1st night in Paris!

Oh, man, I didn't blog since the whirlwind started - I hope I can remember everything!!!!  :)
Sooo, Friday - arrived, met up with Scott at the hotel...
We thought we'd just go stroll around, get a bite, and take it easy... Many hours later, we had been very productive!  :)
We left the hotel and went around the corner to this fabulous plaza that had many cafes around a little fountain... We sat down at tables outside, as a million other people were!  We ordered some food and drinks and sat back to take it all in. There was a little band with a piano, moving it from corner to corner, to entertain everyone that was milling about.  It was a beautiful, sunny day - so no one was sitting inside, everyone was outside having coffee, cigarettes, food and drinks... We ate and I gawked, and then decided to go for a stroll...
We wandered down neighborhoods while I was constantly taking pictures.  The architecture amazes me.  Many of the streets are cobblestone.  The buildings are all so ornate and unique.  I was in awe!
We saw outsides of insanely gorgeous churches and government buildings.  We walked thru the Jardin du Luxembourg - a beautiful park/garden with immaculate grass and trees, fountains, and many people just sitting around reading, talking, or relaxing.  We then continued wandering about town and finally were hanging out on a bridge over the Seine river, watching tour boats go under us.  Scott mentioned he had never done a boat ride on his visits to Paris, and we decided to give it a shot.
We looked around for where the boats were leaving shore from, and decided we should just hail a taxi to take us to one.  This felt like it took forever (to find an available taxi) - we went from one corner to another and back trying to hail one... We finally got a guy to pick us up, and told him we wanted to go to a tour boat launch, and basically we ended up driving around the block, and he dropped us off at the opposite end of the bridge that we were already standing on, and pointed out the stairs that go down to the water.  We felt retarded, and spent 6 Euro in the process.  Scott and I had some laughs - cuz that's not an atypical thing to happen to he or I.  :)
We made our way down the stairs and found an open-top boat to ride on.  That was SO fun!!!  It drove up and down the Seine there in the main part of the city, and we got to see all the gorgeous buildings from a unique view at dusk.
The best part was at the turn-around point there was the Eiffel Tower!!!! It was nighttime so it was all lit up and truly breath-taking.  The moment was very surreal.
The boat made it's way back to the original bridge to drop us all off.  The river banks were FLOWING with people partying like crazy that night.  It was amazing - thousands of people lined the banks - drinking, playing music, laughing, dancing, shouting, etc...  I don't know if that was a typical Friday night in Paris or what, but it was very entertaining!
We made our way on foot back to our hotel and got ready for bed finally, both of us pretty exhausted from our travels, and now from many many hours of walking.
It was a much busier night than we had intended, but I felt SO excited that I already had seen a great expanse of Paris and what was in store for the weekend!!!!  :)
XoXo.