"I love a glass of Champagne. It can make even the most average Monday seem like a Saturday night." Cat Deeley
Just got over with one of these "average Monday's". To take you all illusions right away: Living in Paris does not mean to spend every day at the Eiffel Tower or in the Louvre, its means running from one metro station to another, from the wrong exit to the right, from the broken RER to the packed Tram, all this in order to finally get 20 minutes late to your destination that is probably situated on the sixth floor of a Haussmann building. "Certainly equipped with an elevator", you promptly assume. Of course not.
Since I arrived in Paris 6 months ago, one of the most astonishing observations I made is that Parisians sadly enough have to spend half of their day in murky metro tunnels. They take it easy as Parisian sunlight rarely finds its way through air pollution, especially during winter time. Somedays, I can hardly make a difference whether I'm under- and overground, for me it's all the same darkness. Having lived in Marseille during the last two years, I can say that a blue sky in Paris is as rare as seeing a smilie in the metro on Monday mornings.
Hence, a glass of Champagne was the only consolation that could have turned this miserable average I-hate-using-the-metro Monday into a quite lovely one. By attending a conference of Norbert Lammert, the President of the German Parliament at Maison Heinrich Heine, chances were pretty good to finish this evening with a glass of Champagne in hand. After two hours of heavy discussion on the german-french political relationships, I definitely needed to reward myself with an exquisite glass of Perrier-Jouet.
Then, the big disappointment: NO Champagne.
Over the long time I'm already staying in France I forgot about one essential difference when it comes to German's and French's celebration habits: Germans give a damn about Champagne.
The third most important politician from our country comes to give a speech and the best we get him is a plastic cup of "Crémant de la Loire"?! That's something I will probably never understand.
According to Lammert, Germany's and France's strong and long-lasting friendship is the result of their cultural differences. Therefore, it must be totally fine that Germans prefer drinking Rotkäpchen Sekt and French people sip on Dom Perignon. The President of the Bundestag as an archetypical German-being, would never have claimed a class of Champagne either. My German fellows did nothing wrong. I'm the only one complaining since my Monday stayed just average.
Have a sparkling week !
