September 4, 2000

After another bad night of coughing, Bernard urged me to have the hotel call a doctor. More medical French! The doctor who came, Thierry Belitti, didn’t look a day over twenty-five, and wore a cute beret just like that drawing in my French book pointing to marginal notes cautioning about pronunciation. Once we were assured that Bernard’s ailment wasn’t serious, I was inordinately pleased that he said my French was very good. He prescribed three things, wrote out the instructions, and charged 600F – no mention of insurance.
Once the medications were picked up, we went on to the Eiffel tower, which is in walking distance of our hotel. A sign said that due to technical difficulties the elevator wouldn’t go up to the top, so I thought that the first etage was all we could get tickets for. I asked at the window if the first etage was the only thing for which she was selling tickets, and she said yes. Bernard felt cheated that we didn’t go up to the second, which I’d been told wasn’t possible. . . until others in our elevator went there. They didn’t get off the elevator where we did! Nevertheless, I was satisfied enough with the view, and wouldn’t go all the way to the railing to get my shots. We walked around the circumference and then went down.
We soon crossed a couple of Seine bridges in search of the booking office for the line of boats called Bateau Mouche, which Bernard pointed to. All we ended up finding was the dock for Bateaux Pairsiennes (52F per person), but enjoyed the cruise enormously. We were amazed at the detail of the buildings visible from the river. The ear phone gave eight choices of language. The British-English narrator of the English-language track pronounced Pissarro PISS-aro, to our amusement.
Back on shore, we had lunch at the river end of the Avenue de la Bourdonnais, at a restaurant called La Tour Eiffel, then went back to the Metro (to Opera to get the #7 toward La Courvoise to get off at Havre-Caumartin) to go to Galeries Lafayette to see the gorgeous stained-glass dome in the rotunda and to use my 10% discount (which I applied to a red purse to be mailed home the next day). The discount wasn’t applicable to perfume, which we chose for three friends and me (3 Rive Gauches and 1 Paris). They accept travelers’ checks on purchases, and have a bank that converts to francs those travelers’ checks you don’t use for purchase. Their bank is open as many hours as they are! I cashed all my travelers’ checks, to give me a “backup fund” I was determined not to need. Also while on that mezzanine where the bank is, I bought some candy for the people in the office, and a tote bag bearing the names of Paris neighborhoods/attractions all over it; not to show off to others that I’d been there but to convince myself, when back amid my work, I didn’t merely dream the trip.
Later we went to dinner at a place called Café du Marche on Rue Cler, whose liveliness we liked when we passed it on our walk Saturday night. Our waiter was a cockney (“burgy for the lie-dy. ‘Ow do you like my English, mate?”). At last I got beef bourguignon. The dessert both of us chose: profiteroles to die for!