Sounds great! I highly, highly recommend Frommer's Paris guide. We found many good restaurants through it (and when in Nice, through their Riviera guide) - even the flight attendant who used to be in Paris all the time agreed that the ones we picked from my book were better than the ones she remembered. We also stayed fairly close to the Arc D'Triomphe, so I can recommend a few restaurants around there - once I go look up in my book.

Paris is pricey, almost no matter what, but these weren't out of the world expensive. We stayed at the Hilton Eiffel Tower, so... They are at least on the same side of the city.
Use the Metro there, don't be scared. We had absolutely NO issues with rudeness, but I did try to speak French at least some - once I did that, I became "point person" at every restaurant, even though the waitstaff would speak English - they'd speak it to me, since I tried.

I highly recommend the free podcast "Coffee Break French" for that.
I've only been 2 days in Germany, in Munich - where are you going to be? That was a tour back in the mid-90's, so even there I don't have much to recommend... It was pretty.
Oh, and I totally second V's recommendation of a wine shop in Paris run by an ex-pat. I know it translates to "The Last Drop" but I'll have to look it up - or V will have to remember.