The prodigal daughter has returned! It's Grace here, back from an extended absence!

So we said goodbye to Austria with heavy hearts on Monday, April 2nd. In the words of Dad, "We'd move here if we spoke German!" We'll miss the views, the food (schnitzel will change your life!), the kind people, and the bus drivers who started to recognize our duckling-rainbow-coats procession when boarding their buses.

But alas, it's time to head to Paris! We hired a driver to take us to the Munich airport, then boarded our flight and arrived in The City of Light around 2pm. Once we exited the terminal, we waited for our 2nd driver of the day to take us to a Holiday Inn hotel. After a phone call, we figured out that he was looking for us somewhere in the airport. He must've gone to the wrong spot or didn't wait long enough for us. Anyhoo, we managed to eventually meet up and he drove us to our hotel. And yes, Dad still tipped the driver, because he's nice like that. Needless to say, everything worked out fine!

On the 3rd (Wednesday), we ate breakfast in the hotel at 7:30, which had an interesting selection that you won't find in the States. Tomatoes and mushrooms were available, as were sausages and bacon, a variety of pastries, fruit, weird wet scrambled eggs, hard-boiled quail and chicken eggs, some staples like cereal and orange juice, and a Renaissance-Man style coffee machine that may or may not have appeared in my dreams.
After our first Parisian/American hotel breakfast we headed to the Metro, which is just a bit more complicated than the one in Rome.

To elaborate, here's a map of the Roman Metro:




Here's a map of the Metro in Paris:


Well, let's just say we managed.
After a brief ride, we arrived at the spot where our Paris bus tour picked us up at 9am. Now for some pictures!!! (Disclaimer: we went on this tour 5 days ago, and I'm not exactly sure what everything is anymore, so many of the photos are not captioned. This is unsurprising, seeing as I don't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday... but I can tell you that all the photos were taken somewhere in Paris! :D)

Mom and Paul on the bus! We wore earbuds and listened to the tour while driving around Paris.

Part of the Louvre Museum.

Carrousel Arc de Triomphe, across from the Louvre's glass pyramid.

The glass pyramid of the Louvre, which dates from the 1980s.

Our first glimpse of Notre Dame!

As I like to call it, "The Eye of Paris"! Honestly, though, I'm not sure what this is called...

Look familiar? That's because there was a bunch of 'em in Rome! It's another ancient Egyptian obelisk.

The most famous avenue in the world: the Champs-Elysees!  

Paul's destined to work here someday!

THE Arc de Triomphe!

..... do I really need to caption this one? ;)

I don't think I realized Mom was already snapping photos...

Another view of the obelisk. 

Collin and Simon being creepy photo-bombers in the background. Can you spot me?? 

Me ruining M&D's cute photo-op.

The following photos were taken on the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Back on the ground!

To be continued.....