Had another strange encouter in that area. We excited from the Charles de Galle metro (very large station at the Arc de Triomphe) and had a very bewildered and concerned young Spanish woman approach us because she was expecting the Charles de Gaulle
Airport. She was a long ways from there! These similar names are confusing; Another time taking the TGV from Marseilles to Paris with one stop in Lyon ( a long ways from Paris) I heard some Americans asking a porter if it was the Gare de Lyon. He said yes, which strictly speaking it was since we were in Lyon but the railway station in Paris is also called the Gare de Lyon. Lyon isn't exactly on the tourist route so I ran up while these people were getting off the train and asked them if they were going to Paris....they were.

We had to cut our Paris trip by a day but we did do pretty much everything we wanted. Monday, Jim decided he wanted a break from bread and croissants so we went to Macdonalds on the C-E to ge an egg McMuffin and English newspapers. Luckily we bought the international Herald Tribune and learned there was a rail strike set for Tue when we were leaving. Jim had to be back Wed to give his exam. The tourist bureau was just across the street and we were assured it wouldn't be a problem getting a train today. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to check out early without problem; and even more pleasantly surprised to be able to get a train within 2 hrs and no penalty for changing our half price no changes ticket. Bravo France! Experiences like this do wonders for tourist morale. The wind had gone down, the sun was out, so we basked in the sun drinking beer while we waited for our train. A great ending to a super stay in Paris.

One last thing...they seem to have painted the Eiffel Tower some awful brown colour (sort of like the LV wallets). We hadnt seen it up close in the daytime for a while but didn't it used to be dark grey?