Singin' in the Rain

Gene Kelly is probably best remembered for shuffling his way through Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris in his own inimitable style. Here in Paris I think they have got the plots slightly confused...

July was the apparently the hottest July in a hundred years. August, normally the hottest month of the year in France, is the wettest and coldest in another hundred years' memory. Just my luck...

I actually went out and bought an umbrella - une parapluie - to keep from getting soaked to the skin, which has happened each day I`ve been here. And I mean soaked. I haven't seen torrential downpours like this since Southeast Asia.

I do like paying three or four Euros for very decent red winee in the supermarket, however!

The French tax the hell out of cigarettes but it would be political suicide to do it on alcohol. Of course that doesn't mean I haven't ingested more second hand smoke than I thought imaginable.

For those of you who are famimiar with the novel; "A Year in the Merde", I have managed to maneuver around all the dog turds on the sidewalk.

I last ran 16K on Friday and I've meant to run on each of the last two days, but the relentless rain has significantly dampened my enthusiasm.

I am delighted to note that a great deal more of my meagre supply of French vocabulary is surfacing this trip than is normally the case.

Au revoir; Mes Amis!