And now for today's news!

So, today started off with less than a stellar note. Seriously, I had asked Jeremy to take me home before we made it onto the metro. And I meant it.

We ended up over sleeping by quite a bit. It was 8:30 before we woke, so about 9:30 before we headed out. Our first obstacle -- the metro. Now, everything I had read and heard said "the metro is great, the metro is a fantastic way to get around...blah, blah, blah". Yeah, not so much for us. Before we even got started, I told Jeremy we should go ask for help at the desk because I didn't understand the system. His response? "No, no, no -- it is easy, it will be okay." So, we end up with three tickets (bought from a machine that wouldn't take our charge card because we don't have the chip in it that the Europeans have in theirs), enter the system and get thoroughly lost. Our error? We went into the wrong turnstile, mostly because we didn't understand the difference between the RER trains and the metro. We walk around for A LONG TIME (reminiscent of last nights car trip in), before we find a very nice metro employee who offered help (yes, offered -- we really looked that confused). Turns out, we needed to exit the system (which voided our tickets) and go into another gate. I was thoroughly teed off at Jeremy at this point (what is so hard about asking for directions?). Luckily, Jeremy went and asked for help and they gave us new tickets (since we hadn't gone ANYWHERE). This took us a good 45 minutes. Ugghhh....not a great way to start the day. We've got the metro down pat now, though.

Today our agenda was to walk the Champs-Elysees, see the Tuilleries (gardens near the Louvre), tour the Musee D'Orsay, walk to the Eiffel Tour and then take a Seine River cruise.

We got the walk of the Champs-Elysees in before the rain started. It was a beautiful walk. The architecture along the street is beautiful. The street is lined with shops (most of which were very high end), restaurants and offices. We only went in a few shops. Louis Vuitton had some gorgeous purses, though I was afraid to ask what they were priced at, seeing as the coin purses were $200+. The store was very heavily guarded, which is something I'm not used to, though not surprised by considering the location and the merchandise. It was neat to see, none the less. We went in a few shops with children's clothes, though I didn't buy anything. I LOVE the dresses they have here for babies and toddlers. I'm regretting not buying any Lucy now that we're back at the hotel.

On one end of the Champs-Elysees we stopped a the L'Arc de Triomphe. We elected not to go up in it, due to the long line and the fact that we have more things on our list to see than we can possibly get finished. It was gorgeous, of course, and interesting to stand in the middle of the traffic circle from hell and watch the drivers. I'm not sure how anyone gets out of that thing alive.

We stopped for lunch at a little boulangerie. Ordering was interesting, because the items were very spread out, it was very busy and none of the employees could speak English. I, by mistake, ordered a hot dog. It was actually very good, but I was not expecting a hot dog. And this was a hot dog like none I've ever seen. It was on a baguette and topped with yummy mustard and melted cheese (so much cheese that you couldn't see the hot dog inside, which is how I ended up with it). It was REALLY good -- I might actually eat hotdogs at home if I could have them that way.

At the other end of the Champs-Elysees was the Tuileries. This is when it started raining -- raining hard enough that we were going to get pretty soaked through. The gardens will probably be gorgeous in a few weeks, though right now they are pretty bare. The trees here are just starting to bloom and the bulbs and other spring flowers are just coming in. It is too bad that this trip wasn't a few weeks later, as the gardens are almost more interesting to me than the buildings.

We then headed off to the Musee D'Orsay (in a hurry, I might add, due to the rain). We got there only to discover that every other tourist in Paris had seemingly done the same thing (I can't blame them). So we waited in a very long line (45 minutes - one hour) to get in the museum. We waited in the rain -- the pouring rain. Luckily, we all had rain coats. Unluckily, we only had one umbrella. Our pants were soaked. And poor Jeremy had a wet wet face.

The museum was okay, though I'm going to admit now that I am not an art person. Most of it was just paint on canvas to me. A few caught my eye and made me wonder what the artist was thinking when he was working. It was interesting to see, and I'm glad we did it, but it certainly won't be the highlight of our trip.

Luckily, it had stopped raining by the time we left the museum. We headed towards the Eiffel Tower, walking through a cute little area of shops (and I have no clue what the area was called). We ended up with a fabulous treat (did I mention the food is the best thing about France?) on the way. I got a lemon tart with meringue, Hannah got a chocolate eclair and Jeremy got a strawberry tart. MMMMMMM!!!!! It was worth the walk to the Eiffel tower just to get the treat!

When we got to the tower, all but one of the "legs" were closed due to some kind of incident earlier in the day. We waited in line for a while to walk up, but then it started pouring rain again, so decided we'd rather move on. If we can, we'll go back, but I'm not sure that will be possible in 3 days in Paris. We went to take a river cruise, but would have had to wait 30 minutes in the rain again, so we moved on to something from one of our other days itineraries: Trocadero.

Trocadero is an area with shops and restaurants. We ate dinner at a (and I'm ashamed to admit this) British restaurant. It was GREAT! Our waitress was British, so we were able to converse without charades or confusion or a brain hemorrhage. They also had the best darn beer I've ever had! We hung around Trocadero after dinner until it was dark, so that we could check out the Eiffel Tower in the dark (beautiful) and then caught the metro back to the hotel (without incident).

On a whole, we had a pretty good day. Paris is gorgeous. However, I doubt I'll ever want to come back to Paris (or France for the matter), though I know time may change my perspective. This not being able to understand the language thing is killer for me -- I don't like it!!!