We drove down the famous Champs Elysees (it has name brand shops along the bottom floor of the buildings) to our hotel in the La Defense area. It's a commercial area w/ lots of modern architecture office buildings. Heading towards our hotel we saw this modern looking Arc, which is the Grande Arch, and opposite it on the other side of the Champs Elysees, several miles away is the real Arc de Triumphe. Today was a full day. We went into town and saw the Notre Dame (I can't describe how intricate the sculpture is on this Cathedral, it's quite amazing, I think I had to pick my jaw up a couple times), walked along the Ill St. Louis which has the Louvre on one side and the D'Orsay (looks like a train station) on the other. We took the metro to the Tour Eiffel, and then 5 of us went to the Les Invalides (has Napoleon's tomb inside), but we didn't go inside b/c we had to get back for our welcome dinner. At night some of us went to the Red Light area for a Sigma Chi's 21st b-day, which was kinda interesting. Over all we saw a lot very briefly, just trying to get a feel of the city and metro system. This city is amazingly beautiful. From the modern to the old architecture, everywhere you look is gorgeous buildings w/ amazing detail. I was just going crazy taking pictures, half of the stuff I didn't know, just b/c everything is so beautiful. The future days will be even better b/c I'll be able to look at the monuments in more detail.