Bleeping, Bleeping

Parisians, back from camping, take to the big twirl.

Good Riddance August!

Paris:– Monday, 27. August:–  A great deal of terminal depression was in the air. It was damp and chilly and it went on day after day, night after night. Folks were all white and their skin was bumpy from being under water too long. Just when we thought we couldn't take any more, the TV–news announced a semi–fine weekend. Hey! Remember that it's still August.

We Deserve Better

It just goes to show that hopelessness isn't always followed by despair and depression. Yes, the depression shifted somewhere else and we got a mini–high, good enough for a bright Saturday and a warm Sunday, not quite as bright. All the Parisians who returned on the weekend pushed through the doors and stayed outside. "What," they said, "Is everybody complaining about? It's as good or better than the campsite on the Riviera.

Of course they expected us to be white in the face and have lumpy skin. That's what we look like every August when they come back. Looking dirty brown but having clear eyes and a smug feeling of plastic cards well–used. Oh, happy holidays – and now back in Glitterville, that looks nothing as desperate as when they left. Ready, almost, for the rigors of the rentrée.

Before they get too euphoric, there was tonight's TV–weather. A summer's worth of habit still locked in meant that the forecast is dire if it means a drop of rain will fall on Cannes. I'm sitting there on the edge of my broken chair waiting for the terrible judgement, and what is it? Horrible weather for the southern half of France!

It is going to be stinking on the Riviera, where it will be 20 degrees hotter than Lille tomorrow. Right, 37 down there and 17 up north. Here, we will get the same cool 50 kph wind from the north, and it will only be semi–decent around here, even if the thermometre gets up to its 23 degrees.

On Wednesday the wind stays with us, affecting the temperature, which might not do more than 20 degrees. But no rain. Thursday can expect some nasties up by the Channel but around here the wind will do ditto, the clouds stay down south, and we should pick up a whole point of mercury, to 21 degrees. Still no rain. It might be semi–sunny all three days. We deserve it.

Metropole's météo from Pommeland across the Atlantic is suspended because our forecaster, Météo Jim, is off counting woofies. However the New York Times now has a section called My Times and it has Metropole's personal weather forecast.

Big wheel, right in Glitterville!

Wait! Better Beyond the Forecast

In exceedingly condensed form, here is the score. Tuesday in New York will be mostly sunny, with a high of 27 degrees. A bit more warmth with one or two extra clouds on Wednesday will translate into 29 degrees, and Thursday will be a bit worse, with the same degrees and still more clouds and possibly, some thunder. Friday may be the best day of the week, unless Saturday turns out better.

Café Life

When I Grow Up

Those misguided people who told me they like Paris when it is foggy and damp are out of their skulls. Anybody who was out wandering around yesterday just had to love it. Imagine, you are in Paris and you have money in your pocket and open eyes in your head, and the sky is clear blue all the way to the moon, and you have this oyster of a Glitterville at your feet – more like, under your feet – like lots of smooth, polished marble, and the wind was light, warm and playful.

Stairway, is it to heaven?

A waiter was sitting across from his full, sunlit terrace, having a cigarette pause in the shade. It was so good he didn't even mind working the Sunday. But it's been so bad he already knew the forecast for Tuesday was doubtful. On the horizon looms the world rugby championship and it was safe to mention because it's an area where France can actually shine – forget the weather!

Down the street the white struts of the big ferris wheel in the Tuileries were slicing the blue sky. The time of jumping puddles in there was temporarily history. Folks were lining up to take to the high lookout or to twirl around with a carefree wheeee! Kids loved it, especially after three or four weeks of being cooped up in a dripping camp site.

Lining up – the Obélisque and
the Arc de Triomphe.

And many many Parisians were out just to walk around in familiar surroundings. Where they could stroll without an urge to check out the postcards or buy a bikini that won't leave white traces. Look at them. They were doing next to nothing, walking around in the park, not going anywhere. Take a long view and they were foreshortened, from the Louvre all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe. It was a clear day yesterday and you could see it all.

Next year, not next week of course, there will be much more everything. There always is, more rain, colder, meaner, wetter, next year.