Day #10, Paris

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We have had some funny French language experiences.  My mom, who is moving to Paris at age 68 this winter to study French, has chosen to dive into the language.

The Parisians are not amused.   She tends to try out her French when at the front of a long que.  Maybe this is why Parisians are perceived as being harsh because Americans are trying out their French (painfully slow) while in busy lines.

After my mom asks a question, "Je Vou drais deux  Cafe et patisserie?" there is a long pause and usually the waiter start wrinkling their brow and turning their head kind of sideways.

Yesterday the guy at the Park Cafe was very, very nice and said, "don't worry, I was in NYC at a McDonalds last year and ordered a Coke and they brought me a Hamburger".  We both laughed.

My mom went to the store to get Coffee for our drip machine.  She returned with 2 lbs of ground coffee with 'Decafine' written across the bottom.   I think my mom will do fine in Paris but she might be sleeping a lot the first couple of months.

We had a wonderful dinner last night.  It was a bit of a boon doggle (see below) getting there though.  We were a bit late for our reservations.  On our way off the boat, Maggie dropped her brand new shoe into the Seine. HUGE tears! I tried to fish the shoe out of the Seine with a boat hook - Amy was quite pleased that I was not successful since the Seine is not so clean. We tried to take a bus and every time we tried to get on we got a stern,  "NO".  No other explanation....  Just "No"

We decided to take the cab there (excellent choice Amy - she said enough of how "friendlands" get around, "jordans" hail a cab) and on the way there all 5 of us piled into the cab.  The driver says, "there is a 6 Euro supplement for more than 3 passengers"

I responded with, "no one else has charged us that."     He responded with a grunt.

I have heard the expression, "I hate all Lawyers except my own".    I love my Lawyer wife.

Sure enough, Amy is reading the placard in french in the back seats and says in French to the guy, "it says Ne pas Le Enfants"  or  not including children.  Lots of dumb looks from the Cabbie...   I have seen that expression before on many a men who tried to slip a fast one past my wife.

Here is the Risico that we are staying on.  The is Pont Concorde in the back ground.  This is a converted River Barge.  

Here is a  picture of Amy in her Giraffe dress (which I loved and probably the only piece of clothes that I  purchased for her that she wears).   I think she is sitting in a Giraffee Chair.

We had a wonderful dinner and we all ordered the Price fixed menu.  I went with the Pate (excellent) and Guinea hen.  My mom went with the Coq Au Vin and Amy and Betsy got boef in one form or another.    

This was followed by a cheese plate (which were delicious) and I tried to order a Cafe to go with it.  The waiter, furled his brow and quizically asked, "you want to order a cafe with the cheeeezzeeee?"

He had never heard of cheese and coffee and was not able to image how these two flavors would comingle in the mouth.  He said, 'this is not allowed'.  You may have coffee with desert.   

The boys spilled 16 oz of Orangina just after sitting down onto the white table cloth making a little Orangina swamp on our table.  Ohh crap.  I hate that sinking feeling.....  It comes deep and shameful from my childhood....   We have screwed up again.

Amy took a deep breath and said something like, "ohhh Mistakes happen"   How quickly Amy makes it all better.

 She kept her cool until both boys whip out the straws and start slurping into the Orangina Swamp.    Can you imagine vacuuming up the soda pop with straws?  Where do they get this?  I am sure it comes from the Friedland side of the family but not sure.    Do any of your kids do this? Amy snapped the straws out of their hands so quickly and gave them a real Parisian stink eye!

One last tip of advice.  My mom plugged her Curling Iron from the states into 220volt plug in.      The amount of power is directly related to resistance (the heating coils) and the voltage if I remember correctly from physics.      

Well we learned that was too much power and as a result the curling iron started to melt..... What is that smell??!!   Now that I think about it, while we are on a boat, it probably could benefit by a smoke detector.

2 more days in Paris.  Jordan Picked the Army Museum today and we are off now.

Eric