I left Florence on a night train and arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning, December 20. It was an uneventful trip, other than sharing a non-smoking sleeper with three other men, one of whom was a serious smoker. He didn't smoke inside the sleeper compartment, but his breath was so bad it didn't matter. He had the berth across from me, my sinuses were still sensitive from the flu, and every time he exhaled in my direction it woke me up. He had the offensive dragon breath that dedicated smokers develop without realizing it. If you're a non-smoker then you know the smell, but have probably been too polite to point it out. If you are one of these heavy smokers just consider this more anti-smoking propaganda. Why worry about stinking?

Anyway, on to Paris.

I took many pictures in Paris, and many of these pictures were taken in the Louvre. So I made a separate Louvre web page to keep page sizes down a little.

I left Paris on 5 January and headed to Brussels. I had stayed over two weeks and the people running the hostel were beginning to wonder if they would ever get rid of me. Give me a cheap room in a fun place and I'll stay a while. I liked Paris and plan to return. Next time I will try and find a time of year with better weather and fewer crowds.