I've still got a good picture in my head of the city and the metro system from my visit 11 years ago, so I don't expect much difficulty finding our way around. We won't be renting a car. 1) Who the hell needs one in a city the size of a postage stamp, 2) I remember being nearly run over as a car turned to park on the sidewalk in front of us. No thanks. It will probably limit us from going beyond zone 5 of the Metro/RER system, but lord knows there's enough to do in those confines for 3 days.
I'm really not worried about the language. Thanks to my Spanish knowledge, I can actually read French suprisingly well, and I have a small library of the usual useful phrases which I will be expanding over the next few months. That was more than enough to get us by in Italy. It's more just excitement at the complete freedom and ability to dictate our entire schedule...as long as we don't get ourselves stuck sleeping in the moonlit shadow of Notre Dame
I've got a mental list already of things I saw last time that I absolutely have to see again (Luxembourg Gardens, Dali Museum come to mind), and things I missed last time that I'd like to get to this time (Pere Lachaise, Muse d'Orsay, Rodin Museum). And I'm going to make a big effort to find interesting things that are off the beaten path. Those hidden treasures that every city has that most guide books either don't have or gloss over. We made that effort in Italy, and it just made the trip so much more special, not just a series of tourist traps.