Do you mind if I just take a moment, and have some coffe in your Starblade seat over there?

Arcade games, food and women. Is that paradise?

Thanks for all the pictures and info, Funky. Really interesting to see, we should have gone to Nancy instead.

I've been home now a couple of days and I'm still totally flushed 

Tomorrow I hope to start doing the pictures section by section; Berlin, that castle, Insbruck, the alps... and a separate section for the arcades in Paris. That's what I remember most anyway.

I've been to New York too, just a couple of years ago. They have order in their streets, wide sidewalks and alot of space. NY felt much easier than Paris for me, and I really loved the chinese  buffets open 24/7. Even though I couldn't find one arcade there all was cool. The smells were pleasant, either hotdogs and pretsels, or roasted sweet almonds around every corner. It really was a happy time for me. Oh but they did have an arcade... That "Mars 2112" or something. Or was that a restaurant? And they did have a few smaller arcades in chinatown, I remember now.

Paris:
Well, it isn't quite that dramatic, infact I have become more fit walking up all those stairs and slopes. I have no problem with my feet or legs. It's just that feeling of pointlessness and the fact that I cannot do what I am used to at home.

We've bought some bread at Spar, and some eggs, so every morning we have omelett with toast and instant coffe. Then usually during the day we get a sandwich or kebab. In the evenings it is usually pasta with some sauce and added veggies and some chopped pork.

Thanks for the tip on the macarons. However they are everywhere, in every patisseri and boulangeri. They are very sweet so I cannot eat them. Camilla loves them though, macarons have only recently started selling in sweden. For quite a while only one shop had macarons, now they're in almost every cafee in every mall so they have become sort of 'passe' being so overexposed.

Yesterday we were at Repetto, a specialized shop for dance-equipment and also women's shoes. Camilla bought herself a pair of very expensive black shoes, ofcourse 'made in France' (not made in China). Then we wanted to try to walk home from Opera, but somewhere after montmarte Camilla freaked out and we had to take the bus. But somehow the bus took a wrong turn somewhere and we ended up walking home quite a distance anyway. I actually happened to see a pinball machine on the way in a restaurant, "Monster..." something.

Tomorrow we're leaving for sweden, so today we need to clean the appartment and also not forget to feed the fish. There's a goldfish here. Quite a social little fellow, every morning it swims around in a cheerful way. Camilla named it "Amellie", I named it "Camilla", it wasn't untill two days ago we were informed that she is a he, and that he has killed three of his previous goldfish friends and now there are only three alge-suckers left, they seem to survive ok because they are quick enough to swim away when 'he' attacks. So, I renamed him "Killer Karl".

Camilla is still shooting stuff around her, the spice shelf, the kitchen, the furniture, even the old floor... Like some mental freak, anything she thinks she can blog about regarding our Paris stay. I just want to get out of here now.

Luigi knows what I'm talking about. It is supposed to be a holiday but it turned out to be more like a mission of being a custodian to a mad ape trying to make a documentary on the city. It started out really super, I was driving a Nissan Quashcai with all the luxury accesories, the alpes were awesome, as was the festival in Switzerland. But now in Paris we're stuck in this appartment, no aircon, and no car, with only the subway and our shoes.

"Autostrada" or "Autoroute" same thing. Or "motorway" in swedish, and "autobahn" german. On the road was better, or if I would hang out in a airconed arcade would be better. Everybody here is so thin and that makes me feel fat. I think I ought to start smoking but I need a pipe. For the moment I am stuck here with Camilla's ipad.

Today will probably be another walking day as C wants to see the arch, again. I fear she's mentaly ill but we bought another 5-day visitor's subway pass so it looks like we'll be tourists for 5 more days. All this is just piling up in my brain to create an overload. I hope time will fly, or I will be flying.

Last night we were at the "grand canal", a sort of cool reservoire of water in the middle of town. But there were so many people there, students or something, some playing on guitarrs and singing, it was too crowded. Camilla wanted to sit down at the canal like everybody else eating and drinking, so we went to buy a baguette and something that looked like cheese. It is confusing in the grocery stores as you never know what you are buying because of the language. Anyway, we never sat down by the canal due to the crowded state it was in, everybody seemed to have their picnic at the same time, baguettes and cheese everywhere, so I ate while walking. C was taking photos of anything and everything, and well back at home I put the rest of the cheese in the fridge - a very bad thing to do. As I opened it this morning to get some juice I was struck by a horrible smell, ofcourse I had to buy the smelliest cheese in the store. So it has to go. No more cheese for me this month.

There's more, so much more, I'm getting it all mixed up though, the temperature is coolest in the mornings so the best time to think is between 08 - 11. The afternoons and evenings ought to be spent at a beach or by the pool. But where can I find that here?

By the way, tomorrow we will be checking out Le Havre. Anybody knows anything about Le Havre, besides what is in the wiki? ... And Omaha Beach? Any arcade there?

I'm not sure what Camilla wants to do there, I think she saw some film or read something about it. Anyway, I'm driving a rented Polo so I'm happy.

Blanka, how many of those dinners are you planning to eat each week, 5 or 7?  Because 7 x €40 is €280, and thats only for dinner. What do you have for breakfast and lunch? I will not ask you to summerize it into one month because you were probably on holiday, and as such one does allow for certain exeptions. But to call a two person dinner at €40 cheap makes me wonder in what line of business you are, (diamonds?  ). I'd much rather have a kebab, or a sandwich for €3.50 than sitting at a table paying more. But that's just me I guess.

I also think I ought to mention that I am not a tourist, at least I try not to be even though my Camilla is one. Yesterday we were walking around this huge cemetary with these funny looking graves like little houses, Camilla was searching for the grave of Jim Morrison, and some other grave of Alain Bash... something, and I wondered if my brain would explode from the heat, or from the awesome boredom I was experiencing at the time. On top of this I was being eaten by mosquitos.

In all the cities we have been this far I have fallen asleep on the sight-seeing bus, I have never bought a souvenir (I did pick up a small rock in the alpes though), and I have not taken one picture of any typical monument or place in any country except of castle Neuschwanstein, which I honestly did find interesting due to its playful appearance.

Today I hope to visit the Street Arcade and that other place on Rue Italian, sitting inside in an airconed environment having a coke and perhaps a sandwich, if I am allowed to eat there. I feel really done walking around Paris looking at stone walls and strange doors (even though they are supposed to have certain cultural value), done with sitting in cafes watching people, walking past cafes having people watching me, ... I need a beach.

I understand, Cain. It is more or less the same in any larger city, you see it in Stockholm as well and ofcourse I hate that. Prague and Berlin also had this with russians and italians buying building spaces opening shops and restaurants for tourists. I feel ripped off just buying a beer in the centre, and as if that isn't enough the waitress asks me and Camilla to pay and leave after about 30 minutes. Now, what kind of stress is that, like a ride on some attraction in Disneyland - in, take my money, and out.

About the appartment that we rent, it belongs to a colleague of Camilla's. We pay only the actual cost for 2 weeks. I think it was €250 a week, a small sized 2 bedroom flat plus a kitchen space with TV room/dining room in "Paris 10". Haha... Actually I feel more that I am in africa than in France, every night you hear some sort of police involvment or some quarrel. Which in my terms makes things more exciting, but not for Camilla, she is very nervous.