strike one...or, one strike

Just when it seemed our transportation luck had improved... We hit the metro this morning only to see that most of the lines were down, including the train we would need to get to our car at orly airport... Yep, the books were not kidding around when they warned that the french go on strike all the time. Lucky us they decided to strike today. The french are so blase about it too, like, we were like, "the metros aren't working, and our cute blonde hotel girl (the one who forgot to call us the cab) was just like, "yeah. It's a strike.". We were horrified but they don't pay much mind there. Buses were out too. The driver from the hotel was able to take us though, for 45 euros. Great, this after we spent 17 euros on a now useless all day metro pass, plus the 30 euros to get the car out of parking brings it to like 100 euros worth of transportation all before leaving paris... Cities are expensive. Before we left though we did have breakfast at ma bourgogne in the places des vosges. Chuck and karen are you reding this?? Went just for you. Actually it was the best hot chocolate I have had so far. Plus the waiter asked if I was belgian and said I was very pretty. At least I'm not coming across as an obnoxious american tourist. They are always surprised here that I am american and can speak any french at all.
Anyway, explored the rest of the marais this morning since clearly we weren't going anywhere else. Went to the jewish museum (also for you, CR) which was interesting. Asa, there were manuscripts there like the ones you study but in hebrew. Went to the pompadou center to see the famous fountains but they were not operational, bummer!
Anyway many euros later we were at our car at orly and heading for amboise. Drive down was smooth and beautiful, but we literally spent like 2 hours driving around trying to find the hotel, but here we are in a mini-chateau type place with a nice, spacious room. Very tired now, gotta get some sleep. More later...