When we got thru customs, Viking had a kiosk set up to welcome their customers. We introduced ourselves and they immediately called over our driver to take us to the hotel. We had expected some kind of a shuttle van. It was just us, the driver and a huge Mercedes sedan to the hotel. We got to the hotel about 1:30 and after checking in and resting for a while, we headed out to explore the area. The 1st stop was at a sidewalk cafe for some coffee (Bonnie) and a glass of wine (me). We walked over to the Eiffel Tower area which was only about a block away. We had tickets to go up at 10:00 PM so we just explored the grounds and then headed back to the hotel to rest up before dinner. We found a sidewalk restaurant near the hotel and of course I had to have escargot (love those snails) and Bonnie had to have French onion soup for appetizers - delicious. After dinner we did some more hiking and headed over to the Eiffel Tower for our 10:00 PM ride up up to level 2. The views were spectacular. Once an hour after dark they light up their 200,000 watt lighting system for 5 minutes. We waited for the 11:00 lighting and it was well worth it. By then were were exhausted and headed back to the hotel to collapse.