Whitney Houston on the radio. This is a very small place, three customers at the bar and two sitting at one of the six tables present, including mine. In celebration of the Solstice, the sun has made an appearance and reflects off a nearby building into my window.

A little fluffy white Christmas tree sits on my table in an aluminum foil-covered pot. The tree is decorated with multicolored spiraling ribbons. The Carpenters' "Sing A Song" has been turned into a French Christmas song on the radio. A thin gray-haired woman tends the bar and served me my espresso with a green packet of sugar cubes that says sugar in four languages: sugar, zucker, sucre, suiker. The ashtray is courtesy of Loburg "Premium Beer."