Exploring Paris and more

As I sit here in my hotel room with hurting and blistered feet, I feel that I have accomplished quite a bit in just three and half days. So I got to Paris on the morning of the 1st. There's a direct train that takes you from the airport to various parts of the city. After struggling with three big and heavy pieces of luggage through the Paris Metro, I made my way to my hotel, which looked pretty ok but I was rather disappointed with the size of the room. Which honestly doesn't even mattered that much to me since I was out pretty much all the time that I was awake. I hate to sound like a real American traveler and see things from only one point of reference, that being America. After throwing the disclaimer, I did miss a bigger hotel room, one which comes with a coffee maker which I'm so used to in the US. Nevertheless as I would discover later, the location of the hotel made up for everything else that was lacking and more. Within less than a 5 minute walk, I found the Metro station, an awesome Halal Shawarma joint, an Internet cafe (known as Cyber Cafe here), an International call cabin (which came in real handy because calling from the hotel would've been outrageous), several cafes and brasseries and more. Visiting this time of the year worked out really well Alhamdolillah since there was plenty of daylight, maghrib time at 10!! So, in my first two and a half days, I completed sightseeing the major attractions in Paris and more, which left me a full day to spare. So, today I hopped on the train to Lille which is an hour north from here. It's a rather small city compared to Paris, still worth visiting. Awesome shopping, nice side walk cafes and sightseeing, and Shawarma rounded up Lille for me. Am leaving for Amsterdam early tomorrow morning, hopefully that should be fun Insha Allah! Some random observations about my maiden voyage to Paris so far:
Ah, the sound of motor bikes on the streets remind me of the rickshaws back in Pakistan.
Ok, I thought this phenomenon was local to the third world countries, but apparently not. I'm used to seeing it while traveling in the Gulf countries and Pakistan. Soon as the plane hits the runway (pun intended) or the outskirts of the city become visible while on the train, some people stand up and start gathering their belongings while they're getting yelled at by the steward(ess), as if they'll be able to get out before everybody else, which of course they cannot since no one can leave 'til the doors open, right? I saw this here as well while on the train to/from Lille. It's annoying!
Nutella Crepe is the best part of French diet. I don't even know if some place in Wichita makes 'em. I had my fair share in Boston though :)
Everything is pretty expensive here. I paid 2.5 Euros for 10 ounces of water in Lille, it's gotta be the most expensive water I'd ever had. And we in the US should gladly pay $3 for a gallon of gas, cause it's almost three times as much here.
Paris has awesome public transportation. You really don't have to walk much if you understand the subways and the buses here, which I learned after failing miserably and ending up somewhere far away from where I wanted to be and ended up calling cab
For a change, I don't see many Desis around lol... although there's tons of Algerians and Moroccans all over the place.
I got yelled at by a girl working at this cafe, cause I said no French, only English please, cause she wouldn't stop talking to me in French. I wonder if she hears what I had said often from the American travelers and was totally irritated by the time she encountered me :)
I paid 50 cents to take a leak at the Metro station restrooms and somewhere else as well. Told you it's expensive living here...
Unless you're artistically inclined, the Louvre is over rated. At least I thought so. I guess paintings and sculptures don't really move me.