"I See You Have Good Taste"

'Ed' virtually attends meeting from Manhattan café
tablecloth last Thursday.

Amazing Dappled Pink and Blue

New York:- Wednesday, 15. January 2003:- The following club 'report' of last Thursday's meeting by the ever-friendly Web-server lady, Linda Thalman, was forwarded in a timely fashion to the club's regular secretary last week - who is, at the moment in New York. Excuses for the tardy online upload are below.

Without further ado - ado? - A-do? - the Café Metropole Club meeting report by the server-lady, Linda Thalman, known for short as, Linda.

Paris:- Thursday, 9. January:- I'm late by one minute, having had to go glove shopping before the Club meeting to replace a pair I left on the counter in Saint-Rémy getting my RER ticket. The temperature was down to minus 10 degrees at the Cadillac Ranch and my fingers are numb.

I stopped by Stock 91, at 91. Rue de Rivoli to get a nine euro pair of gloves. Mr. Sevan gave me a warm welcome in his shop, just around the corner from the club where he has a nice selection of Paris t-shirts, as well as ones of Ché!

Sunshine is streaming in the windows of La Corona where it is a cozy 22 degrees or so. Patrick is on vacation, but waiter of the week, Erik, is on hand and promptly brings me my customary pot of red colored wine.

Organizing myself with Club membership sign-up sheets - I printed out ten of them - and plan for any new members to fill them out from A to Z. I'm ready.

Just in case no one shows up I haul out my 462-page book 'Soliman le Magnifique' by André Clot and manage to read pages 46 and 47 before Club member Joe Fitzgerald arrives.

We chat about Paris apartments, the traffic, bakeries, markets, snow, driving in Paris and other odds and sods.

Around 15:30 the 'Dallas Dude' and Francoise Liger-Auvray appear. Francoise immediately beats a retreat to re-park her illegally parked car in the nearby underground parking lot in front of the church.

Introducing himself as one of the 'oldest virtual members' - 'Dallas Dude' or 'Guillaume' as he'd like to be called - has Joe and me in stiches with his stories.

Francoise checks back in and and I 'order' her and the Dude to fill out the membership forms.

Francoise is a real Parisian, the kind from Normandy, who says she'd rather live in a 'chambre de bonne' than move to the suburbs.

I get my camera out, to take a few photos of the week, including the item of the week, which is an old French slide rule. Joe and the Dude go "Wow" and mention the brand names of slide rules they used to use.

Then we move on to real hi-tech technology because the 'Dallas Dude' has a Canon Power Shot S45 that does everything but wash windows. It can take 150 photos, 15 minutes of video, zoom for miles, do portraits - 'stitch' photos for putting 20 panorama shots from the top of La Samaritaine together - all by using a postage stamp-sized 128 MB memory chip.

This little 'baby' only cost $US 499 in New York - but 799 euros in FNAC in Paris - with a standard 32 MB memory chip. The 128 chip was extra.

I'm convinced - especially after spending 110 euros for six roles of film this week - digital is the way to go.

Francoise and I start gabbing in French about Madagascar, an exhibit at La Ruche and life in Paris. The 'boys' are chattering about who knows what, but they came up with the quote of the week - "I can see you have good taste because you agree with me." They have so much in common and agree on every topic that I think they are long-lost cousins.

The Club meeting finishes on time, funds are on the table for he drinks, but it is 17:30 before anyone can tear themselves away for the evening's events.