Tuesday In Paris

We arrived in Paris early on Tuesday morning.  We had not really slept on the plane, so we were pretty tired, but we were ready to see Paris.  After a LONG trek through Charles de Gaule airport and an even LONGER line to get through Passport control, we finally retrieved our luggage and made it out into the airport.
As always, there are HUNDREDS of people waiting in the arrivals section holding up signs with names on them, and we found one advertising our names, and went to it to meet our tour manager, Guillaume (Gee-yome), a frenchman from an eastern suburb of Paris.  We waited a few more minutes to collect the other American group who would be joining us (turned out they were near us on the plane) and headed outside to locate our bus.  We got quite a driving tour of Paris as we drove through the city on our way to our hotel, and - although tired- just being in Paris was exhilerating.
We left our luggage and went out right away to eat lunch and explore our immediate neighborhood for an hour.  Then we all met back together at the hotel and our guide took us on a walking tour of the district, Montparnasse, culminating at the Tour Montparnasse -- the tallest building in Paris.  For 12 Euros, we went up to see the 360 degree views visible from the 56th floor and gaped down on Paris.  The kids were able to spot many of the cool things that we have learned about in French Class and we talked a lot about the history and layout of the city.  After viewing the city from all angles, the kids stopped in the gift shop.  As I waited on them, I realized that at that point caffeine was necessary for survival, so we stopped briefly in the coffee shop.  I drank a coffee and he kids ate chocolate. Then we climbed 3 more stories to visit the roof and see the views from there.
When we had seen all that we could see, it was the assigned time to meet up with our guide, so we returned down to the ground floor and met the groups and guide. From there we proceeded to dinner.  We ate at a little specialty restaurant and tried the northern specialty, gallettes and crepes.