On our last night in Paris, we chartered a taxi to drive us around and look at all the monuments at night.  Paris is truly the City of Lights.  Everything is gloriously lit.  A lovely lady named Laura came to our hotel and gave us a custom tour of the monuments.  Even at night Paris traffic is bad, so I got my exercise jumping out of the taxi, running to take a photo (while Laura blocked traffic, in most cases) and then running back.

I highly recommend this method of seeing the monuments!  Great way to do it!

Sadly, we had to leave Paris.  But we were looking forward to going to Barcelona, where Barb would join us to begin the cruise.  We took the overnight train from Paris (Gare d'Austerlitz) to Barcelona.  We had a cozy little sleeper chamber, with two beds and a full, albeit small, bathroom with a shower.   It was noisier than, well, um, it was noisy, but it was all part of the adventure.  We had a great dinner with a charming older man from Wales who entertained us with tales of his travels.

Hotel Tren Elipsos link