Paris, France

Unlike the Dutch, the French are not as friendly and helpful, and the society is not as "family/child" friendly.  The city is EXCEEDINGLY expensive, and overly crowded for this more open-space-loving family.  Like visiting New York, or Las Vegas, it's a city that leaves your ears ringing.

For this visit, we did the "touristy" things, such as boat and bus tours, the Eiffel tower, fine French dining, some shopping, and a few museums.  We had to become competent using the metro on day 1.  And we realize that dogs are like "people" here and are welcomed just about everywhere.

Like Amsterdam, everyone seems to be a smoker, making the otherwise quaint and cute street cafe's appear "bar-like."  Service is not something that is emphasized.  EVERYTHING is in French.  And it's not easy to navigate a city (with children as stated in the last Amsterdam post) knowing only "bon jour" and "merci."

We saw the Mona Lisa in The Louvre.  We spent time at the Eiffel tower.  We had BURGERS and SUBWAY because...we could understand HOW to order from these places.  We have been here for 4 days, and (like being in Vegas or San Francisco) think that's plenty of time...and we are eagerly looking forward to moving on to the *relaxing* part of our travel time in Spain!!

And finally:  Burgers in PARIS