184 Freakin' steps...

I haven't a clue where to start this entry. I slept about 10 hours last night. Got up and laid in bed typing an e-mail. Went back to sleep for another hour. The bed is sooo comfortable in this hotel. Not to mention it comes stocked with 4 pillows. Ah, the good life. haha I got up, showered, had lunch (unremarkable). Then, I walked for the next 7 HOURS!! I sat down at a little cafe out of sheer exhaustion to rest. I promptly declared Paris the biggest ripoff of all the cities I've visited when I got the check for my beer. $9,80. That's almost $14 for a beer. WTF? I saw every store for premiere watchmakers and jewelers that exist today - plus some I didn't know existed. Faconnable... so many clothes, so little of my body to put them on. Alas. There was a bomb threat that cleared a museum yesterday and everywhere I went there were police. This is not normal for Paris, but I don't know what is going on. Even on empty streets that I was walking on, there were police at every corner. The overtime must be staggering...

I paid the fee and went up into the Arc de Triomph (their spelling). For some reason I had it in my head that this was a post world war memorial. Seems Napolean had the freakin' thing built from 1806-1836. 184 steps is the thing you have to keep in mind as you climb the thing. About 3/4 of the way up, I wondered if the spiral staircase (less than 3 feet wide) would ever end. There is an identical staircase that goes down. I'll leave it up to you to figure out which one is actually harder to navigate...

I wanted a 'french' dinner, and I got one. When I ordered the poached eggs for an appetiser, I thought they would arrive warm. Imagine my surprise to find them cold - not rooom temperature. COLD! Served with a type of ham slice on top and diced vegatable soup/sauce... Adventure. Yes, isn't that what Bilbo Baggins went on when he went to lonely mountain with the dwarves? Should have had the escargot! LOL The table next to me ordered them and they smell marvelous. Damn.

OK, I'm totally blown away by the Fromage course at the end of the meal. 7 kinds of cheese. I worked in a wine and gourmet store for two years... we had over a hundred kinds of cheese at any one time... I've sampled a lot of cheese. lol I could only identify 2 of the 7 cheeses. They bring a large platter to the table and cut the cheese from the wheels right there in front of you. The waiter got yelled at by another waiter and the manager for giving me all 7 kinds of cheese. It was pretty comical. They were talking to him in french and he wouldn't tell me what they said. Then he said... "I never listen to them anyway..." so I know he was getting chewed out. lol