How much cafe au lait is enough?

What have we learned so far? Besides more french, we now know that Carlos should *not* drink cafe express after 8 p.m. Wacky! Nutty! Almost unbearably spunky! Not recommended!
With that said, the last two days have been physically intense - hence the need for a little boost late in the day. As you can see from the slide show of pics, we went down to the Seine yesterday to see Notre Dame and ended up walking for...ever! Up and down, in and out, around and back again. Tres Bien! Yes, but exhausting. A much different feel than hanging around our little neighborhood.
We met some of the friendliest Frenchmen along the way yesterday - used to us Americans I suppose. They all suffered politely through our irreparably broken French.
But really, Notre Dame was incredible - the pictures do not do it justice. The Seine is glorious, and yesterday was a perfect day to see it for the first time. A little cloudy, just enough to make you think it could rain, but with the sun sneaking through to light up the river and the Cite almost magically.
We could have sat along its banks all day.

Charlie is doing better. Getting adjusted and sleeping almost through the night. Carlos' Merci is sounding more like the French Merci and less like the American girl's name Marcy. (This has been a point of laughter since the first day). He is also getting braver about asking for things in French, but it takes a little kick in the butt to get him to do it. On his behalf, he has the Metro all figured out and keeps us going in the right direction.
Today I ordered a "cup of wine" instead of a "glass of wine" and got a very strange/blank stare and then a vague smile. Oh, well. We try. It's fun.
We've been sleeping till 9 or 10. Leaving the house by 11. It's fabulous!
We explored the Champs Elysees and the Louvre today.
My God, it's crazy (CE). The city life for sure. Busy, frenetic, very posh in some areas and very beautiful in others. (home of the cleanest bathroom in downtown Paris - so says the sign, and Carlos - and you can pee there yourself for 1.5 euros).
I think we ended up saving ourselves from the pure weight of the Louvre because we inadvertently gave ourselves only about and hour and a half.
Charlie hung in there and finally fell asleep in the stroller. We got to see the Mona Lisa (note: anticlimactic). But there is something about the *idea* of the Mona Lisa that has always struck me as conflicted, strangely beautiful and then not at all. So, not a loss.
Venus de Milo, Victory of Samothrace (amazing!) and much of the Michelangelo work, which was of course breathtaking. Unfortunately we missed the "Gabrielle d'Esrees and One of Her Sisters Bathing" (think nipple). Bummer.
At the end of it all, I felt like there were infinite things to see - obviously.
We ended the day wondering in circles, literally, looking for a cafe to have dinner in. I had the toughest most wonderful steak I've ever had. (Every moment we were sitting down, was the best of my life. Phew.)
Tim, we looked for the best truffles in Paris, but alas I think we missed them. And we missed the Musee De L'Orangerie by minutes. Maybe next time.

- Some of our favorite parts of Paris: The Metro and the Crepes (our favorites so far are the citron and the coco with nutella...oh, my gawd!)

...wake up now, I am done.

Till next time...

xo to all of you. Email us and enjoy the pictures.

the three sees