Paris is more than we expected

Lunch at sidewalk cafe on Rue Cler

Climbing the stairs at the Eiffel Tower

Really trying to stay awake, 21 st hour without sleep

Beauiful building along the street next to the Eiffel Tower

Notre Dame exterior

We arrived in Paris at 9:30 friday morning...their time. We flew united and our connection was tight but God was watching out for us...we had a 42 minute layover and he made sure we had a shuttle to get us to the gate on time...and he delayed our flight by 25 minutes just so we had the opportunity to make it to the restroom!
Wish we would have sprung for business class...our seats were so tight it made it almost impossible to sleep. Hopefully next time we will have enough points!
Our hotel is a very quaint small hotel nestled in a little side street within 4 blocks of the eiffel Tower. We took a shuttle from the airport...the young man spoke as much English as we spoke French.
On that note, let me say that Paris is more than we expected...we have been very impressed with the beauty of the city....the architecture is spectacular and it is very clean. And so far, we have had nothing but wonderful interactions with its inhabitants...no one has refused to speak to us in our native tongue and we even have had people smile and offer guidance to us. Here is an example:
We took the bus to Notre Dame. Between the four of us, Tom, Cilla, Dar and I, we keep an eye on the bus route, an eye on noticeable landmarks and we read diligently our Rick Steves book so we have some knowledge of what we are doing. All was going well until the ride home. The four of us were sitting chewing the fat when a nice woman that Cilla had given her seat to earlier interrupted us to tell us that we were at the end of the line and we needed to get off the bus. Not only did she try to warn us with her limited English, but another young woman filled in the details for us. We exited and resumed our journey back to our hotel.