Excerpts from emails about France:

"...already, we have seen l'arc de triomphe, la musée d'orsay, walked along the seine par nuit, took a tour of montmatre with the bogs' friend niki with whom we spent most of the day yesterday. she showed us most of what there is to see in montmatre, including le lapin agile(famous cabaret), les moulin de gallettes (two really cool oldwindmills with vines and all) the grocer that amelie goes to, and the place where amelie works."

"...our hotel is funny. it's this nice little respectable hotel thatserves breakfast of croissants and bread with all the beverages youcould possibly want in the morning. the room is small but sufficientwith its own bathroom (terribly rare in europe), and is right in the heart of the touristy sex district of montmatre. dan and i were a bit surprised at first, but niki assured us that it's entirelytouristique. having noticed that all the signs are in english and thesidewalks are all clean, i believed her."

"we're taking pictures, alright, but we're not going crazy onthem like i did on my last trip. i find that oddly enough, i takemore pictures when i'm by myself because it takes my mind off the fact that i dont have a companion. dan and i have been much more adventurous together than i was when i was alone, taking more night walks and such. we're having a great time :)"

more to come on paris in future installments.