Saturday, July 19, 2008 – Alan's Saturday Night

Our Man in Paris, Ric Erickson, editor of MetropoleParis, knows me far too well.

Paris, Saturday, July 19 - It can't be a lot of fun to be stuck in Hollywood day and night, watching the political shows on TV, reading the papers and surfing the Internet all the time. A guy's gotta have dreams too. Take our chief Lister, Alan, for example.

He talks a good game, living in that pad just off Sunset, home of delicious honeys trying to make it in Hollywood. Does he ever go to the swimming pool? Does he ever offer to show them how to play ping-pong? What about taking them out for a spin around Sunset, West Hollywood, or up to the Hollywood sign? See that view; mile upon mile of lights in the flat endless suburbs, as far as the eye can see, when it isn't too smoggy.

Alan doesn't do any of those things because he has Paris. He used to have a cat but that is another story. He still has his pipe, and I assume there's a bottle of some sort of Scotch around, and there are old movies on TV sometimes when he's got the pinwheel eyes from the computer monitor. And sometimes he has Paris.

For example, he used to stay at the Hotel Madison on the boulevard Saint-German. He used to stay there because it is a four-minute walk from everything, almost everything, he cherishes. If he gets up before noon he might feel like breakfast. He has two choices - he can go to the Deux Magots and have a hot chocolate and a fresh croissant with a tiny pot of strawberry jam.

If he is a little tottery and feels a need for more substantial fare, there's the crepes kiosque right across the place. Breakfast of champions, if you've waited until noon, is a Nutella crepe with all the extras. Then go a short block and get the papers. Since the kiosque is almost inside the Cafe Flore he can go there but there may be somebody he doesn't want to see, so he goes to the Bonaparte, which has a distant view of the Deux Magots, just in case.

There he can sit all day. Waiters will bring him coffee and maybe cognac if he feels like having a quick start even if he slept until noon. After a while he gets hungry again and since it is what folks do, about 8 pm he wanders over to the rue des Canettes to an Italian joint named Les Trois Canettes. No one knows if the street was named after this restaurant. It could have been there since the 14th century. Midget duck is on the menu even if it isn't Italian.

Things run late in Paris so it might be a good idea to take in a movie before the night's serious stuff starts. Le Champo in the rue des Ecoles always has good, old movies, for 12 hours a day, every day all year. There are plenty of other nearby cinemas too. If you like old American films they are playing here, in the Latin Quarter.

After the movie Alan has several choices. But let's just say he can return to the Deux Magots for another hot chocolate, or drop in to the Flore for something stronger. Maybe it would be better if he went to a club to hear some music - it's just around the corner. At the end of a long and busy day he hasn't gone more than 500 metres in any direction - the furthest was the cinema - but he hasn't taken any taxis or ridden the metro. Except for his pipe his carbon footprint is zero.

The best thing is, tomorrow is another day, especially when it's in Paris.

Text and Photos Copyright © 2008 - Ric Erickson, MetropoleParis

Note: The JUST ABOVE SUNSET editor at the Café Bonaparte, far too long ago.  It's time to get back there.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik