The Simon Era

January 16, 2006  ::  02:05 PM

Simon arrived in Lille the morning after Andrea and I got back from Zurich. For three wonderful days those two beauties were sharing my apartment with me. We watched movies, tried to keep warm, and went shopping in Lille. The day after Andrea left Simon and I went to Paris, it was New Year’s Eve. We spent the day wandering the shopping area around the Centre Pompidou, drifting in and out of shoe stores. We ate dinner at a vegetarian restaurant near Notre Dame. While eating we met a very strange Norwegian couple who wanted to follow us to the Eiffel Tower. We had just enough time to get there before midnight. On the Metro we were packed into the train car so tightly that I could barely lift my arm to hold on to the pole. The Norwegian couple starting making out next to us in quarters that were clearly to close to be doing such kissing, and behind us we listened to two Scotsmen talk about the abuses they endured in seminary and the reasons they left the priesthood. And then, the Metro shut down, lights out, engine off. It restarted moved one station, more people entered, and stopped again. As one Scotsman was talking (with his Groundskeeper Willy accent) about his desire to kill a priest that had beat him up, the clock struck midnight.

We decided to get off of the godforsaken train as soon as humanly possible. We ended up getting off at the Champs-Elyseés where the first thing we saw was a plume of smoke and Paris police in riot gear rushing into a crowd. Nearly everyone in Paris was on the street, drinking champagne, smashing bottles, shouting “Bonne Année!” We watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle, walked some more, and went back to our hotel for champagne and heart-shaped brie. Photos of said events can be viewed on my Flickr account as well as Simon’s.