We left Lucerne early this morning in order to make it in time to see the Louvre before it closed. I threw my stuff on the bus, including my pants that were still wet from the Foam party two nights earlier and headed straight for a seat at the very back of the bus where I knew I could sleep. Later on during the drive, our tour guide made us all share our favorite moments from the trip which made us tearful that our trip was so close to ending and all the more eager to dwell our tears by viewing the Mona Lisa inside the Louvre. Without stopping at our hotel we went straight to the Louvre where I could give those lost, a little tour of the Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, the Winged Victory, and some other early Italian renaissance paintings. Others worn out and tired left, while Lonne and I continued our venture through the Louvre. I was able to relate more to the art after now having studied it and read about it and was very appreciative of some artworks by Paninni. We headed back to the bus, but first we stopped to battle an employee trying to close the bathrooms we were in need of using. Damn french. We arrived and changed in the two minutes we had available and headed to dinner where we could celebrate Mel (our tour guides) birthday in proper fashion...of course she was not suprised at all, as one of the waiters spilled the secret, nonetheless we had a great time singing happy birthday and dining on chocolate. We then headed out for our nighttime view of the Eiffel Tower. Last year, I passed out in the elevator at the Eiffel Tower--this year I struggled to avoid the same fate and fortunately, I was successful. It was beautiful up on the top...you could hardly see anything as it was dark, but looking down at this city of lights left me amazed and somewhat upset as I did not have Chris to share the magic with me......Alas, we took our photos and made our way down to be suprised by Mel and Andy with some champagne and chocolate......we love you guys...... We enjoyed the view some more and then piled back on the coach for a continued tour of the city of lights--and love. The L'arch de triumph is surrounded by a traffic circle six lanes deep in which it is every man for himself....nothing will make me smile more than listening to mel say we are not going through the traffic circle and then, all of sudden "Andy, what are you doing? Why aren't you turning? You are not going in there? ANDY@KJSDJ!!!*(R*#*$" And seeing Andy battle through a few motorcycles, cars, and lanes upon lanes of traffic.....ahh, paris. Anyhow, we continued on our tour and finally headed home where we could go to the seedy Votre Marche and purchase a few bottles of wine for yet another adventure in Paris. We all relaxed and chatted about our trip, future plans, and eventually I found myself outside with Rayna (bad mommy, in case you have looked at the pictures) chatting until 4 am about our life, expectations, failures, hopes, dreams, fathers, and love, everything....this will probably be one of the greatest conversations of my life as this women, almost 15 years older than me shared her knowledge about the world and left me in high spirits about the goals and dreams that I can achieve. Parting ways, as it was very late, I headed in for a few hours sleep and a very long day ahead.