Any last minute Europe advice?

[Mr. Bloom]

A few years ago, after a week touring castles in Bavaria, we fell in love with Paris...even the kids! I thought the kids would relate to the castles...nope, they LOVED Paris! I will never forget the 6 year old SilverSon looking at the huge renaissance rendition of the Last Supper hanging on the wall left of Mona Lisa and saying "Look Daddy...all the lines in the painting point to Jesus' face"...Huh??? You're just 6 years old!

My best advice: Brings lots of cash! I couldn't cash the travelers checks fast enough!

In addition,

• don't waste your money on lunch at the restaurant in the eiffel tower...food is mediocre, service is terrible, servers are the rudest in Paris!
• have plenty of change for the sidewalk toilets (which are remarkably clean)...one night, we were short of change and tried to get several turns on what we had...we panicked when SilverDaughter got trapped in the thing.
• do the eiffel tower at night
• savor the Louve and Musee de Orsay where you can say "hi" to Whistler's Mother for us!
• remember...the American Cafe's aren't....but the $20 hot dogs they serve and quite good!
• if you come across a private tour guide named Laurent, let him know that we still think he was beyond rude and are glad we fired him!
• take the Metro! Parisian's at street level are wonderful and friendly...it's the service industry that's rude
• Notre Dame! Notre Dame! Notre Dame! Inside is fantastic...but seeing Paris from the bell tower is unbelievable.