Flea, Fight and Fun

First thing today, around noon, I stopped by the vide-greniers at the marketplace at the end of our street. Saw Françoise (and some of the other usual suspects) and got a nice deal on the shirt you see in front of her.

PLANNED: La Maison de la Corse holds its Consulta today at the 5th arrondissement mairie. Afterwards, this evening, music with Manis (chanteur charismatique et anti-conformiste) at le Entrepot and then up to the 20th: forro/dancing .

Chargé comme programme, non ?!

After a nice lunch nearby with Sylvie, we went to see Myriam at the Visarte expo. Afterwards we walked over to Sylvie's, where I finished (finally! a tough tech challenge) getting her Internet connection reworing on her laptop. I suggested she go "wireless" so she can take advantage of her small garden out front.

Returned to Mouton and chanced upon ... and actually watched (for the nth time) "Blazing Saddles" ... what a weird sense of humor, that Mel Brooks!

Golden nuts <--click for informative video!

Went over to Sylvie's place in the 5th to help get her Internet (noos) connection working on her laptop. She invited me over to the nearby The Long Hop pub for a refreshing beer on the sidewalk sun-splashed terrace. I sprung for the amusingly named Nobby's Nuts (no serious beer-drinker, like myself, would normally indulge - especially when having a Beamish - in plebian fare such as nuts, but we were both sort of bushwacked by the high alcohol content and the strong sun).

Later Denis showed up and we walked over towards Ile Saint-Louis where we sat ourselves down on the bridge and listened to two excellent street musicians belt out some righteous jazzy tunes. I called Catherine P. from there (with a bossa nova background track) to wish her a happy birthday (donc, Joyeaux Anniversaire, Catherine!).

Back to Sylvie's (still in MAJOR renovation mode) where Rob joined us for some wine, it being apéro-time (natch).

First picnic of 2006

Heading over to Max's place in Nanterre for a BBQ. It's a lot cooler (12°C) than yesterday, but I'm sure Max has plenty of "anti-freeze" left. Mo' later.

Kant complain ...

Wonderful dinner tonight (I finally did the topinambour recipe - superb!) with Claudia, Fanchette (congratulations on stopping smoking - more or less), Denis and Anne. High-brow discussions on topics such as: farts vs. burps (video clip here), dressing for a wedding, etc.

On this day in 1724: German philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).

Spring-like ... finally. Time to TANGO.

Wonderfully sunny and warm today so a bunch of us (Odile, Benj, Rob, Jean-Nöel, Florence) had coffee at la Comedia after the market.

Tonight: Juan Carlos Rossi plays & sings @ "Chez Mary" (140 rue Saint Maur 75011) from 21h00. Come one, come all - see you there!

UPDATE: JC was too good - listened to his music until almost midnight then, realizing we were fairly hungry, ran out to a nearby Mexican restaurant (too late to dine - this is Paris after all, not New York!) so we (Odile, Rob, Denis, me) ended up at l'Ile de Gorée, a fine Senegalese restaurant, for a very convivial (if late - 1am!) dinner (merci Rob). ETA home 3am!

Rue Montgallet Day

Well, not actually the entire day; this famed "street of the amazing Chinese computer deals", with literally tens of different outlets, jammed side to side, always seems to me roisterous and fatiguing at the same time. After a couple of hours I left with my various USB cables and assorted goodies - tired but satisfied I'd gotten the best prices.

More recovery

Dinner at home with Rob (staying over), Anne and Benjamin.

Jerusalem artichoke and Swiss art/wine

Market day at Mouton this morning so I picked up some topinambour to try a new recipe (stay tuned for results).

Beautifully sunny day so HAD TO stop at a sidewalk café afterwards (work promises to pick up in May so I'm kind of planning ahead - "play while you can" system).

Tonight the Swiss artists association, Visarte, has their vernissage at the mairie in the 6th arrondissement. If I haven't already invited you please consider yourself so invited ... and come (early - around 6:30pm - the Embassy's goodies may not hold out for long!). Hope to see many of you there.

UPDATE: A wonderful time at the vernissage (see a short video here). Afterwards a short dozen (11, to be exact) of us went to dinner at le Paradis. Then post-paradisical drinks at the Rosebud (just the dirty half-dozen). Closing at 2am ...

Easter Monday - holiday

We stayed overnight at Vosves and after lunch (more duck!) we headed back to Paris this afternoon (dropped off Anna) and had lunch at the funky Mexi & Co.

Dinner tonight at Jacques and Dominque's with Odile, Denis and Rob (the indefatigable) for a very nice evening of pâté de pâques and some stormy discussions (see a short video clip here).

Joyeuses Pâques!

Best wishes to you all (even those who don't celebrate Easter). Today, after a quick stop at Montigny, we're at Vosves, where Odile's godmother made a superb lunch (duck). I'm in recovery (or resurrection?) again!

Recovery day ... Puerto Rican comfort food

Got in around 5am yesterday .... so today is a lazy, take-it-easy day.

To help us recover, Odile made some killer tostones for dinner (a dish both comforting and heavy). The late evening was TV time with an awfully syrupy telefilm about Sartre & de Beauvoir. Luckily it was followed by our addictive series (CSI offspring).

Rob's back in town ...

Heading up to Montmartre, chez Denis (at the far end of the street), where we're to meet up with our dear friend Rob from Denver - who's finally back in town after a TOO long absence . Planning to be joined by: Jacques, Domi, Claudia.

Ars longa ...

I spent most of the day at the 6th arrondissement mairie helping Myriam and Walter (an artist friend - seen her copping a feel of the mega-Marianne at the town hall) to begin setting up for the opening next Tuesday (18/04) of the visarte (Swiss artists in Paris) exposition . Contact me for details/invites.

One of the other artists allowed me to visit her nearby atelier, which originally belonged to Man Ray (and where he died) ... quite the "art day" for me!

Vernissage tonight of works by our Argentine friend, Luis Pasina, at le Duc d’Enghien (20 rue d’Hauteville 75010). Ran into Juan-Carlos, who also played his guitar and sang.

Afterwards, Odile, Denis and I walked over to a new place (for me) called Dilan for a quite excellent Kurdish dinner. The street has other interesting looking restos/bar - I plan to "work" the area over the near future, yum!

Mid-week pause

Kiki le Mouton came by, after walking his dog Max, for a drink and stayed for dinner. Talk of the islands of Greece (where he and Eva have a house at Andros ... must visit), taxes, auto repairs, Tatanka (I put on the music from "Dances with Wolves"), and other mundane stuff you'd discuss with your upstairs neighbor.

Also a furious discussion of how best to market images via the Internet ("Kiki" heads up Studio Bastille) - do you have some ideas? Your comments appreciated!

No manif ... so art today.

Met Odile mid-afternoon at the main Paris city hall - stood on line 45 minutes - for their expo "Paris au Cinéma". Quite well laid out and plenty of clips showing Paris throughout film history - from various perspectives: the women of Paris, the rooftops, bistros, etc.

Afterwards walked over to the nearby BHV department store where we ran into Denis & Eleane - so we all stopped for some java at the Café Bricolo in the basement hardware area.

Tonight a fine shrimp dinner and The Mackintosh Man (en VF) with Paul Newman.

A closing thought for our friend, Bunny ... RIP (ten years already).

An excellent dinner with our sixth-floor neighbor, Jean-Marie, made by his sister, Titi. Also at the forks: Odile, Helène and Carlos.

Flaneries de dimanche

Heading off to Myriam's for a café then the near-suburbs (Bagnolet) to meet Hélios and Regina at her nephew's home for a Brazilian hoedown. More details tonight.

Lieu bis

The lieu noir with pears/rochefort sauce makes a return at tonight's Mouton dinner with our friends: Geneviève & Bernard, Anne, Pascale & Jean-Pierre. Odile's handling the starter - I'm
covering everything else (so I'm off to get cooking - update/s later).

HB Félix

Happy birthday, Félix!

Art, artchitecture and vino

We're off shortly to meet Regina and Hélios at a vernissage for Sergio, our Cuban film-maker friend, at 42 rue de Vertbois over in the 3rd (near the Picasso museum). Afterwards over to le Entrepôt for a jazzy farewell party for Gregorio, our Brazilian/Italian architect friend - he's moving back to Milano after working with Renzo Piano here in Paris.

Coño ... se fueron !

All good things come to an end ... heck, even GREAT things come to an end. Manny and Olga flew back today to NY ... we are très triste. Plans are underway to meet soon in USA or Italy!

¡Gracias por una tremenda visita, amigos!

Marais madness ...

Manny at la manif (again!) near the Paris city hall.

Le Baron Rouge

Les amis (Manny, Jaimie, Olga) @ the "oysterthon" at le Baron Rouge.