July 13

We left the bar and walked a couple of blocks to the British Embassy which was next door to the US Embassy. There are armed guards in front of each embassy and nobody is allowed to walk on the same side of the street. As we started across the street toward the British Embassy, the guard with his machine gun, held up his hand and indicated for us to stop and go back. I timidly held up Ben's business card and got close enough to explain that we were invited. He looked at the card and motioned for us to go to the door. We showed Ben's card to another guard at the door and he picked up a phone and announced, "The Kelly's have arrived!" Angie and I couldn't help but laugh as we felt like royalty being waved inside. We were led upstairs where we met Ben. It turns out that Ben has been the butler in the British Embassy for 28 years. As we walked around the embassy he told us the history of the house. It had been Napoleon's sister's house for several years. She had later sold the house completely furnished, so her bed, furniture, chandeliers, a bust of Napoleon, just countless beautiful articles were around the house. We walked around the yards also, where there is a herb garden and the only grass tennis court in Paris. Angie asked Ben if she could take a picture of the US Embassy over the wall. He peeked over the wall and said yeah. After she took the picture, he shouted, "Now run!" Ben is a hoot. He told us some great stories about Tony Blair and meeting the Queen. Our tour of the Embassy was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, which all started because we were willing to watch a cricket game. Ben had us sign the guest book and we said our goodbyes. Ben said to be sure and look him up if we came back to France and we'd go back to Bugsy's and have a drink!

We made our way back towards our hotel and ran into our friends Celia, Cathy, Rob and their son Dane headed to dinner, so we joined them. We had some great pasta and wine, then made it back to our hotel to get a good night's rest before the finish tomorrow on the Champs.