The Café Society - Part 4 - Captain Mercier

Emma’s first jazz club experience at Le Baiser Salé, on jazz club row, rue des Lombards, near our new offices. She had been to arena shows, and has seen what it’s like to share Eric Clapton with 15 000 other fans and corporate guests. This was a much more intimate experience: 50 spectators and a 10-piece band.

Captain Mercier are made up of session musicians, studio sharks, who do about 20 gigs a year, more for fun than anything else. Their brand of funk sounds something like Bootsy Collins and Parliament. However 9 out of ten of them are white, and they are tight… Having discoverd them by accident, SylVie and I have now attended a half-dozen concerts, including the DVD recording.

Anyhow, Emma got to see them up close (having seen their DVD at home) talk to one of the two lead singers (the younger, good-looking one) and tell the bassist how much she enjoyed the soundtrack to Cabaret Paradis. If only it hadn’t been a school night...

The Café Society - Part 3 - Council Housing

The Kids (Emma, Max & Robin) live in a council flat in the 15th District. Now Council Housing may conjure up images of squalor, abject poverty and rampant violence; unfortunately these images are often not far removed from the truth. However, thanks to Claire's determined lobbying efforts, the council flat in question is a penthouse on the 8th floor with an unobstructed view of an oversized model of the Crystal Palace radio tower.

The 8th floor terrace has already been the setting for several parties, sleepovers, or dinners. It is also the home of Claire's urban garden, where various herbs, flowers, fruit and vegetables provide proof that the Parisian remains a farmer at heart. Finally, the boys' intimidating looking telescope also takes root on the terrace, enabling lunar exploration.

I understand that the telescope could also be used for Parisian bedroom exploration.