My Eurotop Tour 2009

Paris 1st day

I stayed at the Hôtel des Beaux-Arts in the "13eme arrondissement," close to la Place d'Italie, Paris Chinatown and Jim.

Can you tell which window was mine? I got room number thirteen! It was my lucky number! There was even an old pegtop waiting for me inside the room (thanks Jim)!

The topdog top fell on one of the pools at Trocadero: could barely rescue it before it sank!

My wonderful host in Paris, "Lord Jim" with his beautiful twin daughters.

Statue of a boy spinning a top on Jim's collection.

Seven hours of jet lag didn't stop me from performing the first night with Lapin and Jim at the squat "La Suite." What a day!

In the picture they are "explaining" me how to wrap a top. The gag went well and I think the public (we had a full-house) enjoyed it.

Paris 2nd day: Cyril's Collection

The second (!) day in France I got to visit Cyril's amazing collection of 7000 antique tops in a town about 30 km south west from Paris. Jim drove Lapin and myself and Cyril was waiting for us as if we were old friends. He is extremely enthusiastic talking about tops, has investigated their history (has tons of documentation) and after 4 hours of showing us around he was not tired. I kept asking for every top he showed us: can we try it? Many times he said yes, but even more times he said things like: no!, not this one, extremely, ultra super rare! but always with a smile.

The giant tops belonged to a movie set.

The table is to play Toupie Hollandaise (he has two)

Cyril gave me a Tour Eiffel gyroscope like the one in the picture above. They are extremely difficult to obtain as they were sold for the inauguration of the tower in 1889 and both Eiffer Tower and World Fair collectors want them

NEXT: Paris Sans Balles - Sigy Le Châtel