Incredible!

Yes, that is the truth! Paris is incredble! We rode to Vincennes, an eastern suburb of Paris to see the Jacques Anquitil Velodrome. The motocyclist outside the bike shop gave us one set of directions; the guys in the bike shop another set. Turns out the bike shop guys seemed to want us to visit Chateau du Vincennes, a fortress with buildings from the Middle Ages, thru the 1880s!! What a sight! It is the oldest structure I have ever seen. There was what would have been a moat, a real drawbrige and a fantastic Gothic church! This was gothic from when God himself first said "Build me a church in the Gothic style, to praise me!" Wow. The keep from the 13th century fortress was amazing. The hunt for the Velodrome ended in the longest and most convoluted hunt for any structure ever in the history of "Ric and Dale hunts for stuff"!! The ride back happened in rush hour, and we stopped by the Georges Pompidou Cultural Center for me to see the first building that really made me say "I have to visit Paris!"

The day ended in an fantastic dinner orchestrated by Christoff, our waiter at Mellifere Restaurant, 4 doors from the hotel. He was a bit frustrated to have to speak English, but we know that Europeans require a much more advanced knowledge of a language to feel comfortable speaking it. He suffered through telling us some of the menu items on the tall board they bring to the table and place against the wall but when we got to the 3 desserts at the bottom of the specials list, I said, "I have this" and went thru them in English. I turned back to him, he put his heals together, his hand to his forhead and made a little saulte and said "You have my respect!" with a smile. Wow. We have proved ourselves, with very little effort. He totally loosend up and it got real fun!! At one point, he went back into the resturant to get paper and pen to write down an answer to one of Ric's inquiries, kneeling on one knee at the table to write! Another time, he firmly hit me on the shoulder as he walked off.

When we ordered, I asked if the pasta had a meat sauce. Christopher said, "if you want beef, get this! Forget the spagehetti.' and made a very dismissing gesture toward the other side of the menu. Too wonderful!

We went on to have one of the best dinners out in my life. The wine! The beef was incredible! The potatoes! The veal Ric had! The pommes caramel with ice cream Ric had and the lightly fried bread with ice cream and caramel I had topped it perfectly. To see Christopoher open the sparkling water and wine was a moment of high opera in itself! He opened the sparking water with great fanfare, tossing cap behind him into the street in a flash! All this just 4 doors from the hotel. Paris is just amazing...