Finally in Paris!

Well, after many hours of travel I am finally in Paris, at my host family's apartment! I can barely believe how close it is to the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe - the Air France bus from the airport dropped me off at the Étoile Charles de Gaulle, with the Arc de Triomphe towering above the circling traffic, and after only five to ten minutes of fighting the crowds I arrived at la rue Washington, where my host family lives. And thank goodness getting there from the airport was easy, because I am operating on only two hours of sleep at the moment!
Surprisingly, communication with my host family has gone very smoothly so far. I understand pretty much everything that is said to me and can reply back coherently, if not very eloquently! My room is nice, with a view of a tranquil courtyard below the window, and the only thing about the apartment that kind of bothers me is that they have two bathrooms, with a toilet in one and the sink and shower in the other. So if you need to use the bathroom, you first have to go to one room and then walk down the hall to the other room to wash your hands. I wonder if that's a European thing or if whoever designed this apartment just decided to be original.
I haven't been to any museums yet, but I did do a lot of walking today. I walked all the way down the Boulevard Haussmann, going past the Galleries Lafayette and the Opera, and then I walked through the gardens of the royal palace, past the Louvre, and through the Tuileries. Then to get back to the apartment I wandered down the Champs-Élysées from the Place de la Concorde to the rue Washington. I have never seen so many tourists in one place before - the avenue des Champs-Elysées is absolutely crazy, and there are plenty of beggars amongst the tourists as well. It's funny because it's so easy to tell which pedestrians are tourists: many dress like they're on safari and they all hold huge maps of Paris. While I'll admit that I did carry a map around, I didn't use it quite as much as I probably should have and just wandered in whatever direction I thought was correct until I got lost, at which point I pulled out the map and tried to figure out where I'd wandered off to. It made for an interesting afternoon, anyway, although now I'm exhausted ... I hope that I can stay awake through dinner! But even though I did use the map, I'm pretty sure that I didn't dress like a tourist. Hopefully.
So, day one is drawing to a close and I've managed not to get my wallet, passport, iPod, or camera stolen! So far so good. Bring on day two ... but only after a very good night's sleep.