One of my favorite activities thus far here in Paris has been the random gatherings for the mere purpose of smoking cigars and drinking scotch. This is an activity that I fully expected to be participating in one day, but I figured that day to be about fifty years from now at a time when I am confined to either a golf course or a porch. A mid-week cigar is an enjoyable experience – on this particular day I arrived late and found several individuals already slightly inebriated, although perhaps it was mere jubilation at the scent of a Monte Cristo. The most impressive thing about these events, in my humble opinion, is the spontaneity – rarely are there specific plans to fill a friend’s home with smoke while his girlfriend is off working in Spain, but that’s what ends up happening…
