Saturday, 26 August. Colonel Shull was at the hotel at 09:30 and led us to Camp des Loges where his office was. Our car got a flat tire while we were right at the on-post service station, thank goodness. The Colonel phoned Verona for us so we could check on the children. They were all doing fine. We then followed Colonel Shull to his house, which was very nice and had an immense yard. We visited with the Shull family for a while, then stopped at the big PX on our way into town. Sharon really had a ball there, buying a US-made casserole and lazy susan for her mother's birthday.
Our next stop was our new hotel, the Arromaches Hotel, one block off the Champs-Elysees near the Place d'Etoile. After checking in, we walked to the Champs and climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. The view from the top was spectacular. We could see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Sacre Coeur, and even Notre Dame. It was well worth the risk we had taken in fighting our way across the wild French traffic of the Place d'Etoile.
For a quick lunch, and for Sharon’s sake, we went to the "Drug Store" on the Champs-Elysees where they specialize in American-style hamburgers, hot dogs, milk shakes, etc. We were annoyed by two young men who kept ogling both Sharon and Jane, but we ignored them and they finally gave up. We went back to the car and drove to the "flea market." It was huge but most of the things sold were new junk rather than the antique type we wanted to look at. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to see the church of Sacre Coeur overlooking the Montmartre district. Although it is criticized by some as a "white elephant" because of its "westernized" Byzantine style, we thought it was beautiful, both inside and out. It has the attractive features of Byzantine architecture without the gaudiness. We passed the Moulin Rouge night club as we struggled to find our way out of Montmartre and get back to our hotel.
About 21:30 we strolled down the Champs to the Lido, "the most famous nightclub in the world." We had dinner, the mandatory champagne and saw two floor shows for $12 per person. The food was nothing special and Sharon didn't like the champagne, but the floor show was absolutely terrific. The first show lasted 90 minutes. There were ice skaters, a comically stuffy British band, a comic tenor and heckling waiter, a seal act in a pool, dance acts and the Bluebell girls. In spite of the many bare-breasted girls, the show was in extremely good taste, no vulgarity, not even a dirty joke. For the most part, Les Modeles du Lido, the bare-breasted girls, just stood around as part of the background scenery, although they did walk around the stage one time in a mass promenade scene. The only other semi-dressed girls were one or two of the feature dancers, and their acts were not of the burlesque variety. One of the waiters was very solicitous of Sharon and, after the first floor show (which we had to stand to see), he moved us to a front row table and told Sharon "just for you." She was so thrilled she watched him instead of the second floor show. The second show lasted 40 minutes, ending at 02:30. We walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
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