Sunday 27 July 2008

So…

I had this great spur of the moment idea. My friend Marty is back working in Paris for a bit, and since the final stage of the Tour de France ends in Paris, I thought it would be a cool opportunity to experience such a world class event.

After grabbing the late Eurostar to Paris Saturday night, I met up with Marty at one of his usual haunts. The night’s festivities started by sitting in an Irish pub in the Latin Quarter of Paris drinking a Belgian ale and listening to a German chap singing American ballads.

Kinda weird when I write it down, isn’t it?

Oh... but it gets better.

On our way to a cocktail bar called Bob Cool, we were invited to join Marty’s friend for a quick bourbon in his flat (in a 500 year old building no less). Unbeknownst to me, his friend is fellow Texan Ealy Mays, a world renowned artist whose paintings have hung in the New York Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and the Louvre. Not only did he share drink with us, he was also kind enough to give me a small piece of his work.

So yeah… I hung out with an artist in Paris. How bohemian of me, no?

Don’t be worried. We were able to awaken in plenty of time to grab a spot off of the Jardin des Tuileries on Rue de Rivoli (although I did have to cling to a fence) to watch the winner, Spaniard Carlos Sastre, and the rest of the remaining riders take their celebratory loops before the finishing at the Arc de Triomphe.