We’re in Paris for a couple nights in order to get over our jet lag.  We’re lucky to be here at all — we were worried that our passports might have gotten lost by the US Postal Service on their way back from the Burkina Faso embassy in Washington.  But they ultimately got found and were delivered the next day.  They had the gall not to refund our money since they didn’t fulfill their pledge to deliver overnight — they claimed that because the receipt had 2/22 3 AM -> 2/23 5 PM written on it that that qualified as overnight.  If that’s the most serious problem on this trip, I’ll be happy.

It sure is nice to be in a place where all of the normal restaurants one encounters walking around have terribly high standards and are all great.  Tonight’s was independently recommended by two of our friends — Sud Ouest Monceau, which seems to specialize in foie gras.  Last night’s, Felix, was one of the few that were open on Mondays, a universal problem.  Our hotel, Hotel Mercedes, is delightful as well.

We’ve also noticed the end of another tradition, that of banks changing dollars into euros.  First of all, there are a lot fewer people changing money since most of their countries use euros in the first place.  Secondly, most people just get money using their ATM cards.  So the banks have given up changing money entirely, leaving the “bureaux de change” to charge rapacious amounts to the poor people who don’t have ATM cards — 74 euros for 100 dollars if you’re buying them, 92 if you’re buying them.

Today we visited the Institut de la Monde Arabe, and saw an exhibit of the contributions made by Arabs to science over the years, which were many.  Especially in astronomy, which comes in useful for deciding which way Mecca is, or when Ramadan will start.  Or, most importantly, when and where the eclipses will happen.

We had a bunch of stuff saved up to post here, but technical difficulties preclude us from copying and pasting it, so I’ve just typed a few things so you know we’re on the way.  Tomorrow we leave civilization for West Africa — we’ll be in a large city for a couple days so hopefully we’ll be in touch again before escaping into the hinterlands.

 

Posted by dave on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 1:41 pm