A Tasty Yule Blog

I made the mistake of buying Eddy his first pint yesterday evening. This pushed the poor lad into a near-pathological frenzy of trying to pay for me for the rest of the night. Starting with an ill-advised second pint (it was still only about half six and I hadn't properly eaten yet), this was followed by a surreptitious attempt to cover my filet de canard (a plan which I bravely foiled) and paying for a taxi up to Montmartre (well if you insist on taking a taxi then yes you bloody well can pay for it). We had a very left-field taxi driver; as we came up to Barbès, he suddenly commented "à votre place, j'irai pas à la Gare de Lyon". Thanks for that. Just concentrate on the road.


So we found the Soleil de la Butte, which is a typical Parisian bar at the foot of some very typical steps going up to the Sacré Coeur. If you've ever seen a film set in Paris, you will have seen somewhere exactly like it. It's also on rue Muller, which will excite at least one Timberblog reader. As it happens, the bar has a small but very cosy and frankly quite cool live music venue downstairs. Sophie, a friend of Eddy's, was showcasing her own brand of mad French trip-hop. Definitely a bit different. Click to hear her song Oh Lou. I nearly stayed on for the second act, but left when I heard the first few chords of "comedy" oompah-chanson coming from the guitar. There are few worse things in the world than a French musician trying to be funny. I strongly advise you against clicking here.

Anyway. Fröhliche Weihnachten und alle guten Wünsche zum Neuen Jahr. Eat turkey. Drink alcohol. (Listen not to Slade and Wham!, but to some Sigur Ros instead.) Be Merry. Timberblog will be back before new year with some resolutions.