Wednesday, October 31, 2012

the final days

I love Paris - to date my favorite city on earth but it was with dread I headed northward - the trip so far had been filled with people and passion and discovery - what lay ahead was seeing "things". The Eiffel Tower is super cool, will never tire of it, the Sacre Coeur with its view of all of Paris was breathtaking - but in truth I was wandering around aimlessly (not knowing we will be closing down a 3rd Parisian bar later this night) when I remembered "JUVENILES!"

A couple of years ago I was reading a wine book of some sort and it talked about a really eclectic wine bar near the Louvre run by an Englishman named Tim Johnston - in the "this is weird" category - five minutes after reading that passage my daughter Whitney called and said her boss was in Paris and wanted to know if I knew of any cool wine bars in Paris - I told her about Juveniles, he went, had a great time - been sending people there ever since - I had never been ... until now!

It is tiny, tiny - like maybe 1000 square feet - is famous for the eclectic wine offerings that Tim has found agreeable to his  palate from all over the world. It had a vibe going on this Friday night that was pure energy. Tim himself is a very large Englishman who looks the part of the overindulgent ex pat that he is - our server came up and we ordered some fun apps - charcuterie and cheese - and a super good Spanish wine - she asked about us and I told her that I had come to check out the joint since I'd been sending people to it from the USA for a few years but had never been myself - she thought that was cool - told Tim - he whipped his rather large head around and gave us a big toast for sending people his way then sent us a glass of his current favorite Priorat wine - again in the "this is weird" category - an area both he and we had just visited - we discussed a little about wine - he grabbed my card - super fun spot - unfortunately we had dinner reservations at eight in the Latin Quarter and had to leave - another reason I hate pre-planning stuff - was for me just more affirmation that it's the people and the experiences that make trips memorable - cheers to Tim and his super cool joint - if you ever find yourself on the right bank you gotta pop in

on Saturday we took the Chunnel to London:
going 185 miles per hour, fun
under the English Channel, uneventful
pulling into London, surreal
hopping into one of those old fashioned limo like cabs, laughable
popping into a proper pub, entertaining
punk rock bar hanging, indescribable
all of these -  first night activities.

Next morning activity was walking the streets of London to see all the major touristy things, pretty damn OK - Ben is Big, Buckingham isn't beautiful, the Parliament building is impressive, the Thames is wide but the most fun, by far was walking back and forth across the crosswalk of Abbey Road while we snapped each others photo while trying -  in some order - to portray John, Paul, George and Ringo - just pure fun!

Off to Wembley for our final act of the European vacation - traveling the Tube reminded me of taking the train to Wrigley - the final few miles are above ground and at each stop more and more "football" fans jumped on - mostly Pat fans which suited us just fine - the weird thing was that every language imaginable was being spoken and every jersey of the entire NFL seemed to be represented - an Italian with a Miami jersey on - a Spaniard with a Bear logo on his tuque - a German with a Jets jacket - the Brits seemed to mostly support the Pats - my theory being the word England was in the name - the tailgate was huge and when we saw a "grab a Bud" booth we thought - oh, back to being American - that however, was the end of normalcy - there were food booths of Lobster and Chorizo, wood stone pizza booths - you could get a "hamburger" with an sunny side egg on top or a sautéed octopus Thai noodle dish - you know - all the standard tailgate fare - fun stuff!

Wembley is beautiful - modern and clean it hosted a helluva show including Train - a band I would normally pan but was pretty damn fun in that venue - followed by the two national anthems being sung while we all held plastic sacks of different colors that brought Old Glory and the Union Jack to life in the stadium - goose bump kind of stuff - the game itself was anti-climatic with a Patriot blowout - all in all a pretty unique way to take in an American football game.

and so it ends - a cyclone seemed the most appropriate analogy to what we had just done the past ten days - so many people and places and events - a lifetime of memories and a foundation of friendships make this - in the voice of the boy who cried wolf - 

the best damn trip - EVER!

your pal,

mt 

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