This is the first blog we have written since August 2008. So there will be a lot of filling in to do, but not yet!
BTW we will be arriving back in NZ mid november this year. The time has gone so quickly!
Sometime in March we received an email from Dave (Bib) inviting us to the Paris launch of his and Drew's book, "Roadhouse Days". Earlier there had been an Oratia launch where the book was attached to a Rocket and formally launched. The book is a tribute to the life of Dave's mother, Marge. (Drew's Aunt). In the 50's she founded, at Albion Vale, Auckland's first fine food restaurant. It is a story of love and strength in very difficult times, and it is a story of great food and the company of visitors such as Yehudi Menuin.
These pix will give you a flavour of the Paris launch which was a crazy informal affair attended by family, other Paris restauranteurs, wine experts, publishers, magazine writers and a fine collection of Paris based Kiwis.
Dave had conceived a brilliant plan to ensure a spectacular launch.....
He and I were to string a line across Rue de Seine, between Drew's two restaurants. Thank God they are opposite each other!! A pulley would be attached to the line and a small plastic aeroplane attached to the pulley. The book would then be attached to the belly of the plane.
Drew & Dave making adjustments to the plane in Drew's apartment
At the book launch the plane with the book underneath would cross the road above the traffic,
crash through the open window of the Restaurant Cosi, and deposit the book on a table in front of the guests.
Additionally it would trigger a special Harre mechanism which would automatically pull the cork out of a bottle of Champagne!
Harre working on the Harre (non-patented) Champagne cork puller.
(Automatic trigger version).
However the devil is always in the detail and Dave's plan kept evolving on the hoof. As temporary right hand man I literally couldn't keep up with Dave's lightening grasp of situations and thus his need to make sudden and constant changes to the method. Bloody chaos, but it worked brilliantly!
Our first challenge came as we tried to string a line across Rue de Seine from the first story of both restaurants. Luckily at 9.00am the traffic was not at its peak and we managed to get the line across without entangling it in a car or worse, in a motor bike or bicycle. Next came the first test. Dave obtained a small but heavy pan from the "Fish" kitchen and attached it to the pulley.
With him in the Fish kitchen and me in Cosi on the other side of the road he let the pan slide across. Quelle horreur!! The pan got stuck in the middle of the road, one story up. Cars, and cyclists proceeded about their business below unaware of the possibility of sudden unconsciousness.
We jerked the line to try and free the pan. Dave suddenly disappeared into the kitchen, the line slackened and the pan dropped. The inside of a French prison flashed into my mind, but the pan stopped falling about 2 metres above a lovely convertible mini. Saved from a rat infested dungeon. At about this time Tid informed us that she has seen neighbours in apartments opposite phoning and look worriedly,at us. You know the tune: Thy run them in, they run them in etc etc ....Gendarmes. But no gendarmes appeared.
Tid, Toni & Hugh preparing the Cosi window for the launch.
Note the steep angle of the line coming down from Fish across the Rue de Seine!
Luckily Drew has an apartment on the fourth floor above Fish so we rigged up the line from there down to the first floor window at Cosi. There was huge fall on this line and the pan fairly sped across. - Success!
And so it was. The launch went beautifully, the guests were in wonder at the sheer ingeniousness of Dave's solution, the book rocketed through the paper covered window, the champagne popped its cork, short speeches were made and "Roadhouse Days" officially arrived in gay Paris!
Hugh, I and the waitresses folding towels in Fish afterwards.
What a weekend! I shall never ever forget it. The company and hospitality made it a privilege to be there. The high jinx was a bonus, but best of all Marge Harre is in Paris with Drew, and in Auckland with Dave. And with considerable style!
Addendum: I had obtained a Kevin Kilsby ceramic Pukeko (life size) from NZ and had tried to send it to Drew almost a year ago. The bird was returned in the post for some unknown reason. So I put it in my suitcase and took it with me. Somewhere the pukeko and its legs became temporarily parted, so it is known as the legless pukeko. Drew has named it "Parry" and it sits on the Bar in Fish La Boissionnerie and surveys the scene. So my grandfather "Baa", (a surveyer), has at last arrived in Paris too, although I must say that I never saw him anywhere near legless!
