The Folies Bergere is across the street, thus the name of this place. A World Cup match was playing today and this café has a TV mounted where everyone could watch. Not the best writing environment, I'm sure, but the place wasn't too crowded and I wasn't sure I could find better. It was towards the end of the France-Uraguay match and the score was still 0-0. It was all very exciting, the close calls and almost-goals and every few minutes someone would stop on the sidewalk (the sides of the café are open) and ask what the score was. Zero-zero. Then they would shake their heads in disbelief and either keep watching for a while or continue down the street.

More and more people gathered inside and outside as the match neared the end and then...time ran out and everyone sighed and went their separate ways. The place emptied out immediately. Zero-zero.

After the soccer game, the TV was switched to an episode of "Mad about You," dubbed into French. Then that ended and right now "Pacific Blue" is showing, which seems to be about cops patrolling beaches on bicycles, kind of a CHiP's-Baywatch combination. And it, too, is dubbed into French, but there's no reason why people sitting in a café should be forced to read impossible small subtitles in order to enjoy their favorite shows. Maybe French voices are more appropriate for this type of show as well, I don't know.

My table is square, white with pink flecks and a maroon edge flecked with darker maroon. The sugar came powdered in a tube. The black ceramic ashtray says, blatantly, "Marlboro" on it four times. The chairs are metal with black cherry seat and back cushions.

Some kind of red-color gang is playing tag outside, and occasionally running through the middle of the café. In the TV show, a woman just gave birth, apparently on the floor of a bank during a hold-up.