A PARIS SCENE

Have I mentioned that our little apartment here is on rue Maître Albert?  Until 1844, this very ancient one-block street bore the ominous name rue Perdue, but it was then renamed after Albertus Magnus, Albert the Great, Maître Albert, the great thirteenth century theologian who introduced Aristotle’s works into the Western European world and was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas.  That is pretty terrific, if you think about it.

At the end of our street, where it empties into Place Maubert right next to rue Frederic Sauton, there is a very popular bar with the implausible name The Long Hop.  Pretty much every evening, but especially on weekends, the Long Hop is hopping, with lots of young people seated at the tables out front drinking one of the many available draft ales and like as not speaking English.  Inside, I gather [I have never actually been inside], there are lots more young people watching one or another television screen, all of which are tuned to sports.

This morning when I walked up to Place Maubert to buy a few things at the market, I saw a little clutch of people in front of The Long Hop engaged, apparently, in filming a scene for a movie [or for an ad – I could not tell which.]  One young man held a long boom mike, a second was manning the camera, and several others were standing about assisting in some way.  A white cab drew up to a stop and out of it climbed an implausibly handsome young man casually but elegantly dressed and pretty obviously made up for the camera.  He leaned over and blew a little party horn at the cab driver while the camera recorded it all.  Then he turned, strode to the front of The Long Hop, looked up at the second or third floor with a theatrical stare, and smiled, revealing the whitest teeth I have ever seen on a living person.  Someone must have said “cut,” because he abruptly stopped, deflated, and wandered over to a chair while the others gathered in a group and consulted with one another.

They kept at it for the next six or seven hours, during which I imagine they managed to get thirty or forty seconds of usable film.

Just another day in Paris.