Paris, France

Bonjour. It's a day off and the melody of April in Paris has been with me all day as I've walked the boulevards of the city. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, I simply fell out into the street and started walking, stopped at the first sidewalk brasserie I came to and managed to order breakfast in French. Omelette fromage et cafe creme. Well, I don't know how good my French was but I did get what I'd intended so it couldn't have been too bad. Sadly, my vocab is pathetically limited to; oui, no, un, du, troise, bonjour, merci and au revoir, my spelling of these words even worse. Amazing people watching at the cafe and the Parisian girls can't be beat. It seems like I walked for miles and probably spent 5,000 euros window shopping, the coolest clothes and shoes, the finest wines and cigar shops full of Havana beauties. In the end I only parted with a fraction of that for some jazz CDs and an Edith Piaf compilation which is playing as I peck this note out. Back at the hotel for about an hour but antsy to get out again so it was off in the opposite direction really just enjoying the sidewalks of Paris under my feet and the sky above. It's a city that makes you glad to be alive.

This just in from the foreign language department, I received a note from a German friend of mine with corrections to a couple of linguistic faux pas (there's that pesky French again) I'd committed several entries back. It's now official, EIN BIER VOM FASS, BITTE =one draft beer, please. Also, the trio of beautiful horns I heard in Amsterdam were ALPHORNS not Alpenhorns. Sorry.

We went en masse tonight to the Lipp Brasserie for a simple and delicious dinner. A crab salad, filet steak with bernaisse sauce, pomme frits and some house beer was on deck for me. After dinner Guy, Danny, Glenn and I ended up in a mahogany bar near the hotel for a nightcap and then to Guy's room for a cup of tea and a serious listen to Blind Willie Johnson.

So long,

Richard