Flu: No respecter of persons or countries

Greetings from inside the American Hospital waiting room. Not among your normal tourists destination, we decided to check out the emergency services for Aunt Lorraine. She slipped off the bottom step of the hotel lobby evening (Monday) and bruised her wrists and knees pretty badly. Then this morning she started tossing her cookies so we've decided to have her checked out and make sure everything is okay. Wish I could say that service here was faster. After waiting nearly eight hours for a ten minute exam and eight x-rays, the doctor declared that she had no broken bones, no blood clots, no internal injuries and had most likely contacted some type of virus that was making her ill at, shall we say, both the north and south ends of her body. She was to get bed rest and drink plenty of fluids.

UPDATE: I didn't get this posted last night due to a poor connection. This morning she reported that she is still having a hard time keeping things down/in but is determined to carry on. My feeling is that she should rest more but you don't tell this Aunt what to do. We shall see what the day holds.

Yesterday we managed to open the little eatery across from the hotel that has become our local termination point in the evenings. The proprietor and his main counter man are extremely friendly and fun to talk to. They speak enough English to fill in the gaps in my French and I speak enough French to fill in the gaps in their English. We didn't realize that they we're open yet. We just waltzed right in like family. We ordered some quiche and then tried to figure out how to order scrambled eggs. Not knowing the French word for scrambled we tried to mime the process. Funny, but not really effective. The closest we finally got was an omelet with some very salty ham thrown in. Turned out okay but was covered with a LOT of oil!

Speaking of eating the neighborhood we're in has a lot of Japanese, Korean, and various other Oriental restaurants. The other night we I had the best sushi I believe I've ever eaten! It was served along with chicken pieces of various flavors skewered on a stick. I think one of the pieces was chicken gizzard which I haven't eaten in ages. However it was fixed it was very good.

Palais Garnier

After breakfast we booked it for the location of the gorgeous Palais Garnier, also known as the Opéra de Paris or Opéra Garnier, but more commonly as the Paris Opéra. From 1875 until 1989, it was the primary home of the Paris Opera.  I was secretly hoping we were going to see the inside but alas, we were headed for one of the largest retail store in Paris. Some of you know it as the Galeries Lafayette. Huge place. Aunt Lorraine took us to the 9th floor where you could see all over Paris. Pretty amazing.

Alas, I am being called to duty and must end this. Sorry I haven't been able to find time to post some more interesting stuff. So much to see, so little time.