Bonjour! Well we are here in "Paree", aka Paris. Yesterday at the Dublin airport was pretty uneventful. Not the greatest airport, kind of strangely laid out truthfully. Once we checked in around 6:15 PM, we had to walk a ways to the "gate". This was the type of airport where we had to walk out onto the runway and up stairs to the plane. The plane was actually comfortable, nothing free however. If we wanted a drink or snacks it would cost us some euros. No thanks, not for an hour flight. That's all it took to get to Paris. The airport was about an hour North of the city. Our hotel however was about 30 minutes South of the city, lovely. We had no idea how we were going to get there. We were just praying there would be buses still running at 11:00 PM. We landed in Paris and the airport was super small, and of course smelly. We grabbed our bags, headed outside and luckily found a bus ticket office right away! It was 26 euros all together to get a ride into the center of Paris. The other option was take a taxi all the way to the hotel, 170 euros, ha, negative. The bus was packed full, not the most comfortable of rides but we managed. It dropped us off right in smack in the center of town somewhere, still no idea what we were going to do next! The fellow Americans sitting on the bus next to us had no real idea either. That made us a feel a little bit better. We decided from here we could just hale a taxi and it would be better than finding a metro, now being about 12:30 AM. The taxi driver picked us up a few minutes later and away we went....on our adventure through Paris! We pulled up to our hotel in Porte d' Italie around 1AM. It wasn't a bad right and cost about 30 euros. I felt 30 euros was worth our safety!! We did get to pass through the main town and see the Eiffel Tower all lit up, beautiful! I passed out as soon as we walked in the door, Billy however stayed up a little bit longer with his sleeping issues. The morning came quick, too quick! It would have been so nice to sleep in but 1) we did not want to miss our free breakfast and 2) we had lines to join and tourist sights to partake in. So up and out we went! We chowed down on some basic cereal, yogurt, and of course crossaints. The weather was not to lovely out, mostly cloudy and about 70. Next mission: find the metro station to the Lourve and Notre Dame. We asked the front desk agent to point us in the direction, he said it was about an 8 minute walk, not bad. We got there safe and sound; purchased a 1 day, unlimited use metro pass and hopped on the metro to the Lourve. We arrived at the Lourve about 10 minutes before opening. There was a small line formed so we hopped in that and waited our turn. The Lourve is an awesome place to see in person, such a interesting building structure, not to mention all the goodies on the inside. We headed straight to the Mona Lisa first, trying to beat all those horrible school groups lined up. It sat beautifully behind probably 3 inches of glass, if not more. Photos were STRICTLY prohibited so we couldn't get any good shots. It was a little too empty to try, especially since the 14 security guards were staring us down. No photos, but we do have the memory of seeing it in person! Other highlights include the Winged Victory, Venice de Milo, the Greek and Egyption artifacts displayed, and we also did a nice walk through the "undergrounds" of the Lourve. The real walls from the castle that was once erect stood underneath the museum. We stayed in there for about an hour, avoiding the tours and audio handsets. We had to go proceed with our "Paris in one day" trip. Our next stop was the Notre Dame. We knew we did not want to do the walking tour w/this one (bad experience the last time I was in Paris.) We just strolled through on our own, stopping when we wanted, and going as we pleased. It is so immense inside this church, so much to look at! We really wanted to do the stairs to the Gargoyles on top, but the lines were super long and not really worth it to us. Outside of the Notre Dame, we stopped for a huuuge hotdog at a nearby café. It was the hotdog I had remembered from the last time I was here 10 years ago! We shared one and a coke for about 6 euros, kind of overpriced. The hotdog bun seemed to be a baguette, really crusty and delicious. From the Notre Dame we signed up for the Batobus, a waterbus that takes you down the Siene River for about 5 euro each, unlimited use till 9:30 PM. Before we rode down to the other attractions, we decided to walk up the streets to the Pantheon. We viewed it, and took a few pictures from the outside, it had amazing architecture. I'm sure Billy did some type of report in the past 2 years on one of those intricate columns! Walking back down to the Notre Dame, we hopped on to cruise down to the Eiffel Tower. We arrived about 20 minutes later right in front of the Tower, so amazing! We hung out in the park for a little bit in front, taking pictures and just relaxing. The lines were insane! We decided we wanted to come back at night and go up to the top, when all the pretty city lights are shining. Last, but not least we walked by the Arc de Triumphe. The traffic around the Arc was so intense we did not even bother trying to get across the street. Here too we just took our pictures and moved on, back to the metro. We had no idea what direction to go in when we got off the metro back in Porte de Italie. Out of 4 ways to pick, we picked the 3 wrong ones and then FINALLY found our hotel. That brings us to right now, about 4:19 PM in the afternoon. We needed a rest before we tackle the tower tonight. So to be continued!!!