One Week in the City...

It really is a very beautiful city - many trees, flowers and parks, beautiful buildings. Relatively clean also - for a major metropolis - and the mass transit will never cease to charm me.

We've mostly just been exploring so far, acquainting ourselves with the lay of the land and hitting most of the touristy areas early on (I'll put some pictures below). We've met the church and they're a very welcoming group - have several activities planned with them in the near future. French lessons begin in earnest this week (though the past several days have been good practical experience as far as that goes).

A diversity of peoples, cultures, cuisines and languages! And so big. Today, though, I somehow passed the same person twice (in the same area of the city, near the same station). Sometime this week, I am going to pay a visit to the biggest library in Europe (in southeast Paris).
(It's hard to format these pictures into a post.) Look up there for shots of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower (I didn't go up into it), the Arc de Triumph and Versailles.

Interesting trivia: Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was constructed as a grand - but temporary - attraction for the 1900 World Fair? After some debate, they decided to keep it around. Good thing too - it pulls in a ton of money, and obviously it's THE iconic image, not only for France but for Europe.