Paris

Luckily, our own disease of a culture is starting to show those French people who's boss! Soon, all of that artsy junk lying around the city (like this dirty old misspelled Metropolitan sign, above) will be conquered by the all-pervading greasiness that is McDonald's. Adding to the comforts of home are lots of movies that were out three months ago here, lots of "Pokemon" toys (never heard of it myself), and the fact that every store in France plays their background music in English - although it always seemed to be either the Beatles, Christmas carols, or bad '80s soft rock that reminded me of being at the dentist. No sports utility vehicles yet, though. And the small dog-sweaters are still very un-American. I managed to snap some photos, shown below, before the statues and monuments lying around every street corner in Paris disappear completely:

La Place de la Concorde
(our hotel was right near this traffic nightmare, allegedly the place where the concorde was invented):

A large and impressive statue of Joan of Arc - located, like many monuments in Paris, just on some street corner somewhere:

Scenes of and from the Arc de Triumphe:

Scenes of and from the Eiffel Tower
(sorry about that night quality some of the pictures have):

Sacre Coeur
(It's beautiful inside, too, but I didn't feel right taking pictures with all the singing and praying people around):

In our hotel, the Hotel Burgundy:

This picturesque church was right next to the hotel:

And finally, some pictures of the real Paris they don't want you to see: