Celebrating at Le Midinette

Who would have thought that the little bar off the rue Lepic called Le Midinette would be filled with food, drink and Democrats celebrating Barak Obama's election last week? Beth H., a walking history of political campaigns gone by in buttons, was responsible for the paté and excellent olive cake.

What exactly is 'une midinette'? I asked a Frenchman (Meredith's husband Didier) who said it's a glamor girl à la Marilyn Monroe. Somehow I thought it was a woman of a certain age who is trying to look young. Mutton dressed for lamb, as say the English. I will have to google this, or pull out my French dictionary. Or if anyone has any thoughts on this, please send.

I always have my eye on the artists present, and sure enough, there was Monmartoise depuis toujours Mary Blake and artist Susan Watson just back from Lake Tahoe. I forgot to tell her how beautiful her new abstract canvas is -it's called "The Dreamer Within." She sent an image by email a couple of weeks ago. Indeed, the campaigners were rejoicing that their dreams had come true, and Beth's button "January 2009 - the end of an error" was a sly reference to that!

Susan's husband Galen was also rejoicing (although he called it being depressed) because he has a crack editor at a good house who's taken his book "The Psalter" in hand and is talking him through improvements which unfortunately includes dropping 30,000 words or so. But I say that can always go in another book!

I myself was celebrating their return (for a brief two weeks only!) and we retired to La Galerie nearby for dinner. There'd been a "changement de proprietaire" but thankfully it was just wonderful.