Le Mondial

June 4, 2002

I am sitting along the windows in the front of the café, and above me are more windows that have recently been covered by an awning, blocking the daylight to an extent. At this moment the awning is being extended even further because it's just started pouring outside. The couple who were filling out postcards at the outside table next to my window grabbed their cards and ran away. I'm assuming they already paid for their coffees. They had an awful lot of postcards, dozens of them actually, though I couldn't tell exactly what they were postcards of. Castles and things like that.

A super long bus is momentarily stopped outside, one of those buses that look like two buses stuck together, with the front of the second bus replaced by an accordian thing holding the two buses together. A woman with a red umbrella passes a woman with a blue umbrella, who is followed by a woman with a green umbrella. A black van passes by with a large orange scorpion stenciled onto its side and back. Something to do with Nike, since there's a Nike logo next to the scorpion, but the whole effect is rather cool. The upper deck of the Open Tour bus just lost its only two inhabitants. Though they had a large orange, gray and white umbrella, the two women with blue tops decided they should probably get out of the downpour and retreated into the lower level. It's still raining hard, but I have no doubt the sun will be back out by the time I finish writing.

I have a wooden table with a shiny black formica top; the table is square on one end and round on the other. (Well, the sun is already shining again. The awning is still dripping, though.) My cup and saucer have a half inch brown smoke design around the edges. The sugar came in powdered form, in a tube. The ashtray is blue and says "Volcan de poche" on it. Pocket volcano? What could that mean? There is a menu on my table, standing up. It's a good size table, actually. Lots of room, a three person table, with space for a third person sitting on the rounded end, and the square end up against the windows.

The chairs are wooden with dark turquoise seat cushions. To my left is the wall of the tabac counter. On the outside of its wall is a display case filled with collectible 2-inch long cars, and a little spiky orange sign proclaims that they are only 2.30 euros each! Such a deal. I can see a mirrored disco column from where I'm sitting, but the rest of the café is blocked from view and quite a mystery to me. I'm just happy I got to unload seven copper coins when I paid for my coffee.

Above me, on the black bars that divide the top windows, are rows of little red light bulbs, and they all seem to be working perfectly. A waiter comes by and makes sure that the cup and crumpled receipt before me are in fact mine. The waiters here all seem to be Asian.

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Le Mondial
12 rue Auber
75009 Paris
Metro: Havre-Caumartin

Price of an expresso: 2.13 euros
Sugar: tube of powdered sugar

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