Au Revoir, Paris....

We hit Crazy Horse (original R-rated burlesque/tease club on Champs-Elysees dating back to the 1950s) to celebrate KayDee's 35th. The interior was red, gold, dark, and plushy, with patterned lighting effects that were able to make the dancers look like they were wearing costumes even when they weren't wearing anything--undulating through the light, a woman could go from almost-nude to being draped in a leopard-print skin in a blink.   It was fun sitting amongst the Parisiens and Japanese tourists...after a little champagne, they were easily impressed....  The show was more hilarious than sexy, with the high point being the 2 relief male jugglers whose main schtick consisted of passing 3 batons between them nonstop while stripping down to underwear from 3-piece suits, swapping suit parts, then redressing, all with a single dropped baton--amazing, considering it took 5 minutes at high speed. The female acts were (mostly) entertaining with generous cheese--lots of synchronized leggy moves, mirror effects, shimmery curtains, though they became a bit repetitive--the women looked idential--underfed Robert Palmer clones, with the exact same Rockette legs, faces, blonde wigs, and size B-cups bouncing, right down to their same shades of nipple...the show would be much more interesting if it added some variety: curves, differences in height, and especially, personality...but of course, take that for what it's worth, coming from a recovering performance artist...I'd replace the mirrors and faux leopard skin with a tsunami of liquid honey, midgets in coyote fur jumpsuits, 14-inch stilettos scrabbling for balance on a stage full of marbles, and a jackhammer soundtrack...that's my idea of sexy.

Today we rose early, rented our car (an automatic, luckily), and hit the road south for Tournon, a medieval town in the Rhone-Alps that's part of the Hermitage/St. Joseph wine region.  We passed rolling farm towns, hills, white cows sitting in the sun, finally arriving around 6:45PM.  We'll post pics soon--the area's gorgeous--valleys of vine-draped stone villages embanking the blue Rhone below green, steep hills that are covered in wine grape vineyards so steep they look impossible to harvest without soccer cleats--no machines possible here, which explains (in part) why Hermitage/Rhone wines are so expensive.

For dinner we darted through rain to Tournon's Chateau Hotel--a random pick--which turned out to be a geriatric resort...we were the youngest couple in the restaurant by about 45 years, but the food was mostly excellent...bass after a gelee-sardine appetizer, chocolate mousse, game hen, cinnamon tarte....  We drank a red Jaboulet, whose vines were visible on the hills across the Rhone through the restaurant window--incredible.

12:27AM...must sleep.  Photos below: Crazy Horse, KayDee and me on her big night, me in a taxi trying to make a skeleton face, and tonight's wine in the geriatric setting, minus the canes and oxygen tanks....more soon.

xo
--s