Paris Part 1: After leaving Venice we took the overnight train through Milano, across Switzerland, and north through France until we arrived in Paris early in the morning. The whole trip took a little over 12 hours & we had to share a train bunk with 5 other people. Oh well, that is the joy of travel! It was 8.30 am when I walked out onto the streets of Paris for the first time & soon enough I found out that the guy at my Paris hotel gave me the wrong directions from the train station to their hotel. They had told me that I would probably arrive at the north Paris station when coming in from Italy, but they were wrong….I was actually at the south station! Of course it took me a while to figure out how we could find this hotel in Montmartre. I had to take the subway to the north station and it was morning rush hour. Obviously it was so busy and I think that made it more confusing for me. After another walk through the Montmartre neighborhood to my hotel I was kind of shocked to see Muslim girls begging for money throughout the neighborhoods I passed thru. By the time I got to the hotel it was almost 12 in the afternoon and we were exhausted. When I got to the hotel I just wanted to throw my bag down and fall down onto the bed for a long nap. But the receptionist told me the room would not be ready until 3 pm……ahhhh! Luckily they had a place for me to leave my bags and to change into some new clothing. I decided that I would go back into Paris to kill some time before the hotel room was ready. After walking around for a while we returned to the Hotel and this time around my room was ready. I was pleased to see that the room was much nicer than I had expected and I really liked it.  The room they gave me was actually double the price from what I paid them. The room I paid for was supposed to be 42 euro…..and the room they gave me was worth 92 euro…..but I only had to pay 42! What a great deal!         In Paris the subway was my main form of transportation. I found it to be very easy to navigate and we used it to get ourselves out to the Eiffel Tower.  Seeing it in person was very satisfying after having seen this iron tower in books, on tv, on post cards…..my whole life I have seen this thing and now I was standing right in front of it. Of course I felt satisfied seeing the Eiffel Tower…but once I did it I thought, ”Ok, that’s cool….time to go”. We just hung around and took a lot of pictures with Mac. Mac liked playing in the nearby park and he also rode the carrousel & ate popcorn! Kids love that kind of stuff, and when you are traveling with a child just as I was you have to be sure to also find entertaining things for them to do…..they wont appreciate the Eiffel Tower as much as we may…so a little fun time is worth it for our kids.   When I was in Paris I knew that Benz (Ally’s mom) would also be there soon…and sadly I didn’t get to meet Benz. She was in Paris a few days after me and I would have loved to meet up with her but my scheduled was pretty rushed. The timing wasn’t perfect.                         Paris part 2:   Before I came to France everyone warned me how the French people treat tourists who speak English kind of rudely. So of course I was preparing myself to meet rude or un-kind French people…..but once I got to Paris I was happily surprised that the French were very kind to me and Mac. Many times they were very helpful to me. I was even able to practice my French…and I am happy that they could understand what I was saying. Even my Mac picked up some words in the French language. There are so many amazing things in this I have seen beautiful cities before but nothing is quite as beautiful as Paris. I saw Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, Champs de Elyse, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame….but I still didn’t get a chance to go inside of many of these famous sites. It was just so hard to go into these places with Mac in such a big crowd. But I did get a chance to go explore the catacombs. It was so freaky going down the long, dark tunnel which led us from the streets of Paris and into the damp, dark burial place of millions of Parisians. Seriously, there were skulls and bones numbering in the millions! Mac was a bit scared….but he soon got used to the sight of the human remains. I had to tell him that we were hunting for treasure (like in the Pirates of the Caribbean). He was so excited walking through the catacombs until we finally exited onto a bright Paris street empty handed. He really wanted the treasure..hehe. These people have been buried there since the 1700’s. I suggest you visit there if you go to Paris. Its an intriguing piece of Paris history that many people probably miss on their visits here.  I have to end my Paris story here….but next time I’ll continue with our next destination