Tuesday morning, we decided to take the Metro (subway) to the center of the city for a free English walking tour. It was comical yet informative, so it made for a great way to start our adventure in Paris. Ironically, one of the kids we met in Dublin, Jon (the one from Michigan), is in Paris this week also so we met him at the tour and have basically spent the last three days with him. He became our official photographer (lucky him!). After the walking tour, we walked up the Champs-Elysees, longing for the things we couldn't afford and feeling like we were back on a more intense Michigan Avenue. We walked under the crazy 12 spoke traffic wheel centering around the arc de triumphe in order to get a better look at the arc and also trying to avoid dying in one of the car accidents that supposedly happens every 30 minutes. After the arc, we took a stroll to the Eiffel Tower. Oh la la! We climbed around 852 stairs (who's counting?) to get the the highest possible level (by just walking). It was quite the view. Don't worry, we got pictures. After a long day of touring the city, we decided to take the edge off by going on the Paris pub crawl. It was (once again) a great night. We met more Americans from Penn, Florida, and yes, more Aussies.

The next day, we did more touring of the major Parisian sites. We headed to the Louvre! We saw the Mona Lisa, which was smaller than expected, but her eyes really did follow you across the room. Some of our favorite exhibits were the Napoleon Apartments and the Crown Jewels. After the Louvre (which was massive!) we decided to trek over to the Notre Dame. This cathedral was truly impressive and made you feel like you were 2 feet tall. Not to mention...it was free (a rarity in Paris, but our kind of style)! We got some crepes and ate them in the outdoor plaza. We headed out to the Pantheon, which was closed by the time we got there, but it was still cool to see the outside. Then we stumbled across a gorgeous palace park where we soaked up some sun (and maybe caught a few Z's). The last stop of the night was a view of the Parisian night skyline from the second tallest structure in Paris. It was so picturesque to see the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower.

Today, we hopped on a train to Versailles where we gallavanted through some Royal gardens behind the Chateau du Versailles.We brought French baguettes, cheese wheels, sandwich stuff and Champagne for a picnic in the park. Cue "aww." We went on a little fountain crawl around the grounds on a mission to find grass we were actually allowed to walk on (hard to find in this museum of a city). After wandering aimlessly through the city, we made our way back to Paris for a fancy cafe dinner, composed of french wine, duck, salmon, the works. After dinner, we went back to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle in the night sky (there's a light show every hour after dark) with some more (yes more) french wine. It was the perfect night...what a life we're living.

Tomorrow we have one last day in the city before taking the night train to Madrid.