Paris!!!!!!!! Bonjour! Comment cava??
After a late night (early morning) protesting the inevitable 33rd birthday with shots and many beers – I slept until 2 in the afternoon the next day. I have to be honest – I haven’t really felt hungover once since I’ve been here. It must be the wake up call I always get the “day after” from Jolene…..”Cheerio! Allo Love! How are you? I’ve been up for 4 hours researching our plans for today – so get in the shower and get your arse to the lobby right quick!” (What is the genetic make-up of these UK freaks over here that allows them to go and go and go – no time for sleep?? I’m 33 now for god’s sake!!)

So we hopped into a taxi, I tried to speak French to the driver to tell him where we wanted to meet up with our "ami" Charlie, and after a shake of the head and a “tsk tsk” in disgust, we sped off. Hey man, I have to keep trying, because when I actually get a phrase right, its like hitting a straight flush in Vegas! “Un bier s’il vous plait et ou est la toilette? Hey! Hey guys!! I asked for a beer and directions to the toilet and they told me! Woooooo!!! It works!!” However, they usually answer me in French, to which I have to reply, "Huh?" because they speak too fast for me to understand the reply to my clever little French question.

After putting the 500 meter rule into practice again – we stopped several times along the way to the Seine River where we planned to get out on the water somehow – even if it meant floating on our backs! I will just never get over the architecture in the cities – it looks fake – like you’re walking through a village in Disneyworld or something!







Incidentally, we were talking about where we all live, and when I asked Patrick, (baldy in this picture) he said, “A little town in Indiana, you’ve probably never heard of it – Zionsville!” About 10 minutes from where I grew up! Weird - I traveled over 5,000 miles with someone to find out we grew up 5 miles apart, albeit 11 years later - damn youngins.



As it turns out, the boat tours are totally the way to go if you only have one day to sight see in Paris. You can bring beer on board, and you see all the highlights of the city in about an hour and a half. Paris is definitely one of my favorite cities (but then again I say that about every city I guess). I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!









Not to bore you with one more picture of the damn Eiffel Tower, but I just noticed this one......do you think that art imitates life, or life imitates art? Is it pure coincidence that the arch in the base of the tower almost exactly mirrors the arch of the remaining hair on this bald man's head? Or is it the other way around? The questions that plague me, hmmmmm.........


We finished the evening off with another Japanese sushi dinner. Here is Charlie and Derin finding us an "elite" table - in the attic where they kept two tables for what one can only assume would be the "unruly" groups.


I think the Japanese are secretly taking the world over, one unagi roll at a time! Sushi joints are all over every city and we always seem to end up there! In this picture we have elected Jo “Grass Chin” as the Japanese empress. The empress commanded us to drink a load of sake, which, in addition to the 500 meter rule, prematurely ended our fun that night – thank god. A little sleep before work for once - what a concept!


Not much else noteworthy happened in Paris. Well – we did have to take a train to work one day because our runner was trapped in a traffic jam. I counted 16 stops we had to make before getting off at the Bercy Arena. About 4 stops into the trip, this guy sneaks on board with his guitar and amp and starts playing completely tasteless electric jazz for us. A couple of stops later he slips out the door (before we could even tip him for this melodious musical extravaganza!) and right onto another train heading the other direction in order to evade the train authorities. Ain't no mountain high enough and no valley low enough to keep this man from getting his music heard! Dedication.



As you can see in this picture, he’s really feeling this riff – So is one of our crew guys behind him- although I think he’s struggling to hold in his overwhelming emotional response (cackle) to the music. Heeheehee

And so to end my few days in Paris I would like to quickly tell you about two of the top ten things I thought I would never see in this lifetime: First, a chick fight at a Barbra Streisand concert. That’s right. Two broads right in front of my camera platform punching each other, and then a dude punching a chic so the other dude punched the other dude, and so on…….. It took about 10 security guards to break it up. Quite entertaining! However, I was worried this scuffle (over someone sititng in the wrong seat) might startle the several white lap dogs that some of the other audience members brought to the show. Another thing I thought I’d never see. Rich, French, white, stuck-up lap dogs sitting on the laps of the chic, affluent bitches in the audience. Les petits chiens are allowed indoors everywhere in Paris. You’ll see them in purses, on leashes, being carried, sitting at dinner tables, even in backpacks! Little drop-kick yelpers prancing around with their noses in the air like they own the joint, looking down on us insignificant human beings, dropping their little tootsie roll poop all over the city sidewalks! Ahhhhh, Paris!
A bientot!!! Next up - Berlin, Germany!