A World of Warm Airs

Fun With Animals

Paris:– Monday, 15. August 2005:– Unlike last week's weather forecast that you were lucky to get, this week we are featuring weather that we will be lucky to have. While the rest of France suffers drought of varying intensities, Paris and the Ile–de–France has at least one day a week of some rain.

Do not misunderstand. The so–called rain is not tropical – it doesn't rain every day at 16:15 – and it is not British – it doesn't rain every day from 00:00 to 23:59. Our rain is random and apparently accidental. It happens now and then for 15 minutes, sometimes as mist, sometimes as serious rain, but never for more than 20 minutes. It can hardly be called rain, even if it is only wet sometimes.

Since it has become mid–August, today, we are expecting some rotten October weather at any minute. Therefore I am pleased with tonight's TV–weather news forecast, which foresees no rain, no cold, few clouds, hardly any wind, and lots of sunshine. In short, too good to be true.

You will have to get up before noon to see the clouds tomorrow, because the afternoon should be sunny with a high of 25 degrees. The same is expected for Wednesday but with three extra degrees and Friday is supposed to repeat – the impossible? – with a high expected of 29 degrees.

Ever fearless, Météo Jim this week sends a near repeat weather note about terrible summer weather in and around New York City, not at all fit for woofers or other astro–meteo fans–

This coming week will be a repeat of last week's forecast. Sirius and his lousy friends are woofing louder than ever. Yesterday La Grosse Pomme had an all time high temperature of 99 anglograd and Newark, in the eastern part of western Pommeland had a record of 102 anglograd – 37 and 39.5 eurograd, respectively. Tropical storm Irene, which had the potential of coming to Pommeland is now turning eastward into the North Atlantic. Good riddance.

Café Life

This is another incomplete semi–partial issue because of a rare malady often identified as 'no–holiday–blues.' I am willing enough to work but my body keeps lying down and having siestas. Even the go–go minister of the interior Nicolas Sarkozy managed to keep himself out of the news, so who am I to waste our time digging out what isn't there? Pretend this week isn't happening either, starting with the national holiday today.

It's August, time to leave the wars behind, leave the bitter words and thoughts behind, and forget about the people being killed by hate or knives or guns or in their own cars, and leave the nothingness of television off. It's time to go out into the world of warm airs under a soft sky with a slice of moon floating past, following the sun drifting west to morning in the new world. –

On most nights in August, Parisians are out solo and in groups, families, bands of friends, in short sleeves and shorts, in jeans and flowered dresses, bare arms and legs, mostly hatless and without umbrellas, gloves, scarves, because it is as mild at sundown as on a beach at Antibes.

The blue of the sky gets deeper, darker, with wisps of stray clouds looking like randomly sprayed paint. The sails along the river and the silhouettes of the palms add exotic black shapes to the skylight, contrasting with clouds of dark green leaves as the lights come on, mostly warm yellow, but depending on what they are shining through or on.

Odd how it seems quieter at night, with passing cruise boats powering downstream faster than the quick current, light laughter coming from the open decks followed by the murmur of exhaust burble. Cars and buses whisper along the quays and glide across the bridges floating in the blue river. Except for the drummers who may be Brazilians being percussive, voices are lost, wrapped inside the calm air. Even several hundred sitting on the boards of the Pont des Arts with their guitars, paintings and picnics, are so soft that they are secret.

Between the Institut and Saint–Germain the old streets are deserted and brown, with nothing on them other than lines of abandoned metal cars. The galleries that aren't closed for August are dark, whole streets are lifeless. The big café at the corner of Bonaparte has its lights dimmed and the people on its terrace are in the dark. The rest of the place is empty and only a few brave soldiers are camping on the terrace on the boulevard. If they don't know why they are there they don't know where to go either.

A waiter leaves the café with a small coffee and takes it to a clochard sitting on the sidewalk at the corner, across the street from the other café. The waiters across the street are dressed in their black costumes with the long, white aprons, and their terrace is nearly empty too. They probably wished they had closed for the month like they used to.

There is one lone, lady guitarist playing for nobody by the church, next to the popcorn kiosque. It has one customer too, stepping up for a crêpe with Nutella, for a snack with strings. The lights make it look like a village party for one, on a night in August when everybody is in some other town somewhere else in the warm world.

TV–news has been scraping the summer barrel's bottom for two weeks now, stooping to showing us how holidayers are doing stuck up Alps, skiing in slush. At least there's been few stories about climbers falling off. There are usually a rash of them.

Dax down in the southwest has been getting a fair play for its feria. Tonight they showed little kids getting knocked over by really small calves, but they also showed some older kids getting into their suits of lights. Everybody else down there is dressed in white with a red scarf around their necks. It looks like fun and maybe not so rough as in Spain, especially with everybody in town playing in the colorful 'Bandas.'

hen TV–news says it's going to tell me about the Equiblues festival and I get ready to watch yet another army of fans camped out in a damp field somewhere listening to Celtic fiddles in the rain, and instead they show French cowboys not having their way riding bulls bareback for a whole eight seconds. France has gotten further out west than I realized.