This is the Olympia theatre as it looked in January 2000. I've been there several times in my life. I saw Simon and Garfunkel perform there in 1970. Alain Souchon and Laurent Voulzy in 1978. France Gall in 1996. Véronique Sanson in 2000. Serge Lama in about 2002. Roch Voisine two years later. And maybe others. The French singer-songwriter Véronique Sanson is less than two months younger than I am, and she lived in the U.S. for some 20 years earlier in her life. She was married to Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fame.
By the way, here's the bill for our meal at the Vaudeville restaurant after the concert. For some reason, I scanned it when we got back to California.
As you can see, the dinner was on January 29, 2000, and the timestamp on the bill says it was 23:48 (nearly midnight). We ordered a dozen oysters for the two of us, 6 claires and 6 spéciales, to share. Then we each had grilled salt cod as a main course. We also had a bottle of white Sancerre wine. We didn't have dessert.
The bill came to 535 FF (French francs). Notice that the price is also given in euros, which didn't become the official currency until January 2002. It says on the check that we were paying a total of 81.56 € for the food and wine. The dollar was strong back then — the French franc was worth all of 14 cents U.S. So the bill came to about $75.00. A bargain. And the concert tickets had cost us 300 FF ($42) each.
I had never heard of Véronique Sanson, and certainly had no idea that Stephen Stills had been married to a French singer/songwriter. Huh!
ReplyDeleteFun to see your bill from the Vaudeville, and to remember a time when the $ was that strong. Wow.
I learned about French music and French singers of my generation from my French friends (Catherine's friends) in Paris. Véronique Sanson, France Gall, Alain Souchon, Laurent Voulzy, Maxime Le Forestier, etc. etc. The French friends listened mostly to American music, but they were aware of trends in French popular music too. One friend gave me a stack of 6 or 8 audiocassettes at some point and told me he thought of them as representing the best France had to offer. Later I bought all that music on CDs. Now I have them all and many more in iTunes on Windows.
DeleteThe French franc was really low in the years just before the adoption of the euro. The euro was really low when it became official in 2002. In April 2002 the euro was worth less than 90 cents US. In 2008, the euro was worth just below $1.60. That was a point when we started worrying that we might have to leave France and go back to the U.S. if the dollar kept rising.
I just found this web page about enabling third-party cookies and being able to leave comments on Blogger blogs.
DeleteAbove, where I said "if the dollar kept rising", I meant "falling".
DeleteI have third-party cookies enabled in my browsers and haven't had any problems.
I think the dollar is almost that strong now - $1.07 buys one euro....the best rate since January 2001, per the charts.
DeleteThe value of the dollar in terms of the euro has declined about 1% over the past month.
DeleteHi, Ken,
ReplyDeleteOysters and cod sound like a great late night meal. We are fortunate that the dollar/euro exchange rate is ok at the moment. Nothing like the heady days in the 80s when we got 10 francs to the dollar though, eh?
Thanks for the link re: the third party cookie issue. I have used the grey drop down menu to choose my Google account to comment, but that is where it tells me I have to enable third party cookies on my browser! No worries. Like Judith, I can usually comment on my laptop. Otherwise, I don't mind identifying my anonymous self. Kiwi is obviously a pseudonym. Dates back to a long abandoned blog from 2014. Kiwi
Do you have third-party cookies enabled on your laptop?
DeleteIt's quite possible I do have third party cookies enabled on my laptop. If so, I will let them be. I just hate getting a lot of ads. Kiwi
DeleteThe bank where I worked one summer was near this theater but I never went to a concert. My loss.
ReplyDeleteThat Anonymous was me.
ReplyDeleteI for one knew that was you, Evelyn.
DeleteI would save a receipt as pretty as that one too. I definitely remember being in Paris when the euro was $1.65US, but I was in Paris and very happy to be there.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn