Paris, France

The Arc de Triomphe at night, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.  You can actually go to the top of the arc for viewing the city.  It's in the center of one of those round about circles, including the Champ Elysees.  Originally commissioned by Napoleon in the early 1800's I think, to celebrate all his army victories.  Unfortunately, he was deposed before it was finished, and actually didn't go through it except in his casket.

The Eiffel Tower was built around the beginning of 1900 for the National Exposition or something like that.  Originally, it was the tallest man-made structure in the world, and was to be taken down 20 years later.  Fortunately, it's functionality for broadcasting radio and tv helped to preserve it by giving it further use.

I have trouble getting a good perspective when taking photos of the Eiffel Tower.  It's so big!  Like almost 1,000 feet tall to the top.  We were going to climb the tower, but the stairs were closed when we arrived, too late at night.  I've yet to climb the darn thing.  Apparently you can climb to the first and second tier, and the elevator takes you to the top, if you chose that.  Anyway, I liked this view of it, with the street lights blended in, even though it's not in landscape, I couldn't find a good-enough landscape to replace it.

Sometimes it seems like they don't make food that's not awesome in Paris.  We just walked around to find this place, and it was very good!  That's my lamb chops, and Mark had scallops I think, and on the right, you can see the last escargot shell remaining. 

This was a typical brasserie with their own interpretation of the classic croque monsieur if I am spelling that correctly.  A ham and cheese sandwich, albeit exceptionally delicious.

These are pastries in a little patisserie around the corner from our hotel, I think it's called Guest.  Why are most Parisians not overweight?  And how are so many petite?

  Not an exciting picture, but I wanted to capture a really fun restaurant.  This is another place we went to by recommendation from one of our locals.  Le Relais de Venise restaurant is very near our hotel, at Porte Maillo.  It's a regular, where you just sit down, and get the fixed menu.  Steak and frites.  Oh, you chose the wine, which was delicious.  The steak is out of this world.  So tender and delicious, with a sauce I can say may be close to Bearnaise.  Buttery, herbs, and so on.  Then of course a huge pile of frites, followed by your choice of dessert.  Absolutely worth the wait.  They do not take reservations.  You wait around the block, but the line goes pretty fast. Very fun, and great food.

Actually, one last note on logistics:
The Air France bus from the airport to town was perfect.  It's a bit of a haul, and the buses are nice and inexpensive.  Here's the one we used, #2 to our area of Porte Maillot.  It's only like 14 or 16 Euros.