Salutations™!!
I messed up yesterday, Dear Reader. I stopped before I was done. But, it was a long post and this one is, too, so we will double up next time I post about it. This is from six years ago yesterday. Briefly before that, though. Today is the 19th anniversary of finding out that my ex-wife and I were going to have our first (and only) child. That turned out to be 3B. So, yeah… Anywhat! Here’s the recounting.
When we last left off in Europe, we visited Disneyland Paris. That same day we decided that we were tired and wanted to get some food and then go back to the room and relax. That had been a long, long day.
Capucine Café
The BCPF was put in charge of picking a location. She said we were going to go in a direction, stay within a few blocks and just see what we saw. There’s restaurants in every direction in Paris. Well, except the direction we walked. Don’t get me wrong, there were some restaurants but they were few and far between while nothing looked like it was special enough for us to spend one of our Parisian dinners eating at or in. We wandered down a few more streets, changing both direction and area until we found a more populous rue (street en français). Surely, something would be on this street.
Lobot (Photo© Star Wars Wikia)
As we walked there came a loud roar and wail of sirens and flashing blue lights of motorcycle cops, leading the way for a black sedan with black tinted windows, followed by more motorcycle cops. We looked at each other and asked who might that be? We neither one knew. So we stumbled upon a cozy looking restaurant called Capucine Café. We stood looking at the street menu, trying to decide if this was the place or not. One of the older serveurs (yes I spelled that correctly) motioned us to a table outside. OK, we’ll take it.
We took our seats at small tables and after what seemed like 10 minutes someone finally brought out menus. We didn’t know what to think. We were tired so we weren’t going to get up and look for something else. This or bust! Out came a serveur who very closely resembled Lobot from The Empire Strikes Back. Not only did he look like Lobot, he had the same facial expression(less). I wish we’d taken a picture of him.
The BCPF’s Soup
So we ordered beverages, wine for The BCPF, beer for me; sad to say I don’t remember which one. She ordered a glass of wine. They brought a bottle. Here’s the thing, the ladies who sat beside us – sisters, one from Oklahoma, one from Nebraska – kept ordering bottles of wine but Lobot would only bring them glasses. This should have let us know something was up. We ordered our appetizers: soup for her, tuna tartare for me. We ordered our entrees at this time, too, but we’ll get back to that. Lobot left and brought back the silverware. He put the soup spoon in front of me and the small fork in front of her. Um, it’s backwards hoss, she got the soup. So we switched the silverware and sipped our libations. Then the apps arrive and Lobot sets the soup in front of me and the tuna in front of her. We informed him of this and with a blank look on his face, he somehow managed to look confused at the same time. He switched them. He had also left some bread on the table for us to share.
Line of Security Bikes
All of a sudden, a bevy of motorcycle cops and a certain black sedan came back down the boulevard and stopped on the street in front of where we were. The bikes got up on the sidewalk, lined up and parked. Gentlemen in dark suits and earpieces all got out of the car. We wanted to get the camera ready to take a picture in case it was Johnny Depp or Brangelina or Lady Gaga or whomever. No one that we recognized was there. The “secret service” detail promptly marched in to the restaurant and, from what we can tell, started drinking. The sisters told us that the hubbub had just come from their hotel as the President of Czech Republic was staying there and they had gone through that earlier. This was just security detail, I guess. Which begs the question, why weren’t they protecting him? Was he having a meeting? Perhaps a “meeting” that required his “full attention?” Conjecture. I don’t know. Anywhat!
Mussels for The BCPF
After the importantish people went into the restaurant and we finished our appetizers, Lobot took the app plates and went away after I ordered another bottle of delightful barley and hops. Then in about 3 minutes he came back, took away the silverware that was still on the table, took the bread and asked us if we wanted dessert. The BCPF and I looked at each other, half thinking this was a joke and half confused beyond measure. We informed Lobot that we hadn’t even eaten our main course, yet. He nodded as if he understood. Then, he still walked off with the bread and the silverware. The sisters were laughing and said he was acting weird with them as well. In another 2 minutes or so, he brought the bread and sat it on our table along with silverware. My lady and I did all we could to keep the snickering to a minimum by covering it up with coughs and what-have-yous.
Crepes
The mussels she ordered and the scallops dish that I ordered (this was the only dinner in Paris that wasn’t beef tartare for me) finally arrived and were all quite flavorful. We were almost finished with the main course when the battalion of security came marching out single file and placing themselves upon their bikes, in their cars, to their positions. They then proceeded toward the direction from whence they came. Lobot returned to inquire (again) if we wanted dessert. A chocolate ganache for Mrs. Scorp and a crepe with Grand Marnier/sauce of some sort for Mr. Of course, as is customary for me in Paris, a snifter of Grand Marnier was ordered We ate up our lovely desserts and I ordered a second Grand Marnier. In a move that was totally un-Lobot-esque, when I requested the second, he not only nodded (which was his signature move) and actually glanced at my eyes and threw some weird creepy smirk at me; more like a “yeah drink up, buddy!” look that anything. I just chuckled as he walked back in to get my bev.
Again, some of the best food we’ve had, as was all of Paris, but this has to be the weirdest, most peculiar dining experience we have ever had, together, or apart. I guess Lando Calrissian had Lobot on standby all evening and that distracted him. Who knows, but it truly was bizarre; totally.
Lando: I think she had the soup. Lobot: Whatchyou talkin’ ’bout, Lando!?
Well, that’s the ending of a pretty good day. Disney (even if it was less than perfect) and Lobot – hey! He’s now a Disney character… coincidence? Hmmmm. The BCPF and I speculated that perhaps Lobot was part of the security detail and was mixing in. That could have been his awkwardness. I doubt it, though.
That was crazy, but so darned good. Like I said, I will catch us up over the next few days. Tomorrow is 9/11 so I may or may not post about this. We’ll see.
Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!
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“Well done. Get them to the security tower, and keep it quiet. Move.” – Lando Calrissian to Lobot, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back