Paris

We are now working from a french keyboard so it is finger watching and slow.

We took our TGV from Stuttgart to Paris. At 320 km per hour, Gerhard successfully went to the washroom, pissed into a hole 5cm big. Unfortunately, the speed sucked him out through the hole, onto the track and now I am on my own. Nothing but drama here in France. As we passed Strasbourg, a small city near the German border where we used to live in Lahr, 10 000 police were gathered to control the mobs trying to get into Germany for the NATO gathering in Baden. It is there where they want to confront Obama to help settle many issues. France is not part of the NATO group and the people want to be. We were acompanied by three police officers and one undercover cop on our entire 4 hour trip to Paris. Our train got slowed down but not stopped. Many people have been hurt as we watch it every day on TV. Also, as we get off the train in the east train stn, we are surrounded by policemen carrying submachine guns.

Our walk to our hotel was fine, close enough to be just a little exercise. Our hotel is another story altogether. We are again in the, what should we call it, the seedy area which we don,t mind but trying to sleep is, again, another story.

Our life continues to be interesting. Here in Paris, it is crazier than Gerhard with speed. Yesterday we sauntered along the Champs Elysees, the Concorde ring area and up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. You must be totally on your toes here. We were approached by a man who was picking up a gold wedding band from the ground and then asked us if it was ours. He tried to give it to us telling us that he was from Yugoslavia and that he had no use for it. He said that he was giving it to us in friendship and that it didn,t fit him anyway. We refused of course, after all, what would two millionnaire travellers from Canada need gold for? We told him to take it and sell it. He then pushed it into our hands and asked for 5 euros to help him buy his papers for the country. We pushed it back and turned away from him. What a scam.
We slept on the grounds near the Eiffel Tower and ate ice cream as we watched the 5 000 or so people line up to climb the stairs up to the top. I,ve done it once, in the winter when no one was there, but Ill be jiggered if I would do it again especially with a two hour wait for a ticket and 2 000 people on my tail. Later in the day we took a bus back to our hotel from the Eiffel Tower and nearly had an accident. We came so quickly to a stop that an older lady was thrown to the floor across my lap and then hit her knees onto the stairs as she went down. The bus was stopped, cleared out, and again we were on the street waiting for another bus. We did meet some nice people as we waited though. G again met another lady who spoke German. So he stood and spoke to her as I stood and spoke to an older French man.

When we returned to our hotel, we changed rooms because our heat wouldn,t shut off and the man couldn,t understand why we Canadians would want to sleep in a cool room. It was so hot that the edges of our paper was curling. I did say that it was a cheaper hotel didn,t I? It gave us memories of years ago when we stayed in London and our room had the hotel¨'s heating system in our closet. We called that room the B52 room. We call this room the sauna box. Ahhhh, life in Paris.
What to say about Paris === amazing, wonderful, living a dream==hope we survive it.