Day #136 in lockdown Mumbai, India hotel…More photos from Paris in 2014…Dining and a museum in Paris…Credit card chaos…

Tom, ready to dine at Les Ombres in Paris. We ate early, at 7:00 pm, when most French diners and tourists prefer dining after 9:00 pm.

Note: To all of our readers visiting our site via a smartphone, please click the “View web version” tab under the word “Home” at the bottom of the page to access the web version enabling you to access all of our archives on the right side of the page. We’ll be updating our site shortly, making these extra steps unnecessary. Thank you. 

Today’s photos are from the post from August 6, 2014, while in Paris, France. See the link here for more photos.

Once we realized we’d be in lockdown for a considerable amount of time, we knew we had no option other than to post past photos from our prior almost 3000 posts which began on March 15, 2012.

At first, we jumped around searching for favorite photos but, as time marched on, we came up with a system we’ve generally followed by posting photos from the same date as the day’s post from another year in our eight-year history. For example, today’s photos are from August 6, 2014, and so forth.

These warm, cheese-filled buns arrived before dinner. Tom said they were good.

On a few occasions, we’ve varied from this plan when the photos we posted from a particular post didn’t appear attractive, our WiFi signal at the time prevented uploading photos, or it was a travel day when we didn’t post any photos at all.

Butter arrived at the table imprinted with “Marie Antoinette.”

Now, as we work our way through the posts from the few weeks spent in Paris in 2014, we have more photos than we can copy. We’ve chosen those we hope to be interesting to our readers and have left the remainder behind. 

The menu at the French restaurant, Les Ombres, is situated near the museum. Tom chose the fixed price option at EU 68, US $91.

At the top portion of each post, in smaller font, we provide a link from which the day’s photos have been copied to today’s post. Please click on that link if you find you may be interested in seeing more photos, such as in today’s older link with many more photos than we could add here today.

Tom’s lobster, prawn, and octopus risotto were delicious but such a tiny portion, as to be expected in French restaurants.

Using Blogger as we do here, spacing issues ensue when too many photos are posted in a single day. Hopefully, with our new upcoming site, we won’t experience such an issue. We’ll see how that rolls out in the next month or so.

We both had the same main dish (entrée in French translates to “appetizer”), grilled salmon topped with shredded cabbage and a slice of cauliflower. These four bits of broccoli were no more significant than the end of a thumb. This consisted of my entire meal, not quite enough after a busy day of walking for hours. When we returned to our hotel room, we ate plenty of nuts after the small portions.

Our new site has been delayed due to the time it takes for the developer to move over those almost 3000 historical posts, one by one, a laborious and time-consuming process. We’ve put no pressure on the company to do so more quickly. After all, we’re okay in the interim.

Tom dessert. Below is a dollop of chocolate ice cream atop a spoonful of a chocolate sauce containing chunks of chocolate. At the top is a roll-filled chocolate cake with a Grenache frosting garnished with chocolate candy sticks. Each item consisted of no more than two bites. They appear more prominent in the photo.

On another note, yesterday morning, I received a notice from one of our credit card companies to contact us immediately with an issue. I couldn’t imagine what it was until I looked up the account online to see there was a charge for INR 12.72, US $.17, a definite red flag. The charge was for equine vitamins. We don’t have a horse in our hotel room in Mumbai!

Based on today’s exchange rate, our dinner bill at EU 116 was slightly under US $155. A 20% gratuity was included.

I knew from past experiences that this charge of US $.17 was a “test” for a fraudulent party trying to use our card to a more significant amount. They charged the small amount to see if it would go through. Once it did, they’d charge whatever they chose for a more substantial sum.

We have too many photos for one post about our experiences of the past 24 hours; a visit to Musee de Quai Branly. For more of our museum photos, please click here.

At the credit card company’s fraud detection department, our card was immediately shut down, resulting in the necessity of us contacting them. I reached the company hours later due to the time difference and informed us to toss the card, and they’d send us a new card via FedEx overnight to our hotel here in India.

Wood carving of mother and child.

Thankfully, we have plenty of credit cards as a backup, required for world travelers such as ourselves when we must charge large sums and feel safer with plenty of credit lines available at any one time. Primarily, we use the cards that provide the highest loyalty points, saving the other for emergencies.

These costumes were made centuries ago in preparation for Mardi Gras in Mexico.

We’re still waiting for customs to process the package we sent from Nevada to us here at the hotel. The new card may not arrive for a week or more in light of COVID-19 slower shipping times from the US to India. It could be several more weeks.

Many of the masks on display in the museum were intended to ward off evil spirits.

That’s all, folks! Happy day!

Photo from one year ago today, August 6, 2019:

Tom was standing at the doorway to a house at the Connemara Heritage and History Centre and the Dan O’Hara Homestead. For more photos, please click here.

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