Finding Stephen Stills Through Veronique Sanson Thursday Night Vers Minuit In Paris June 1st, 1978 @ Palais Des Sports a Porte De Versailles, 75015

Wow, this really has nothing to do with wine at all except that I am drinking a bottle of 2006 Cotes Du Rhone " Les Violettes " from MOILLARD as I was listening to the song on my i-pod given to me by my son with Veronique's song : " Redoutable " that I still love even after all these years.

I was introduced years ago while living in Paris, France to the singer Veronique Sanson by two charming French girls that were best friends then, Dominique and Linda Sarfati. Seems like so long ago and yet it really can also so easily seem with a bit of focus like yesterday. I met Linda in the town of Royan when I was sent there by my parents to learn French. I stayed in the home of Madame Cardinal and she made the best fish soup that I have ever eaten in my whole life: taking the fresh-open-market-bought whole fish and submerging it into a bug cauldron on her stove and letting it cook all day and dissolve almost completely with the wine and natural juices of it's own and forming the base of this delectable soup that we would eat that evening after having tried to learn French all day with C.A.R.E.L'S audiovisual method through a program of the Universite du Poitiers that I had at least driven through to arrive from Paris , France at the seaside town for retired folks with it's very own gambling casino - Royan - really gray in the winter months I can tell you! Brrrr ...

Anyway, that's only part of this fun, convoluted story of mine that I want to relate now as I sip Jeanne Moillard's family's wine. They have recently sold MOILLARD and I do not know what has become of it with all the burgundy wines as well as some other French wines and one or two from Romania or Hungary was it? I can't recollect all the details just now.

This particular bottle of 2006 Les Violettes red Cotes Du Rhone is tired and a bit volatile and I sip it slowly hoping that it will fill-out somehow miraculously and lose the tart, raw edge that is a bit to rustic for me. Oh well : c'est a toi et pour toi Jeanne que je continue a boire cette vin a toi. I got to know Jeanne before the MOILLARD wine brand was sold when she would come to the store and do in-store/wine-tasting with all our Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits customers like David that developed a huge crush on her and always wanted to be reminded when Jeanne would be chez nous au magasin des fins vins a Washington D.C. dans le quartier nord-ouest du Cleveland Park.

But that's where the wine stops and the music starts to this blog that I want to write while so many thoughts are ripe for the picking and mure for the telling. I listened so often back then to the album by Veronique Sanson called " Vancouver ". Some of the songs are in French and some are in English : I loved them both. I had the old stereo system given to me by my father before he left Paris, France to go to Panama City to be the DCM there in the American Embassy.

It would be his last posting before retiring and he was nice enough to give me his old stereo system that I put into my chambre du bonne just across the street on the upper-most floor from 100 Avenue Paul Doumer where I worked for the Messiqua family as an American male presence for the two young daughters Dinan and Louise that I would take to the park by the Marmottan Musee filled with so many wonderful " last " paintings of Monet that I loved and still love and charish now.

They used to be friends with Chiara Mastroaianni the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroaianni ( I never met either of the parents though I did see Catherine's Paris apartment. I stray once again... sorry, though I do have a great story to tell about Chiara but that will have to be related by me in person and not written here. I'd like to meet Chiara as well as both Dinan and Louise and relate it/ share it first with them. Harmless but fun.

Anyway, I still have the pink ticket stub from my concert to see Veronique Sanson way back when on that Thursday night at 10PM on June 1st, 1978. It was at the Palais du Sport at the Ports de Versailles, 75015, Paris, France.

I went by myself which is rare : that's how much I wanted to see you Veronique Sanson! No one was available to go with me so I went by myself and am thrilled that I did because the concert was wonderful and I loved every moment of it, really I did.

I loved watching you Veronique sit at your piano and play your music. The long hair and your sequined coats that hand down over the piano stool that you would sit at : the way the lights bounced off your blond hair giving it even greater warmth and depth to frame your face as you poured so much emotion and personal experience into each word - I loved it. You had me at the very first song I am sure.

It's been so long and I guess the thing that keeps me coming back to this concert as if it was yesterday was in part because it ended spectacularly.

Veronique , tu nous a dit : " J'ai quelque choses tres special pour toi - quelqu'on que je suis sur que vos allez bien aimer voir ". Et avec ca / and with this Stephen Stills came stumbling onto the stage.

I was first stunned by your words Veronique - more than ready to see one of my rock legends for the first time : and then shocked by what a incredible mess he seemed as he almost fell out onto the stage , repeating this same effect on me each and every time that he took a step out to where you were Veronique. He seemed both stoned and drunk and I was embarrasses and thinking to myself this is simply going to go rapidly downhill from now on. I was worried / perturbed / upset and a bit in shock and disbelief all wrapped up uncomfortably at these precious moment all into one. What was going to happen next?!?

Well, I should have know : I should not have worried : Stephen you played your guitar like a god, you were magnificent - a pro, a natural, like breathing in and out, just like Rex Harrison said in the Movie " My Fair Lady ". You were magnificent and I should not have doubted you but I was young and in my twenties and I simply did not know. Plain and simple as that.

I don't think that everyone knows it : but Stephen you have a child with Veronique. I thought it was a girl but I just read tonight that you have a musician son named Chris. Sorry for the confusion on my part. I also suppose that Veronique still lives in Paris, France while Stephen you live somewhere here in the United States? It doesn't matter, what matters is how great the impression you both made on me that night and I just wanted to share this with you both.

I never did get a chance to meet you at this concert and that's too bad : that would have been nice for me to have had the chance to have met both you and Veronique together. My loss but I still have all the raw energy of the concert with both of you playing and singing and sweeping me off my feet - flooring me quite simply - flat on my ass!

I also don't think that Stephen many people know that you spent time in San Jose, Costa Rica as a child and that you went to the Lincoln School there? I know because both my younger brothers went there and there were pictures of you for people to see there. How did you like it? Were you then playing the guitar?

So thank you both here from the bottom of my heart on Monday evening, December 13th, 2010 here in northern Virginia at 10:20PM at my home on a very chilly day indeed. I'm glad that I listened to your two songs on my i-pod : " Redoutable " and " Vancouver " and your more recent song Stephen : " If You Can't Be With The One You Love, Love The One You're With ".

The other information on my pint ticket is : 1) the cost of the ticket was 75francs, 2) the ticket number was : # 001008, 3) I sat in the orchestre 1re serie 4) it was a Productions Claude Wild 5) timbre en compte avec le Tresor et 6) ce billet ne peut etre ni repris ni echange . Wow, so much info on one small piece of pink paper with something stuck on it in the center and a square with B 1003 on it : what does that mean? I know that the ticket could not be exchanged already or I suppose used again?

Oh, someone with a blue magic marker wrote on the ticket : B 1003. Now that's control at a concert I suppose. You can't pull one over on these gens je suppose.

It was grand and I still have my Veronique Sanson album from France called " Vancouver " and I still play it on my Bang 'N Olufsen turntable of Denmark that still plays beautifully even after all these years.

Peutetre dans l'avenir Veronique nous pouvons se voir a Paris? J'aimerai bien faire ta connaissance et de tu dire en personne combien j'aime toujours ta musique et comme tes chansons me touchent toujours, meme maintenant ici a Washington D.C. ou je continue avec mes expressions d'art et de vendre et conseiller des gens au sujet des vins du monde - et toujours les vins Francaises que j'adore.

Bon continuation at toi et a ta fille et bonne annee 2011. A la prochaine j'espere. S'il tu plait : si tu vois ca reponds-le dans le " comment " place. Merci and Stephen good job back then as well on Thursday evening vers minuit on June 1st, 1978. Seems like a lifetime or two ago. Cheers to you both and thanks for the great memory. Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn

P.S. I also have my Jim Morrison story to tell and my Leonard Cohen story, too : so stay-tuned for more. It was a very fertile period for me living off-and-on in Paris, France in the 1970's. I have already blogged some about that here and on my Paris, France blog that you can find when you view my complete profile and you scroll down to my various blog sites and click it one. Cheers ... TONY