A scratched surface

In France, in Paris, everywhere but here maybe, they drink Pastis. In my readings about wine, booze, and France, Pastis would always appear in someone's milky colored glass. Whether in a wine bar, a cafe, or after dinner in a garden, Pastis was there. What the Hell is it really? Reading about it did not provide a full answer, I would have to try it.

For our 10th wedding anniversary (yes, it's been that long!) my wife and I decided to go to Paris. It was time to take that leap into a truly foreign land where your language is not the native language. This was a trip to take while we were still capable of enjoying the city by foot.

Walk we did. The second day we took over 36,000 steps, that's over 15 miles. Ok, in hindsight it was a fooling and painful thing to do and I admit it being my decision. Yet, we continued to walk, but the number of steps was reduced.

Paris has a very good Metro. I read that the Metro was dirty and smelled of piss but at the numerous number of stations we used, this was far from the case. I mean, they were not spotless, but they were in fine condition and did not stink they way the subway does in Manhattan. Paris is not perfect, I'm not sure where the poverty is, but as we were being driven though one area we were told this was where the poor and immigrants are, and it did not look any worse than I would have expected. There are homeless, a lot of them are older. There are panhandlers. It's a very large city.

We chose to go to a truly beautiful city. So much to see and do that it could not be done in a week. As we looked down the charming streets we would see a building at the end of the block that looked interesting, but in order to see it we would have to not go where we were originally going.

Paris is where I found, in the Le Baron Rouge, the Parisian wine bar of my dreams. Locals, art on the walls, a friendly but knowledgable bartender who put up with my merde French.

Wine is a universal language though.

And on the wall of that wine bar I saw that Pastis was offered, and I had to have one. So I ordered one and watched to see how it was prepared. A shot or so of Pastis in the glass, then the rest of the glass filled with tap water and boom! There it is.

No fuss, no fancy prep or elite water cask.

For all that it was not a let down.

Pastis is primarily made with star anise. There are many variations that use different types of herbs but anise is the main ingredient so your drink is going to taste like a liquid Good N' Plenty.

I happen to love Good N' Plenty.

This wine bar happened to have bottles of Pastis Du Provence for sale. For 27 euros.

I now have a bottle of that at the Westgate Cavern.

Service is Paris restaurants and service in Columbus restaurants are two things that can learn from each other. Service in Paris is slow, no doubt about that, but you are on vacation - where are you going? In Columbus they're on top of you, the server telling you the "story" of the brand. You, thankfully, do not get that in Paris. They do not hover over you. You do get a trained, experienced, career server making good recommendations on the wine and food. But they rarely ask if you want another drink, or dessert. You have to get their attention and work for their service. It's not better, it's not worse, but different.

Not tipping is something that I really had to bear down and deal with. Occasionally I still had a leave a few euros out of habit. But hey, they all have great health care, and that's part of the bill!

I did think Paris would be more expensive, but where we went prices seemed reasonable. You are in a big freaking city and you pay. Plus, we got driven by a house that cost over 200 million dollars so there are top dollar areas.

I did not get to as many museums as I would have liked. Two things prevented that: time, and crowds. Ok three things. I bought advance timed ticked to the Louvre on Monday morning. We got there, and saw this huge line. Went to the front of the line to see what was going on. No one was being let in the museum. The line was tremendous, and it was the one for advance tickets. Then we heard a few people start muttering the word 'strike'. The staff was on strike. No one was being let in the museum and we were not going to stand in line for 2-3 hours and not move anywhere. It turns out staff were on strike because attendance had increased to over 10 million people per year (30,000 a day) and staff were being cut. I was eating those ticket. The good thing is that the company I bought the tickets from have me a refund.

So no Louvre but we did get to the Rodin, Jacquemart-Andre, L'Orangerie and the Museum of Romantic Life.

The big highlight was a three hour tour of the city in a Citroen DS23 convertible. The Goddess! Truly a beautiful car with a wonderful driver and guide. We had champagne in the back seat, and so many admiring glances while driving the narrow streets. There was a chance encounter with an all girl pep band playing Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out For A Hero on the banks of the Seine. "That was one of my secret romantic stops," our driver apologized while my wife and I laughed our asses off. It was wonderful. Being driven around Paris with my gal next to me in the back seat, and two laps around the Arc Du Triomphe, was a life highlight

We did so much: Pere Lachaise is beautiful, the Catacombs are creepy and incredible, I had the best baguette in Paris, our hotel staff was amazing and the people are cool - including a barely five foot tall chocolatier. I'm sure I'm missing a lot.

The flight over on Air Canada was ok in comparison to the flight back. United screwed up on so many levels it is disturbing.

Took a lot of pictures. Drank my way through the crus of Beaujolais, had some awesome cocktails in a very cool and trendy bar. Ate great gratin, want to go back. There's a lot to do here, to see and experience.

The spying internet

I mention on Facebook that I may be going to Paris and this showed up in my spam folder.

Hi - Chaptal ,

My name is Veronica, I'm from Paris. Last week i Bought an old book from street here in Paris and i found your email inside of it, i'm curious to know if this is a real person, and what relate you with this book! Looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks
Please reply to this email today To Either

Taping over your camera isn't going to do shit.

About the reading at Kitamu Cafe

It was a tough night to give a reading after watching the horrors unfold in Paris. A night when about one in fifteen who went to a rock concert will never make it home. We had a show to do, and we did it - as poets do.

Quite the pleasure to share the stage with Nancy Kangas, who is one of my favorite poets. She did a wonderful set (after mine, as I would not dare follow her) that was engaging and totally relatable to my interests. She has a series of poems about parked cars for crying out loud!

I had not read live in over a month and got a bit winded. Think it went well. Did a lot of newer poems that have been swirling in my head or sitting in a computer file, unfinished, for longer than I care to admit. For posterity, here’s the set list.

A bunch of things man makes
Charlie Watts’ wrists
Raising the pitchfork, lighting the torch
How to drink a bad drink
The last barn sign painter - for Harley Warrick
The onramp from I-70 east to 315 north
Unlatching
Dear 2015
Nixon’s lunch
For my Mother on my Son’s birthday
Poughkeepsie service
Dear Pennsylvania

Thanks again to Alexis and Evan for inviting me to do a set at the Second Friday Fete. It’s nice to be asked.