Parislog 89
January 2, 2007

I had a fabulous New Year’s Eve with my friend A*. First we went to see a movie with my new unlimited movie pass. It was called “Hors de Prix” with Audrey Tautou and all in French. I actually was able to manage most of it.

We were too early yet for dinner so she drove us along the banks of the river Marne looking at a rather wealthy area and their houses and view over the river. It was a lovely meandering drive. We stopped at a little tavern to have a hot cocoa. We got seated, barely. It was as though the girl was doing us a favor and then we waited. No one ever came back. A* asked the bartender for the drinks. And we still waited. Eventually we just walked out and even then no one said a word. It was absolutely the weirdest.

Off we went to her dad’s house to have New Year’s dinner, called révellion. We had a beautiful “light” meal that stuffed me to the gills. We first had little hors d’oeuvres made from blinis and spreads or fish eggs. The champagne was brought out, opened and poured into exquisite engraved crystal low champagne glasses. It was very lovely, dry and gentle to taste. Then came the entrée, which was an interesting salad of mixed fish, vegetables and fruit. There were unshelled shrimp on top decorating it and inside was spinach, shrimp, fish, corn, avocado and grapefruit. I didn’t think that it would work. But the grapefruit went surprisingly well. The main course was a tart with spinach, smoked salmon and an egg sauce, a bit like a quiche. Yummy.

A* had set a beautiful table with white table cloth, gorgeous china with a blue bird in one corner and greenery trailing around the plate. The wine goblets were all different colors in cut glass and the water glasses were super heavy crystal. The silverware was real old family silver and the knives had little rests that was a bar held up by two little boars. For my American eyes, it was an amazing sight to see family history in everything around me.

We next headed into downtown Paris to go to a Jazz club. It is called “Caveau de Huchette” and the jazz stage is actually in the cave. It is teeny-tiny and full of atmosphere. I didn’t know how we were supposed to fit in there as every square inch of space was already taken and yet more were coming in. We put our coats in the coat check and ended up in a tiny little spot on the stairs leading into the cave. We could hear the band and get a tiny little view under the arch of the stage. The music was great and there were couples doing swing dancing in the tiniest of spaces.We left at about 2 AM and the streets were filled with people celebrating.