To the bars!

There are LOTS of people by the Bastille, and about four hundred thousand bars/restaurants. So many choices!

There is also lots of traffic there. And also people who have drunk too many beers to take actual decent pictures.

Tonight, on the advice of a friend, I went to Route 66.

Route 66 is a bar near the Bastille that pretty much caters towards Americans. Well…sort of at least. There is definitely American food on the menu (fajitas, hamburgers, Caesar salads, etc) and thank GOD a good chunk of the employees speak English. In fact, I had the longest conversations in 3 days.

I knew it was near the Bastille, and I had an address. Unfortunately I didn’t take that address with me. So the taxi (yeah, I shoulda taken the metro/subway/bus/whatever) dropped me off at the plaza and I…well…stood there a while and just looked around.

The area was packed with people…the busiest section I have seen to date. I figured I was pretty screwed. For a hopeful moment I saw street signs and figured I’d be able to come up with some sort of memory…yeah right, not a chance.

So I went ahead and wandered….which I am getting VERY good at by the way. And luck have it, down a little side street…there it was.

I walked right in and had a seat at the bar. This was about 6:30…happy hour. Perfect. I was the only customer there.

To make a long story short it was a blast. A seriously great time in fact. Most of the staff spoke English (I French bartender, a Welsh bartender and an Irish hostess). I made friends, I laughed and talked about everything I have seen and experienced, and I drank a serious amount of liquor. Spell check is constantly figuring out what I am typing…thank you Microsoft!

If anyone at the Blackhawk Grille is reading this…these people can NOT make a Cosmo. It’s in a rocks glass…way too much cranberry juice, and no where near enough triple sec. I did have some crazy French drink with strawberry juice, gin, vodka and triple sec. Very good! Add about a thousand and three beers on top of that and we’ve got a party.

I’ll admit…I’m dead on my feet. I’m dying here. I doubt I can type much longer. But I had to get some choice bits down….

First of all…YOU DON’T NEED TO TIP! Did I say that loud enough? Seriously…the French don’t tip…which is perhaps I reason why I’ve gotten such great service. I’m American…American’s tip. French know this. And there ya go!

Secondly…there are English speakers around here. You just gotta know where to find them. I did…and got some free drinks and a painful shot of tequila as I left (they all wanted to know the proper way to do a shot…there was rampant discussion of salt, lime, tequila and how you do it. I, of course, educated them…and all was good).

Once again…everyone is so freaking nice. My taxi driver had no clue how to get me back here to the hotel…I had to actually bust out the map and give him directions. He barely spoke English and our conversation was pretty much like this…

“Bush no!”

“Chirac so-so”

“Paris bon!”

And lots of other extreme strange combinations of French Spanish and English. Oddly enough the taxi ride back was not only faster (I think…wow, lost track of time) but cheaper (that I am aware of for sure).

I was going to take pictures at the bar but seriously lost track of time…which I am very proud of. By the way, one of the managers is from California so I’m going to cruise over tomorrow and talk to her about how the place is run. I am a hotel/restaurant management student after all.

Oh yeah…last note (before pictures). Drinks are cheaper when you sit at the bar vs. sitting at a table. Odd isn’t it?