"It Has More Cows Than People"

This week's Randy, Marion, Bill, Monica and Mark, with
his mysterious graphic.

Creußen Honored for Being 999

Paris:- Thursday, 23. May 2002:- Exactly one week ago the weather was perfect. It was the nicest day of the year, which was a 'first for the week.' Then it got crummy - but not too crummy after Friday - and then on Monday I passed on the latest forecast that the weather would be 'dull.'

The weather maps shown on TV-news showed Paris covered with skies full of chaos. It wasn't total sun and it wasn't total rain - it was a total mess, so I gave up and simply called it 'dull.'

But it has turned out much better. Big fluffy white clouds are floating over fairly rapidly, and there is blue sky - 'May-blue' - between them. About half the time it is pretty sunny. The other half of the time it is going to be sunny again in four minutes. This is a lot better than 'dull.'

And, as an extra added bonus, the temperatures are not in the cellar they were forecast to be in. It isn't mucky-hot and it isn't clammy-cold either. It is just a tad cool for May. Not even worth a sweater.

But the forecast for the days to come is like last Monday's. More 'dull' is predicted, with a deterioration after tomorrow. I don't believe it.

Since it is half-and-half today, I decide to walk halfway to the club meeting. I ride the métro to Odéon and then walk down the restaurant alley to Buci and then go past all the galleries in the Rue de Seine. Everything is about the same as the last time I did this, a whole week ago.

Same with the Pont des Arts. Judging from all the patches on its planking, it is probably going to need a re-deck job pretty soon. If you cross it on rollers, watch out for the lumpy speed-bumps.

Since I'm ahead of time I consider going through the Louvre's Cour Carée, but I think the fountain is off. So I go over to the Rue de l'Amiral de Coligny and cross to the Mairie of the 1st arrondissement, but it doesn't have anything new for me to filch.

This leaves the sun blasting the café La Corona at the end of the block, with all the clouds and blue sky filling the space above the Seine. It is fun for the eyes, but not worth a photo.

A lot of mankind is not filling the tables and chairs in the café's 'grande salle.' As I am setting up for the meeting, getting the booklets in shape, I realize that each week's new members' and the reports are attributed to the wrong issues of Metropole. How long has this been going on?

Before I can investigate this, member Bill Knoff is shaking my hand. Bill joined the club in April, when I was in New York, so I think he is a new member. I see his hometown isn't noted. It turns out to be Burlington, Vermont. Bill says, "It has more cows than people."

Wow! The 'Quote of the Week' is registered at 15:10.

He means Vermont, not Burlington. Actually, he tells me, Vermont may have more maple syrup trees than cows. It also has snow in winter - exclusively for skiers! - and change-color leaf season, for both locals and 'tourists.'

Without warning, Marion Nowak from Cologne makes an appearance, with her mother Monica Fischer, who lives in Creußen. In case I can't find it on the map they tell me it is 30 kilometres south of Bayreuth, which is famous for its Wagner days. Although Creußen isn't a big place, it is good enough for the 'City of the Week' - on account of my Bavarian days.

Monica was last in Paris in 1965, when she met Marion's father on the tour bus bringing them from Germany. The rest is history.

Ah - Creußen is having its millennium celebration next year too. In 1003 one of the Grafs von Schweinfurt did something Wagnerian with its castle, or turm, or berg, and Creußen hasn't forgotten it. Keep this in mind.

Marion tells us about giving counselling online. She will attempt to give good answers to people with problems so long as they present them in German, and can pay with Germany's standard money transfer system. Neither cheques nor plastic are used much in Germany.

When I ask about how the euro has been accepted in Germany, Marion says, "The DM?" - adding, "Does anybody remember that?"

"Nobody is buying anything they don't need anymore," she says. Unlike France, Germany did not put on a price freeze until consumers got used to the new money, so everybody is putting off buying all the things they used to buy with abandon, like huge BMWs and color-TVs as big as the Funkturm in Berlin and package trips to the South Pole.

She says, "An ice cream that used to cost one DM now costs one euro." That's a big 'ouch.'

Randy Garrett rumbles in and becomes a member, because his girlfriend or somebody he knows really well said the Café Metropole Club is a 'fun' way to kill time on idle Thursday afternoons in Paris. I forget to ask him if this referral is from a club member or one of millions who think about becoming one but never get around to it.