paris....

next we left at 4:30 am to hop on a USO tour bus to take us to paris. it was nice to have someone else drive (and be concerned with parking) and a tour guide very knowledgeable and fluent in several languages to give us background and historical perspective.

we only had a short time there (and yes, olivia sketched there too) and then we were off to the burial building for napolean (as in, bonaparte). the gardens there were lovely too. it was a very overcast day, but we were thankful it wasn't colder or rainy (although we thought paris would be lovely in the rain as well).

next we drove through the city past monuments, lots of traffic circles, more monuments, truly awe-some buildings, some really cool cars (had to take pictures of them for the boys) and finally a stop at the arc d'trioumphe and the champs elysee. we *climbed* all 189+ steps to the top (seriously, look at the very top and see the people? that's a LOT of steps to the top). it was a tremendous view from up there.