[MRM]

The only advice I have is for Paris. I strongly recommend renting a car and spending a day driving to the Battle field of Verdun. It is the 100th anniversary of the battle. The fort of Verdun is now a museum you can walk through. There are two two other museums and the companion fort to Verdun that you can tour. To give you a scale of the destruction of Verdun, imagine a picture of all the D Day cemeteries you've seen with their endless row upon row of silent crosses. Verdun's cemeteries dwarf D Day's. There is an ossuary that is the centerpiece of the memorial that contains the remains of 250,000 people. Their remains are in the ossuary because there wasn't enough of their bodies left to burry in a grave. All the fighting was done by artilery. When a shell hit people just disappeared. There was so much ordinance fired that the trees and grass are still stunted from the chemicals. They left the shell craters and trenches so you can still see what it was like then. It's a comfortable day trip but youlll want to get an early start. It's about 100 miles from Paris.

The other thing to do is also to rent a car and drive to Normandy and see Omaha Beach and Point Hoc. It's best if you stay in Caen for a day or two, but you can do it from Paris. But the point is that once you get to Caen or in that area, get off the highway and drive the country roads toward Omaha Beach. Every corner brings an older and more magestic chateau, village church, etc. it's just spectacular.