Fighting Elephants

From left, today's group of two – Barry and Jerry.

''Le Monde est Fou Fou Fou!''

Paris:– Thursday, 16. September 2004:– The theme of today's weather was being pretty cool this morning, as if it were late September, and then it struggled to get warm even though the sun was shining most of the time. To help it along the wind stayed idle.

Alas, i don't think it went much above 20 degrees although it felt warmer in the afternoon. For early tomorrow the low has been forecast by tonight's TV–weather news as being 9 degrees, with the high being up about 22 degrees.

Northwestern France will be veiled by high, thin clouds that should not quite reach the Paris region, more or less. All the sky to the east of the slightly cloudy northwest should be very blue which means it should be very sunny.

According to the TV–weather map there is a high off to the northwest and a low way off in the southeast, and we are between them in a green and pleasant place. It might even be true.

For Saturday expect the same cloudy skies in the northwest, along with some winds scooting up the Channel. All the rest of France should be sunny, and around here, with a high of 22 degrees.

Sunday is not foreseen as being so clement, with a wide band of cloudy times stretching from the southwest to the northeast, covering the Ile–de–France. For all this, the temperature is supposed to hold steady at 22, as if the thermometre will be stuck.

Even though there is an announcement of some foreign object on the Métro tracks up around Barbés the line 4 train arrives promptly at the Raspail station and blasts out of the station to hurtle towards Vavin with nary a hesitation.

There is a brief pause at Saint–Placide and then the train races through the tunnel to Saint–Sulpice, Saint–Germain and I leave it at Odéon. I've gotten bored with riding it all the way to Châtelet, and I'm giving it a rest.

After Buci the Rue Dauphine's sidewalks are as narrow as they always are. There's hardly room for two people to walk abreast, and walking against oncoming pedestrians is a dodge'em business. If anybody stops to gaze in a window, then everybody else has to step into the street to get by.

All this ends at the Pont Neuf's wide sidewalks, with the half–circle stone bays for lounging. The bridge's sidewalks are paved with old stone blocks and as I cross I imagine that I am adding my bit to make them smoother.

The green man lights up and I cross in front of four lanes full of cars, trucks, buses, taxis and scooters and turn left on the other side, giving the posters a scan and a pass. The cafés along the Quai du Louvre are fairly occupied like the club's café La Corona and there are nine civilians in two sets in the club's area of the 'grande salle' when I arrive.

After a couple of minutes, Barry Wright walks up, sits down and orders a beer. The 'Waiter of the Week' brings it rapidly, it as if Barry might change his mind. It is a great big beer too. It must be warmer out than I think.

Barry wonders if we should recruit the civilians into the club. They look like they might all be speaking Japanese and Tomoko isn't here yet. Barry drinks some of his beer instead.

Jerry Stopher wanders in and finds us, because we don't look like civilians. This is Jerry's first time at the club, although he contributed a letter to Metropole in the 20. December 1999 issue, and comes to France often. Like other would–be members, 'but not often on Thursdays,' he says.

Jerry lives in Beaumont, Texas, but he says he wants to put down his birthplace, Thibodaux, Louisiana, too. This is great – it's only 15:10 and we have a wonderful 'City of the Week.' One with a rich and colorful history associated with the 'grand derangement,' caused by Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm de Saint–Véran, who lost his life and Québec to General Wolfe in 1759.

As Jerry puts it, he grew up on Goode Street between the school and the bayou. It must have been something to remember because Jerry has very little to say about Beaumont, and he's been there since he was seven.

When Jerry shows us his digital camera, to explain the batteries he got for it on the Champs–Elysées, Barry shows us a gift he's gotten for another club member he knows really well. It is some new kind of Walkman, and it looks really slick.

"You don't want a digital camera, do you?" Jerry asks.

He says the older memory cards are getting difficult to find. After a moment's reflection he says, "I can't help making a reference to 5¢ coffee."

This is in a reference to all the café that nearly costs $5 around here. Barry says, "You're paying to rent the seat."

Jerry served in the US Air Force and was stationed in France in the early '60s in Evreux. He's going back for a weekend for 'Les Ailes d'Evreux.' This year this event marks the 60th anniversary of the landings in Normandy and the 70th birthday of the French Air Force.