Johnny's Amnésia

'Nuit rouge' at the café Balto in the Rue Montmartre.

Tomoko Stays Single

Paris:- Monday, 6. October 2003:- It's the big chill. What was left of my overnight water was as cold this morning as when I took it out of the fridge when I called it off earlier today. I couldn't face it. I let the clock-radio babble by itself for a hour because I figured I wouldn't be as warm again until the same time, same place, under the covers on Tuesday.

In fact, it isn't even all that cold. The low tonight might be six degrees - about 43 F - but there's no heat, and while the high may go all the way up to 14 degrees on Tuesday, it won't get this warm inside the apartment unless I open all the windows and set up a fan to blow outside air in.

To go out in the world today, I dressed for a cold January day in New York. I was not over-dressed. In the café everybody except the snake-blooded was dressed the same way. Somebody mentioned that the café wasn't too warm, and the patron said that 'the city hadn't turned on the heat yet.' A lot of Paris in centrally heated when the heat is on, or when there's a rare heatwave.

Tomorrow's forecast is not brilliant. Winds from the horrible northwest will be puffing waves of clouds, rain, lightning, thunder, and maybe partly sunny periods, towards Paris, accompanied with a high predicted to be 14 degrees. The weather map looks like a diagram of a war zone.

Wednesday should be a vast improvement by merely being all cloudy all day. The temperature has been forecast to take a great leap upward to 17. Thursday might even be partly sunny when it isn't partly cloudy, and the temperature will stay up there, about 'average for the time of year' - in the Falkland Islands.

For Friday, Le Parisien timidly says, 'less rain.' Its high number says 'cooler' though. I'm going to see if I can't hang around inside some boulangerie all week.

Café Life

Last Wednesday night was the occasion for 'le Tout-Paris du Show-business' to see Johnny Hallyday's new nightclub in Montparnasse for the first time, and I am unable to tell if they were impressed, because my invitation did not arrive on time.

We are, in fact, lucky to have any report about it at all because there was a 'social movement' that prevented any newspapers from being on the stands on Thursday. According the report that appeared in Friday's editions, Amnésia is supposed to be a 'select' club - no relation to the Boulevard Montparnasse café Le Select in other words - where 'stars' can see and be seen, with a background of 'house' music.

The opening on Wednesday was in 'American style.' This means with a literal red carpet lined with photographers and videopeople outside, and a 'vast' VIP square inside the club. The usual Paris crowd of a thousand were invited and turned up for the photographers and videopeople.

They mingled with each other, inside the decor of white walls, palms, and armchairs spread around a terrace surrounding a dance floor. All this is supposedly done in an 'Ibiza' style, whatever this might be. Johnny's father-in-law owns several other discos with the same name, so this is not an experimental venture for Johnny, who officially owns five percent of it.

When the Champagne finally ran dry around 23:00, many left because they work in showbiz and have to get up early, and drinks were rumored to cost 15€ a pop. This is a far cry from the 1927 opening of the nearby La Coupole that started out with six thousand bottles of bubbles for its opening, and sent out for more when they ran out.

Being a 'showbiz' joint, thousands of the uninvited - but willing to pay - guests cooled their heels outside in the Rue d'Arrivée, in front of the 1930's style café L'Enclos du Temps, which was featured opening this column two weeks ago.

The bulk of Le Parisien's Friday report concerned the financial montage behind the new nightclub. Apparently two offshore companies control 93.9 percent of the shares, but this couldn't interest anybody except the friendly tax folks with the sharp calculators at Bercy.

The good news is that there are new faces in Montparnasse. I mean, in addition to the ten thousand sporty roller folks who gather at 22:00 each Friday night right across the street from the Amnésia. Even La Coupole welcomed the new arrival, and I suppose Le Select would too - since it is always open and ready to feed latenighters 24 hours a day, if they ever tire of 'house' music.

Metropole's .COM area is handily gathered on the relatively new 'Partner' page. Check out this page every week, if for no other reason than the 'Photo of the Week,' which it will only be on view for one week.

Metropole's long-time affiliates are on this page too. The Café Metropole sparkling wine is also on it, with a link to its own permanent About Wine page. Both pages can be accessed from the blurbs on the left, and sometimes right-hand columns, on many pages.

The formerly new email address for 'Ric,' 'Ed,' and the Café Metropole Club's secretary remains ericksonr@wanadoo.fr. But if you till have the old 'Worldnet.fr' address in your email address book, it is time to replace it with the new one.