As noted earlier, we over-packed sweaters and other cool-weather clothes, so we are mailing four boxes of unnecessary clothes back to Hawaii. We plan to take the Metro all the way up to Gare l’Est early Saturday morning – only one line change drops you off right at the station’s doorstep – rather than take a taxi, which could be problematic, starting with whether it would show up on time. So rather than haul around heavy roll-ons with unnecessary sweaters and leather jackets through Metro turnstiles and up stairs, off they go to Hawaii in pre-paid mailers purchased at the post office.
Thursday afternoon meant attending the Club Metropole again (see June 23 post for background), and this week’s meeting was a time for farewells. Dan and Olga of Australia are leaving tomorrow morning for Zurich and then points east, including their native Romania. Under club secretary Ric Erickson’s relentless grilling, Dan acknowledged that they essentially “escaped” from the country during the bad old days, some 20 years ago. They simply never returned from their holiday in Greece. Dan kept saying “don’t write this down” but Ric kept writing, so we’re anxious to see how much of the escape’s intrigue Ric includes in the on-line “minutes” of this week’s meeting.
We said our farewells, too, and thanked Ric for hosting this weekly gathering. We’d recommend a visit to the club to anyone who’s up for a couple of hours of good-natured conversation with some fellow English-speakers, here in the heart of the French nation, right across the street from the Louvre. Google the club and Ric for details.
Being Thursday, it was time for the rain to start falling by the end of the club “meeting,” just as it did a week ago, but this week it was a more gentle rain with little lightning and thunder. Predictably, now that we’re mailing our sweaters home, the weather has turned cool (we held back a couple), and we like it. We enjoyed watching the rush-hour scene from a street-side table at Les Deux Magots once again, then headed back to pick up a pizza and walk the length of Rue de Commerce back to the apartment. Tomorrow, we mail the boxes and do whatever else fancies us on our last day in Paris.
|  | 
|
