In June of 1990 I was living and working in New York City. I was the Post-Production Supervisor for the NBC show “True Blue.” After I finished the pilot, I sent it to NBC, for them to screen, and hopefully award us a series. When it was broadcast, it would be the Movie of the Week, When, we finally received the word, that we had an eleven-episode series, we immediately started to plan for a production start date. It was decided that we would start setting up production in July. That left the entire month of June, for all of us to catch up with our lives, before it all started again. I decided to go abroad, spending one week in Paris, a city which I had never visited, and then fly to London for the second week, a city I was familiar with. Usually when I travel, I prefer a small old-fashioned hotel to get the true flavor of whatever city I am visiting. Unfortunately, I was booking a hotel at the last minute, and Paris was hosting several exhibitions including the French Tennis Open. I did find a small modern, and expensive French hotel just off of the Champ-Elysees, and only several blocks from the Arc de Triumphe, and the Eiffel Tower. The flight to Europe from New York’s JFK airport is usually a 9PM flight, arriving in Paris early the next morning. Since I can’t sleep on planes, and after working a full day, I usually take a guided three-hour bus tour of the city. In this way I can get a good picture of what the city has to offer, and what I would be interested in visiting later in the week. The bus tours always gave me a chance to rest up from lack of sleep. After the bus tour I later found a small local French restaurant, with excellent food. Now it was time to get a good night’s sleep, so I would be fresh for tomorrow. The hotel was small, but very modern, and the rooms were excellent. There was one feature that I had not encountered in most hotels. The windows had steel shutters, and when closed, it encased the room in total darkness. With no other little lights in the room, it was pitch black, I mean I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. So exhausted, with a delicious dinner, and several glasses of excellent wine in me, I collapsed into a deep sleep. The next time I opened my sleepy eyes, I saw the luminous dial on my watch, which looked like 9AM. Wow, an eleven-hour sleep. I figured I better get going, not wanting to waste the day. It was a beautiful sunny June day as I walked to the Champ-Elysees, and saw throngs of Parisians sitting in the sidewalk cafes. As I headed to the Eiffel Tower, I noticed that most of the people were drinking wine. I figure that was a great French custom, and I could get into that. It wasn’t until I spied a clock on the street, I looked, and then did a double take. It wasn’t after 9AM, it was after 3PM. They weren’t having breakfast, they were having their afternoon wine! In the darkness of my room, I looked at my watch upside down, and slept an entire day due to jet lag. Oh well, I might as well join the afternoon wine crowd.
