Pretty much like my last visit to pitch the Eiffel Tower administration in November 2010, on January 6, 2013 I played the last Mass of the day at St. Joseph’s in Middletown, NY and hopped on a plane for Paree (though last time it was a bar mitzvah at Vassar Temple….like I said, pretty much, not exactly!).
I got off the plane and took a cab to my apartment. A few miles from the airport, we pass a large building with a logo on the top in big red letters “TNT.” I asked my driver (in French I might add!) what kind of business it was. He said it’s a cable TV operation (possibly the Turner network). After just coming off as tight an airport security inspection as I’ve ever been thru, I wondered what it must be like as an exec at this company having to go thru TSA with all your bags marked with the company logo! We also passed a giant IKEA store, so there may be a more compelling reason for my wife to come to Paris in a couple years.
One of the great things I was anticipating was eating at le Creperie immediately adjacent to my apartment building (chronicled here from my first visit). I was looking forward to greeting the owners DJ & Natalie and even giving Nino their dog another massage (you really have to read the other post!). I gave a great sigh of despondency when I saw it was out of business, some windows shattered and taped up. I had been talking about this place for 2 years, and even invited some people I was gonna get together with in Paris to meet me there! The taxi driver thought I was going to the restaurant only and offered to take me somewhere else, but no…it was merely a creature comfort that was no longer next to my apartment and which I’ll miss greatly.
Making my way to the Metro, I took the top floor of a double-decker subway car to my prep meeting with my trustY producer Peter Emminger, at the Eiffel Tower where we caught up a little and strategized for the next day’s meeting with Mr. Stéphane Roussin, the Chief Engineer of the Tower.
More to come!!