Paris Day 1 - The journey

Well this is my second attempt at writing an account of our trip to Paris, as I accidentally deleted the first one. Because this is going to take a long time i will split each day up into a seperate post, so here is day one. And sorry guys I have no photos of this leg of the trip.
What can I say Paris is AWESOME! It did however take us a day to warm to the place. Our drive over was in pea soup. It must have been one of the most boring drives I have ever undertaken and not just because of the weather. Our return journey revealed there was absolutely nothing worth looking at, except flat land and an odd attempt by the French at roadside art, presumably to enliven the monotony of the countryside, but colourful spheres, squares and triangles don't really do it for me. Aside from the geometric shapes our trip was intermittently broken up by toll gates, designed to rob you of your last penny - probably to pay for the hideous roadside decoration. We almost paid more in tolls than we did petrol.
Arriving in central Paris we came face to face with the reason people advised us not to go by car. 1) They have a phenomenon called a round-about. What is so unuasual about that we have them in NZ I hear you say - well not like these. Wide, 5 lane monsters with no road markings to prevent you from straying into the path of the car next to you, and at least 4 sets of traffic lights evenly spread around the round-about to stop you from being able to safely make your way round the thing without having to break suddenly at regular intervals. I'm sure the city has an arrangement with heart surgeons! 2) French drivers make full use of the lack of road markings and treat round-abouts as if they only had one lane especially for them, crossing to exit right infront of you, at random, without indicating!! - a particular penchant we also encountered on the motorway.
Finally at the hostel, alive and safe we met with our next problem. Our confirmed 1 room, 8 bed dorm had become 3 rooms on two floors. Kate and I 'sacrificially' volunteered to sleep in the large women only dorm leaving Bryce and Mike with their respective children in two 3 bed dorms. Unfortunately the late arrival of the 8 Thai women with no concept of respect, courtesy or the meaning of quiet, now filled our previously unoccupied room, leaving Kate and I less likely to be so keen to want distance next time. While kate and I organised the bedding, dinner and the kids, the boys braved the Parisian streets again in search of the recommended parking building. Three hours later and decidedly less impressed or enthusiastic about Paris, the wary adventurers returned without having found the elusive parking building. Moods were bleaker than the weather! finally in bed, there was evening and there was morning the first day!!