Day Six - Caught in a Tourist Trap

April 28. After leaving the Louvre we headed back to our hotel to change for dinner. At the recommendation of the hotel concierge, we had made reservations for dinner and the show at the Lido. Ken put on a suit jacket and tie and I wore my Textile Studio Marseilles silk top and crepe pants with my dressy flats. We took the Metro which was about a 20 minute trip and arrived a couple minutes before 7 p.m. which was the time of our reservations. We were taken to our seats which were quite good, but I understand that the entire theatre was designed so that everyone would have a good view. Observing how other patrons were dressed, I saw everything--work clothes, t-shirts, dressy-casual, & dressed to kill. Ken and I decided to substitute a bottle of wine for the bottle of champagne which came with the meal. Having been in Bordeaux we ordered a red, but I must say after being educated in good wine earlier during our vacation, this wine was not a big deal and needed more time to age. But it was drinkable, so we finished off the bottle by the end of the meal. We ordered the appetizer first, Ken had the gravlax salad and I had the vegetable and crab ravioli. Our entrees were a white fish and sauteed lamb (which was more like a stew). Dessert was chocolate cake. The meal was fine, in fact it is good, but it was way overpriced for what we had. I will say that the service was very good. During the meal there was a full orchestra playing along with a singer who looked American and sang in English most of the time. She had a good voice, but I think she had reached the peak of her career. After the meal we ordered our calvados and the show began. What can I say, it was very glitzy, very topless, and boarderline tacky. Lots of props moving all over the place, like the mini airplane which flew the star of the show on to the stage after the dancers had been parading around for a few minutes. The singing was canned, the costumes (what there was of them) were a little too colorful, and everyone smiled the entire time (lots of teeth!). The entire show was based on the main character's idea of an ideal day. Well, I love walking around, shopping, fantasizing, but I would never expect a show to be based on that. The show was called Bonheur and that's what it was for the heroine. Since we where there for over five hours, a couple trips to the Ladies Room were in order. Pretty room, but each time I had to pay the attendant 1 Euro ($1.70) for the privilege to pee. I'm sorry, but that's just not classy. We were definitely sucked into a tourist trap! Would we go back? Probably not--if we did, we would skip dinner there and go to the little bistro around the corner where we had dinner the night before.