An addendum -
So, just to finish off about Paris, I wanted to include a couple more ways that Paris gave us headaches.

1. We had been in Lille for a day, when suddenly and inexplicably, my arms developed a hideous and super-itchy rash... the only thing we could think of is that it was a result of wearing clothes that had been sprayed with pesticide in that horrible room we were in our first night in Paris. In the past week, Bianca has also devloped a rash, and in the past couple days, Becca has some too. Will it ever end? I think now we have washed everything we own (for only 2.50 Euro at our hostel in Salzburg)so hopefully we will have no more of this!

2. Let's talk about how to get out of France. I don't even know if I can explain how frustrating this was. The only time I have ever been more frustrated with a country and more ready to leave was the first time I left South Africa. Anyway, suffice it to say that once we reached Orly (south Paris) in our rental car, it should have probably taken us 20 minutes - max - to get to our hotel. But it took 2 hours. With no street map, it being evening rush hour, having already driven for about 7 hours that day, and everyone tired. There is no explanation for how we finally found our hotel, except that God loves us and took pity on us. Really. This kind of traveling never ceases to increase my faith. There is absolutely no way we found this place on our own. We were joking about how the angels were probably all grouped around the big screen laughing at us until Jesus finally decided we'd had enough. (check out the map in the post titled "I Heard it Through the Glockenspiel" on Becca's blog: http://www.beccarrow.blogspot.com/. [All the driving around to find the rental car drop-off the next morning also cost us quite a bit in petrol since Paris in it's infinite wisdom does not see fit to put petrol stations near rental-car return points, so that the rental car companies can charge an arm and a leg to top off your tank... Ugh.] We were relieved to finally get out of Paris and out of France to Germany.