Mark's eJournal October 22, 2009 – Odds and Sods #4 –The Gentleman’s Club

Katherine’s brother Bobby came to town. It was his 60th birthday in June, so as a present we brought him over to Paris for a visit. Now Bobby and I share similar tastes. We both are enamored of French doors. Separately, we have both been taking pictures of doors. As this picture shows, the doors are huge and beautiful. When I get enough door pictures, I plan on making an album. And for lunch, we like a little wine….well, at least he does….I save it for dinner. But we also enjoy trivial pursuit and Scottish pubs. Katherine and I haven’t really gone to many Paris pubs. Don’t get me wrong, we are single-handedly saving the French wine industry during La Crise Économique. But we have checked out where all the local pubs were, just in case we ran out of wine.

One pub we found was the Highlander…apropos given our heritage [or at least their heritage]. And to our great surprise, they had a pub quiz on Sunday nights. Without going into details, we came in second and won free shots of whiskey. And if it wasn’t for all those French questions like “what color is the number 4 Metro line and the name of its ending stations”, we would have come in first. But Bobby needed a pub with music, with characters, with life, and most of all, with cheap Guinness. And he found it. The Gentleman. Easily within walking distance of our flat, sober or not.

Now by himself, Bobby is a very friendly guy. He makes friends with everybody. Paris is no exception. And he makes important friends, like with the bouncer, Ahmed. This friendship ensured that no matter how crowded the Gentleman got, we were always allowed entry. It also allowed Bobby easy access to all parts of the pub especially where the music was playing. And the group [or should I say duo] that were playing were great. For a couple of acoustic guitars, they sounded great.

And I didn’t have any problems making friends with the locals either. I never met this guy, Vladimir, before but he and his friends loved Americans [or maybe just me]. Anyway, they were having this drink which looked very special. I think it’s called a B-52. I watched as he and his friends appeared to “snort” the flaming drink. Apparently, I was obvious so Vlad bought me one. Not to be outdone, I reciprocated…..twice. Not because I felt obligated but because Katherine didn’t really get a good first picture. Needless to say, I didn’t mind the retake. And for those interested few, here’s how you make one of these B-52s:

In a large shot glass layer Kahlua, Bailey’s, and then Grand Marnier.

In our case, the bartender used a tiny bent sugar spoon to pour each layer onto. This ensured three distinct layers. Then he ignited the Grand Marnier. Hence the reason the picture looks like we are snorting the drink….you suck the whole flaming drink [as in "on fire"] in one suck from the bottom using a straw.....hence the expression, bottom's up???

Needless to say, we all had a great time and we look forward to Bobby taking us through more pub crawls in Paris.

Mark's eJournal November 12, 2009 – Odds and Sods #5 – Le Tabac

It’s been awhile since my last eJ. No, it’s not that I don’t have anything to write about. Rather, September, October, and soon, November, have just been a blur with all the visitors we’ve had and trips we’ve taken. It started in September with Lynda and Ross visiting for a week. Then we left for 10 days for the States for our friend’s daughter’s big fat Greek wedding. Then Katherine’s brother Bobby came for a 10-day visit followed by my Glasgow University basketball buddy, Mike and his wife Hazel and son Grant. Then we left for Le Dordogne to meet up with our DC friends Peggy and Peter, whom we drove back to Paris with and spent a long weekend. Less than one week later, Katherine’s longtime friend, Liz and her husband Mike came for a visit. And sometime in there, Adriana [the big fat Greek wedding bride] came for a visit. November isn’t even over and we still have Katherine’s niece Kirsty and her boyfriend Graham and our DC friends, George and Doris, all circling the landing strip for a Paris visit.

Whew. Now I’m not complaining. The only bad thing about all these visitors is…..well, there really isn’t anything bad; just no time left over for writing blogs. The only good thing about all these visitors is….well, there are really lots of good things but my favorite is looking at Paris through their eyes; seeing things that I might have overlooked or never even noticed.

For example, Bobby fell off the wagon. He had given up smoking for a few months but I guess the French accent got to him. Studying French in Glasgow did his head in and he started to take a few puffs. By the time he got to Paris, he was out of smokes. And since Katherine and I are smoke-free, Bobby had to go out into the streets of Paris and fend for himself.

Now I knew that in France, you buy your cigarettes in a tobacco shop [Le Tabac]; not a supermarket or a pub. They’re all over the place but I really didn’t know exactly where the closest one was. In fact, I hadn’t even been inside a Tabac since I got to Paris. I didn’t even know what to look for except to peer into a store window and look for packs of cigarettes. And that’s where Bobby's new eyes come into play.

For the first time, Bobby pointed out the one exterior identifying feature of all Tabac’s. Their lozenge-shaped sign. And if you look at all the pictures in this blog, that’s them. They are all different yet similar. Kinda like the three balls in front of all pawnshops or, for us old folks, that barbershop pole...at least in the olde days.

So there you have it. I’ve seen these red, diamond-shaped, illuminated signs all over Paris, all over France. I never made the connection. So to all of you who are planning to visit us and to all of you who have visited us, stayed tuned for more revelations as I see Paris through your eyes.