Le Bazar Egyptien

I'm slowly working my way back to Cairo. I am now in Paris where I spent yesterday evening with French friends I met in Egypt. With my friend Alex, I went to Le Bazar Egyptien, a shisha place in the 11th arrondissement. I did my best to rescue my once-promising Arabic reading skills by trying to decipher the Arabic on the sign. With a bit of help, I got through about half. Ma3lesh. I'll have to re-polish those skills once I get back. In any case, there was little Egyptian about the place that had a full list of wines, beers, and sometimes scandalously-named cocktails. The menu tended toward the more generally North African than toward the Egyptian, but I got nothing other than a glass of Ricard, also very un-Egyptian.
Although I heard tales of broken appliances and internet outages, apparently I'll be returning to a functional apartment on the 7th and for that I am glad. Cairo seems a lot more welcoming when you've got friends and a functioning dwelling to come "home" to.
Before I succumb to jet-lag, here are the recent goings-on in Egypt and environs:

Israel accepts German-broked agreement with Hamas over kidnapped soldier
Ex-Egyptian general held in Switzerland without charges
In pictures: Ramadan around the world

Oh, and I stumbled across Bikya Masr today. This website is rife with excellent English-language material on current events and social issues in Egypt. I'll be linking it on the righthand side of my blog.