La Maison du Whisky, Paris

The LCBO's Whisky Shop is a valiant effort to duplicate what France's La Maison du Whisky perfected decades earlier. The Paris shop opened in 1956 and sells extremely limited, special and rare bottlings of whisky along with many regulars.

After an hour or so of walking in the rain, I found LMDW tucked down a little street north of the Champs d'Elysees, just west of La Madeleine. 20 Rue d'Anjou to be exact. It's a beautiful corner store filled with beautiful rare bottles, with a beautiful custom "MW" push to open the door.

When I entered I spun around, a la Julie Andrews, to take in the views of all that was on offer. I guess my excitement was apparent. Despite being dressed in my laziest pair of jeans and grungy old running shoes the amazing staff seemed genuinely happy I was there. Like I was an old friend.

I realize how cliche that sounds but it's difficult to explain the feeling when I was allowed into their private collection room to take photos. It's a small room with bottles to the ceiling, so I used my wide angle lens to capture a few that meant something to me. I can only assume they were for sale, but I didn't ask.

Although a small store by North American standards, La Maison du Whisky is full of incredible bottles. How incredible? What do they have? How about a Glenfarclas Family Cask 1965 just shy of 500 Euros? Or the 1957 Auchentoshan 50 year old? Or Glenmorangie Pride?

If you want it, La Maison du Whisky (probably) has it. Unless you happen to be looking for the 1975 Auchentoshan 35 year old.

Sorry. I bought the very last one - the display bottle.

Sorta Scrooge, Sorta Not

Christmas is supposed to bring out the best in people. I find that this is true on the surface, but look a little deeper and you'll find that it brings out both true and fake emotions, as jerks pretend to be nice to avoid spoiling the season, and nice people act genuine. I find myself both loving and hating Christmas for various obvious reasons.

In perfect Scrooge-fashion, I shake my cane at those drawn in to the 'crowd mentality'. Non-handicapped people, feeling that life has been unfair to them because they can't find a parking space, illegally maneouvre their cars into handicapped spaces hoping no one will notice. "I'll only be a few minutes" is what they typically tell themselves to alieve the guilt, if they even felt it in the first place.

Inside malls, crowds of people block aisles with their shopping carts, not giving two flying shits about the shoppers around them. Courteous people beware: There is shoving, rudeness and line-cutting. It's enough to make you want to skip Christmas altogether.

The feeling is a little different this year. Bad news is blasted across newspaper headlines every single day. Thinking about the number of jobs lost and companies closing their doors, it's a wonder to see that people aren't acting even more assholish.

I put my Scrooge aside when Suz and I went shopping for a family we sponsored this season. And we had a lot of fun doing it. I still feel like a kid myself, so spending an hour in Toys R Us felt like nothing. We picked up great toys for the 13-year old boy, and nice lotions and gift cards for the mom, took them home and wrapped them all.

Suz and I are okay for now but no one's future is guaranteed. I hope that if we find ourselves in a bad situation one day, someone will return the kindness.