Tire-Bouchons à Paris

Corkscrews in Paris! ... Why not?

Our son and daughter-in-law had the wonderful opportunity to spend the Christmas and New Years holidays in Paris! Knowing I had a corkscrew collection, they sent me this message, along with photos of a display of tire-bouchons at a wine bar in Paris

Dad, Yes, Paris was snowing ... very cool and beautiful. Really a great vacation. Ate amazing food ... finally had some escargot and cassoulet, awesome! Now we are back in the Burgh ... I thought of you when we were in a great old school wine bar called Aux Tonnelles des Halles, near where the huge old Les Halles central market used to be. They had a bunch of old corkscrews framed on the walls, so I took these quick pics of them .. SaludosThere are corkscrew collectors around the world. Two of the bigger, or at least best known, are the Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club (CCCC) and the International Correspondence of Corkscrew Addicts (ICCA). There are also regional clubs of corkscrew collectors. Last year, the ICCA started an online auction dedicated to corkscrews. Collectors of these twisted cork extractors have coined a term to define themselves: Helixophile. To give you an idea of how dedicated some of the collectors are, here is a quote from one of the most avid of the corkscrew addicts: "There are other things in life besides collecting corkscrews ... but not much." Ron MacLean, c.1984.

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