Stranger 7th

Back in February, I joked that staying in the 7th was like being at home. Turns out it's getting serious this time.

I'm back in Paris for a couple of days and decided to stay once again at my home away from home at the Best Western Eiffel Park Hotel. It's part of the Paris Rive Gauche chain and I really liked it last time and the rates were good this time. There's a new French-Algerian girl working the reception desk and I'm even back in the same room again: 206.

It's nice to return to familiar surroundings but I was hoping to try out a different room. This time, it's really like returning to your flat after months away on holiday. Just wish the bedding was more than foam core.

With the severe heat and dips into cold air conditioning, I contracted a cold in Croatia that I'm trying to stay ahead of. I also was bitten by a spider on my inner left thigh. At first I thought it was a simple mosquito bite, but after two days of constant itching and that tell-tale hardening of the skin - not to mention tonights' new twist that makes it stiff to walk, it's got to be a spider bite. Damn spiders.

I'm a bit low on the antibiotic side. If we were still in Copenhagen, I could have borrowed some Avapena from the girls. Since I'm too stubborn to treat it and am determined to "tough it out", I'll probably end up dead in a day or two from poisoning. Well, if one MUST die, might as well be in Paris.

I've come to Paris for one reason: to eat at Robert et Louise again. This time to try the Cote du Boeuf. Originally, I was planning on staying in Zagreb until Monday. Then I found out that Robert et Louise is closed on Mondays, and since I want to be home on July 1st, I needed to come in a day early.

The next problem is that I wanted to bring some baguettes from Stephane Secco home with me. Secco is closed on both Sundays and Mondays. That means I had to get a later flight through Frankfurt instead of the non-stop from Paris - just so I could buy baguettes in the morning.

In the meantime, I've got my goals set up:

1 - Visit Pierre Herme for macaroons
2 - Visit the olive oil shop in Bastile
3 - Visit our friends at Soluna Cafes
4 - Hunt down tasty steak and frites
5 - Find Absinthe
6 - Look at books
7 - Visit Leticia

Okay, perhaps I'm not too serious about Number Seven, but the rest I've got to jam in for tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll work on meeting more girls on this trip. I've already got one number...