Paris!

We arrived in Paris around noon and meet Adeline, our Couchsurfing host, at the Gate du Nord Metro station. She is so sweet! Her apartment is small and charming and has a beautiful view of the Parisian roof tops.  To get there, we walked through one apartment building and through a small courtyard full of plants.  Her apartment awaited us at the top of 6 flights of spiralling stairs with big white paned windows facing the courtyard. We were out of breath at the top, but Adeline had prepared a quiche for us, so we set down our luggage and relaxed in the arms of French hospitality!

After we got our bearings, Adeline took us downtown and showed us the highlights and her favorite places.  We saw the Arc de Triomphe, walked down the Avenenue des Champs Elyseés, caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, had coffee & crepes avec ganache in the Jardin de Tuileries, and took pictures around the Louvre.

The architecture is so consistently beautiful; it's almost overwhelming. There are also so many people here! Gabi and I agreed that it is too crowded and stressful to live in Paris. It's too bad we don't have time to go to smaller cities.

We plan on relaxing the next couple of days and enjoying Paris at a slow pace.  We are already overloading ourselves and we still have two cities to go!