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Stardate: 20230723.1438 
Location: McDonald's @ Champs Elysee
Input Device: Gemini PDA
Audio: People from Denmark singing, Tour de France crowd
Visual: Tour de France fans
Emotional: Better today.

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FRANCE: DAY ]|[

Yesterday, we went to the Louvre.  I did not have a chance to write 
about it last night.  We took an Uber and I had an opportunity to try
communicating in my limited Francais/Franglais.  The driver was 
from Africa and spoke little English so much of our communication
were broken fragments and body language.  I think it was a successful
attempt at conversational French.

The entrance we were dropped off at was quite a distance to the main
entrance, especially on crutches.  We were finally able to meet up 
with my bro-in-law and his family among the crowd of tourists queued 
up for entry.  Since I was "handicapped," we were able to jump the
line.  I was placed in a wheel chair and off we went into the bowels
of the Louvre.

I think the main goal was to see Mona Lisa.  After much navigation 
we finally found her.  There was a long queue, but we were able to 
jump the line again since I was, "handicapped."  The painting was
smaller than I expected but it was nice to pay her a visit.

We continued to go around and look at the art.  I think my daughter 
would have loved to be here and see everything.  She will get her 
chance.

The visit to the Louvre would have been much more enjoyable if I was 
more ambulatory and not so distracted with everything going on.  The 
presense of mind just was not there for me.  It was what it was.

For lunch, we ended up at Angelina's in the Louvre.  I wasn't so
hungry so I just had very tasty hazelnut pastry dessert and espressos.

After that, we visited La Dame de Fer ou Le Tour Eiffel for some
pics.  More conversational Francais with the Uber driver.  We hung
out on a park bench in the shade to rest and watch some peoples.

In the evening, we ate at a Filipino fusion restaurant that did
not taste Filipino at all.  The food was strange, but we wanted
to support the local Filipino business.  Dessert and coffee was
at a corner cafe up the street.

That was our yesterday.

Today we went to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysee.  Many of
the streets were closed and the Metro stops were closed in that area
because of the Tour de France.  We got a cab to take us close to where
the roads were closed.

When we got out of the cab, it started to drizzle.  My wife started
freaking out because I was too slow with directions from the offline
maps I downloaded over the hotel's wifi (OsmAnd+ from f-droid) and 
she also saw a homeless person sleeping in a doorway.  She went off 
to the other side of the street and I eventually caught up with her.  
I told her to breathe and it would be ok.

We found the Arc and met up with bro-in-law and his family and headed 
down the Champs-Elysee.  There was much activity and people with yellow
Tour de France rain panchos and umbrellas.  We weren't even planning on
being there for the Tour, but it just happened by chance so we were able
to experience that event.

For lunch, we went to McDonald's since that was my bro-in-law's son's 
favorite.  They had a covered patio road-side so we were able to
watch the festivities and stay out of the rain while we ate.  I think
the French McDonald's has a bigger menu and 2 types of fries, the usual
and wedges.  They also come with ketchup and mayo.  Well, the wedges
came with tartar sauce.  The fans from Denmark were quite lively since
their cyclist won.  Many of them were close by the patio singing and
chanting for their country.

The rest of the day was spent on the Champs-Elysee, doing some shopping
and hanging out with the Tour de France festivties.  We had dinner at
Le Deauville on the patio by the street.  The food was great, along
with dessert of ice cream and espresso.

On the way back to the hotel, we took the Metro with a couple of
transfers.  Too many stairs and too many people in a hurry for
crutches.  Lessons learned.

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