Thankful Thursday

Today is Thanksgiving, a time to celebrate and be thankful for Life's bounty.

 🦃 

- FocusOnParis returns next week -

Mocha Monday

A warming café crème on the Left Bank, served with a kiss.

 

Snowfall Sunday

 

Light snowfall with more to come forecast.

 

Stand-up Saturday

At his post, ready to pour drinks and oversee nibbles (as Aristide Bruant looks on) at the Musée de Montmartre opening.

***

Current exhibition: 

École de Paris: The Marek Roefler Collection

 

 Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

 

Ends February 15, 2026

 

Four-minute Friday

 

 Next metro: 4 minutes.

 Paris, where four minutes is never just four minutes.

*** 

 A lot can happen in four minutes, the time it takes to soft boil an egg. As the metro clock counts down, outside, just above, much is going on:

- A man has lost his phone (and lifeline) in one swift scooter-by grab. He runs after the perpetrator, returns breathless, plops on the nearest bench, and tries to figure out what to do next.

- A woman on a café terrace, watching her husband discreetly ogle yet another fausse blonde for the last time, has decided to leave him, and spends her four minutes rehearsing in her head what she’ll tell the kids.

- A man seated on a fountain ledge has hit the perfect rhythm to down his sandwich baguette-jambon-beurre: bite, chew, wipe mouth, finishing in just four minutes. A true artiste.

- In a doorway a teenage girl lights her first cigarette ever and, coughing dramatically trying to pretend she’s done this forever, her friend films the occasion for her social media.

- A man in a suit has been mouthing his resignation speech to himself while staring at his reflection in a pharmacy window repeating, “Ce n’est pas vous, c’est moi!” over and over. Then walks away.

- In a dreary hospice room, alone, a man who lost a leg has just said his confession and received The Last Rites when a call comes in. It's his estranged sister, from far away. In four minutes he pours his heart into hers, and tells her that he always loved her. 

- Someone is sprinting full-speed toward the bus stop, one shoe in hand, shouting “Attendez!” but the bus driver closes the doors and drives off with zero remorse. The next bus is in four minutes. 

- At the same time a tiny dog being walked in a tiny raincoat is refusing to continue because the pavement is “too wet,” and sits in defiant protest while its owner pulls and tugs, surprised at the strength and resolve in such a small body.

All in four minutes. And here comes my train. - BPJ 

***

Yesterday, as every third Thursday in November, Paris and all of France cheered the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau.

 🍷🍷🍷 

December newsletter 

  

Thoughtful Thursday

 Toulouse-Lautrec watches thoughtfully from his Montmartre perch.

 

Wicked Wednesday

 A bright kiosk on a leaf-strewn square announces today's release of Wicked: Part II.