A Bizarre Night, Saint Malo & The Police

This week’s entry focuses on a memorable evening I had this week. I went to the Indiana Café near Odeon, a big chain, pseudo Tex-Mex restaurant with locations throughout Paris, to have a happy hour drink with my friend The Conquistadore. The Conquistadore goes to Indiana Café frequently because their happy hour deal offers drinks for 50% off the normal price, which is quite good for Paris. Our night started quite ordinarily but ended up quite memorably.

We arrived at Indiana at 7:50pm, specifically because we knew their happy hour deal ended at 8pm. We sat down and of course couldn’t find a waiter. About 1 minute before 8pm, we flagged down a waitress who looked at her cell phone and confirmed that we made it before 8pm. She took our order and when she returned with our drinks, she gave us a bill that had the full price on it. We were stunned. She said there was nothing she could do because when she put the order in the computer it was 8:02pm. We asked to talk to the manager who came over to us. We explained that we came here specifically for happy hour, waited 10 minutes for a waitress, ordered before 8pm and therefore we weren’t going to pay full price. One important thing to note in this whole drama is that the difference in price between happy hour and normal prices was 5 euros for me and 3 for the Conquistadore.

The manager basically didn’t want to hear anything we were saying and just rudely said that we had to pay full price. We laughed at how unbelievable the situation was and jokingly told him that he’d have to call the police to get us to pay full price. We continued chatting over our drink when about 5 minutes later, two police officers came to our table. The manager actually called the police on us. We asked the officers what they wanted with us since we hadn’t done anything wrong. We hadn’t tried to leave without paying or anything. We were having our drinks and had the bill on our table. The officers didn’t want to hear it and told us that we had a “litige commericale” and that he needed our IDs. We initially refused but then relented when he said we’d have to come with him to the police station if we didn’t show him ID. To end the long story, we paid the full price, asked the manager’s name (to which he replied “you don’t have the authority to ask me my name”) and decided that it was unfortunate for the manager that he decided to do this to two motivated individuals that have a lot of free time. The Conquistadore and I are going to the tribunal soon and with a little luck, can continue our case for 8 euros all the way to the highest court in the land. They’re going to be sorry.

From there, the evening continued its bizarreness. We went to have a bite to eat in at a popular falafel place St Michel. I ordered a falafel which came completely overstuffed with condiments. When I asked the lady working there for a plastic fork, she refused to give me one saying “we only give forks to those who order salads”. I of course thought she was kidding but true enough, she wouldn’t give me a fork. The next customer ordered a salad and was given a small plastic fork. I was stunned. Unfortunately for them, the people who have to clean the tables will learn what can happen if one tries to eat an overstuffed falafel without a fork. ☺

Made another trip to Saint Malo and walked along the beautiful beach and explored the inside of the walled city.

And finally, my happy hour incident wasn't my only run in with the police this week. I got to photograph the music group The Police at a private party along the Champs-Elysees after their big reunion concert here. It was quite a jet set crowd because it’s also the start of fashion week here so all the pretty people were out in force. Below, Sting arrives at the party with his wife.
A few more photos from Saint Malo:

A dog on the beach
Italian gelato inside the walled city
Interesting that the slogan at the bottom of the manhole cover in Saint Malo is the same as our Marines
Inside the walled city

15 Minutes of Insanity, Rugby and Human Rights Watch

Three anecdotes this week … all taking place in a 15-minute interval along rue de Rivoli in the Marais. I was sitting having a drink with a friend when I heard police sirens coming towards us from the Bastille. Seconds later, I saw the following:

- two police motorcycles, followed by
- two weather-beaten Perrier delivery trucks, followed by
- a police car with its door wide open and an officer hanging out of it holding the largest automatic weapon I have ever seen in my life.

I’ve tried for days to come up with a hypothesis as to what that scene could have been. And other than the French transporting their nuclear warheads across town in Perrier trucks, I couldn’t come up with anything.

Two minutes later, I walked across the street to a boulangerie to get some chouquettes (see photo).


Imagine my surprise when the lady bundled my half-dozen chouquettes in a bag and then yelled something (of which I only understood “game”) and proceeded to launch the bag in the air, over the counter and into my disbelieving hands. At Jerry’s Deli or the Southwest Airlines ticket counter this would be normal – but at a French boulangerie, where variety usually means something like switching between using 83 and 84 grains of salt per baguette, this was shocking. It brought a big smile to my face.

And just when I thought I could return to the planet earth, I re-crossed the street, re-sat down at the café and then noticed a rolled up mattress strategically placed high up in a big tree along rue de Rivoli.


All this within a 15-minute period …

For all the things that drive me crazy about living here, it’s my appreciation for the unpredictable, inexplicable and purely comedic that keeps me sane here.

On the photo front, I got to photograph the France vs Ireland Rugby World Cup match at the Stade de France.


I can’t say I have developed almost any appreciation for that sport but the event itself was highly entertaining. For more rugby images, click here: RUGBY WORLD CUP

And finally, I was happy to find out that I will be assisting Human Rights Watch doing their photography here in Paris. If you’ve never heard of them, check out their website at www.hrw.org. They’re a great organization and are launching their Paris office in a few weeks. More about this soon.

Two photos and a video of the week:

Street dining at Fauchon in Place de la Madeleine

Rugby World Cup statue at Gare Montparnasse

Elton and Saint-Malo

Spent the first part of the week in Paris and then headed back out to Saint-Malo. For those of you not familiar with Saint-Malo, it is the walled, port city on the Northwest coast of France, just below the English Channel and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey. It’s relatively small town (50,000 permanent residents) but can grow to about 200,000 with the summer visitors. I will be spending some time there and hope to share more of the city with you. It’s quite a nice place, with dramatic sunsets and crazy tides … sometimes the main beach there is 50 meters wide (close to 50 yards) and then within a short period of time the beach is completely swallowed by the sea.


When I was in Paris earlier in the week, I got to shoot one of my all-time favorites … Elton John. We got to shoot only 1 song, but luckily it was “Love Lies Bleeding/Funeral for a Friend” which lasts 12 minutes. It was the first time I sang all the lyrics and shot at the same time.


I am on a train right now heading back to Paris and a couple right in front of me seems to have eaten too many oysters during their stay here in Saint-Malo … they’re putting on a little show for the whole car. I love train travel.

Two photos of the week …

Clearly Chucky Cheese inspired
One of my favorite cafes in Paris - Cafe Lea

American Film Festival of Deauville - Part 2

Apart from the goings-on of the Festival, not much to blog about this week. I did manage to see two excellent documentaries. The first was "When the Levees Broke", a Spike Lee documentary about the lead up to, during and after Katrina. I saw a lot of footage I had never seen and stories I had never heard before. The other documentary was called "Brando" and was all about the life of Marlon Brando. It had great interviews with people who knew him best, some of them famous, some not. Both worthwhile films.


Hanging out with French photographers for 9 days really improved my street French. I can now say things in French that I can't legally put in this blog! It was quite a good time here in Deauville, personally and professionally.

Since it's too soon (legally) for me to publish my festival photos on my blog, feel free to send me an email and I can send you a private link to see the images.

Two photos of the week:

Savage Butcher
Cabbage in the Marais

American Film Festival of Deauville

This week I'm blogging from Deauville, France, a small but chic town along the coast in Normandie. I'm here photographing the 33rd American Film Festival. Deauville is a great festival because unlike Cannes, it's cosy and not too hectic.This year there are some big stars attending the festival like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Michael Douglas, Catherine Deneuve, Brian DePalma, Monica Bellucci and a few others.The festival is, in addition to the real competition, showing classic American films 24 hours a day in various theatres throughout the city.
Some photos of the week:

Blurry building
Blurry building closeup
Jewish Mexicans?