Most Parisians I know spend the New Year among friends, at home, and eating fine food until 4 am. This year, we went out. My favorite Dane Thilde came down from Copenhagen with her charming boyfriend Bjarke to celebrate with us Paris-style. It was my duty to find the party with the only request being that Thilde "wanted to know she was in Paris." Will a boat party by the Tour Eiffel do?
Between a good dinner and a nice party, we had a great weekend filled with interesting conversation on such subjects as:
The End of the Year speech by the Danish queen: A New Year's tradition for Danes is the speech given by Queen Margrethe II in which she talks about the events of the past year and goals for the new one. Her speech is televised nationally and broadcast over the internet for those abroad. Our friends said everyone watches it as they themselves huddled around Bjarke's phone to watch it online.
Danish cinema's pride and joy: Viggo Mortensen and two guys from Casino Royale. It seems in Copenhagen, movie goers watching the new James Bond flick cheered whenever the two Danish actors appeared on screen.
Rats: The disturbing tales of the rat infestation in Paris after the removal of the huge food market in Les Halles was beat by a story of rats in Beirut. After bombing leveled much of the city's buildings, desperate Lebanese rats had nowhere to go and ended up on the beach. When Bjarke was living there a few years ago, he was advised not to go to the beach after dark for danger of being attacked by rats. Curious, he passed by one night with a sandwich and threw a piece of food into the darkness. Although he couldn't see anything, he could hear the scuffle of vermin encircling whatever he threw. Makes you feel cozy, doesn't it?

After our New Year's party, we learned the metro line we needed to get home was closed. So we tried to find a taxi in Paris. On January 1. At 4 am. This is like saying we tried to find dog sledding Eskimos in East L.A. The ratio between cabs and homebound party goers is far from equal, but by some stroke of luck, we found one after 10 minutes of trying. Could this be the first sign of 2007 being a lucky year for us? Let's just assume so.