiter, Patrick.

Then the 'four-pack' arrived. From halfway across the 'grande salle,' Susanne Chaney insisted that the club meeting should be held outside on the terrace.

It was warm enough to do this, but by about 16:00 traffic on the quay is getting ferocious, as well as loud, so I invited the new members to sit down to discuss it. The ensuring conversation - about everything except sitting on the terrace - was so intensive that sitting outside on the terrace was forgotten.

The Chaneys from Fairfax, California and the Martins from Birmingham, Alabama, had just come from an after-lunch trip to the Louvre. Since the club's café, La Corona, is right across the street, this is easy to do.

I have heard that doing it the other way around - going to the Louvre after a club meeting - is even better. Even the Louvre has its quiet periods of the day, and 17:00 to 19:00 may be one on them.

But, according to Susanne, the Louvre's shops were closed on account of a 'lack of employees.' This is a handicap for visitors who have come a long way with the intention of buying the Mona Lisa.

'Lack of employees' does not mean that full employment is the rule in France; it is only another way of saying there is a little bit of a strike going on. Even people who work in the Louvre's shops are expecting 35-hour work weeks, and if they haven't got it yet, they may be sore about it and staying home.

With this explanation, I hope the members and all other readers will now be aware that anything can be closed at any time in Paris on account of the 35-hour work week. Back-up shopping lists are recommended.

All in all, it was a very good meeting even if it was only 70 minutes plus overtime, long. Members uttered several recordable 'Quotes of the Week,' and a few that weren't so recordable. These can be summed up as, beware of pickpockets in London.

The pickpocket warnings that have been broadcast in Paris' métro stations for the past several years seem to have been replaced by no warnings at all. It is possible that the pickpockets' union has not come to any agreement about the 35-hour work week, and has therefore shifted its operations to London, to protest unfair working conditions in Paris.

I would not rely on this theory, because Paris will have become attractive to freelance and non-union pickpockets, so you should stay alert.

The Café Metropole Club is a meeting place in Paris for the readers of the weekly online magazine Metropole Paris - this very same magazine! - who are in Paris on a Thursday and are in the vicinity of the club's café at the right time on the right day.

Readers of the online magazine who have not attended a club meeting can become members of the club by inducting themselves into it in the privacy of their own homes, no matter where they live. This is called 'auto-induction.'

First-time visitors who can find the club's café can sign the unofficial members' booklet, to become members. Generally, this has no negative effect on your universal rights as human beings or as members.

The club has a long and colorful history and a great number of signed-up members after 36 whole meetings; including the ones with no members present.

The club is informal. There is no 'club song' for you to learn. The club's unwritten and unofficial rules state quite clearly that the club has no 'dress-code.' There is no unofficial secret handshake or 'high-sign.' Non-readers of the online magazine can also become members, sometimes by accident.

Welcome to the club, members, no matter what you choose to wear.

There were several new outstanding 'Quotes of the Week' last Thursday. Every club meeting only happens once, so these are original too. See the unofficial original report of last Thursday's weekly Club meeting, here.

Your club is so famous now that it is senseless to repeat these unofficial non-rules week after every darned week. Below you will find links back to past 'Club News' pages - if you feel that you need to refresh your memory.

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