33rd Anniversary in Paris

We flew back to Paris from Florence and took the train into (actually under) the city.  We got off at the stop for Notre Dame.  From there it was a short walk across the river and just around the corner from the famous Shakespeare & Company bookstore that has been used in many films. 

Hotel Esmeralda is a funky hotel in a 1600's building.  There was a dark, narrow, and worn wooden staircase with very little headroom, but beautiful big exposed beams.  The rooms were small and oddly shaped.  The bed took up most of the room and there was only room for one person to fit in the bathroom at a time. Sitting on the toilet, you could rest your head on the sink.

We had the window open, listening to the rain and piano music coming from the bar around the corner.  The courtyard that our window looked out upon was also shared by the bookstore and we could see people walking through the second floor of books.  It was a very Parisian moment.

We wandered the city with no real agenda, except that we wanted to climb the stairs of the Eiffel Tower on our anniversary, May 24th.  700 steps from the base to the second level.  From there we had to buy a ticket to reach the top, over 1000 feet above the city.

It is always fun to peer out over the city and see the sights.  Notre Dame, the Louvre, Arc de Triumph, Sacre Coeur, all the parks, and the river flowing through the middle.   This is our third visit to the city and we still have not explored all the places there are to see.  This time we were museum-ed out, so we opted for walking through areas that we had not visited before.

It was the first time we were there in the spring.  All the trees were leafed out and the flowers were blooming.  It was very pretty, but it was a lot more crowded.  Tourists were everywhere in triplicate.  Sidewalks were so crowded that many times we were forced into the street.  It was very different than when we were there in February and December.