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close to the edit:
I can’t go back, since I’m no longer in Paris (France), and re-shoot the weekly video, but I will point out, contrary to popular mythology, it is not possible to see the friggin’ Eiffel Tower from every hotel room.
It’s a peculiar habit, to observe and listen, to draw conclusions from the airiest of figments, but then, I do okay.
On the Paris Metro, I watched as a young lady pulled a cell phone sock out of her handbag. She emptied out the phone, read a text message, typed a short answer and clutched at the phone. A cell phone rang. She calmly reached into her bag, withdrew another phone sock and slipped out a phone, and punched the answer button, ‘Alors, non,” something something something. In French.
As an American, I have a cell phone holster. Ready at the draw. Typical. Most of the French? They seemed to favor socks for phones. Like an iPod sock, only, for a phone.
“Two cells phones?”
“Sure, one for texting a boyfriend, and one for work.”
Coffee Shop:
The Coffee Shop, it’s one of possibly hundreds, but one of only a handful that aren’t a dreaded – branded – trademarked – incorporated – global – chain. It’s tucked away in a tiny corner down a side street in Soho, but then, all things considered, Soho really isn’t very large, either. I’ve got clients with larger tracts of land, just for the weekend place. But culture is culture, and one that I’m an expert on? Coffee shops.
That place was the real deal. Made me think about a truck stop in West Texas. Same worn formica tops. Same deal.
French Roast:
Kept hitting really, really good coffee in Paris. Asked. The secret ingredient? French Roast Coffee From Richard’s. Not “Poor Richard’s,” either. Only bought one souvenir coffee mug the whole trip, an espresso cup from “Ree-SHARDs.”
This is it: coffee porn.
In other news:
MB going green? Saw some “smart” MB cars in Paris. Didn’t Toyota claim that it would be all Hybrid by 2012? Are they on target?
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Copyright 2008 by Kramer Wetzel for astrofish.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without prior written consent from the author.
Alors, mon ami, je ne comprehend pas … your penchant for dissing Starbuck’s. Granted it’s a mega chain, and granted that sometimes its coffee is mediocre. But it’s reliably good (most of the time) and gives me the caffeine jolt I crave in the morning. Of course, I’m not the aficionado of fine coffees that you are, O World Traveller. Mostly I just stop at my drive-in Starbucky’s on the way to work. Or grind my own on the weekend.
Maybe I like the Starry One’s coffee so much because of the contrast with the stuff I gulped down as a truck/bus driver. That stuff was often truly awful, but you take what you can get at truck stops. Now I’m a white-collar worker and choose not to insult my taste buds with such stuff.
Maybe when I retire, I can ascend to the Kramer-level of coffee perfection….