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French buildings present a soid face to the street, but there is usually a courtyard at the end of the entrance hall. This modern building was no exception.
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The building turned out to be offices rather than residences, but the courtyard was still very nice.
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On Rue Rivoli there are many fancy shops selling almost anything. We were pleased to note that this type of silver multiple-chain necklace is coming back, since Ms T has some of these from the seventies.
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A window display with a four foot high silver skull. I forget what they were selling, but the display was really eye-catching.
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Sulka, fancy men's clothing, has this elaborate mosaic on the sidewalk in front of their store. Imagine trying to get a U.S. city to agree to let you do this.
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A purse in the window of a suitably upscale shop on Rue Rivoli. I saw a woman carrying one of these.
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Leo Tolstoy lived here, according to the plaque. The door is really quite astonishing.
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And of course Joan of Arc is here, too, in Place des Pyramides on the Rue Rivoli.
And LOOK HERE to see how the stonework of the Hotel Regina and the statue have been wonderfully restored in recent years. Another pic that Rick took in 1960.
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One of many statues by the French sculptor Josepha that we saw in art galleries in Paris and Bordeaux. All wonderfully whimsical.
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You have to love this painting of a waiting room for some space shuttle or other. Where else would Spock, Bender, and Jar Jar Binks meet?
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This is as close as we got to the Louvre, using its Metro stop to go somewhere else. The crowds were said to be huge in August, so we went to other museums.
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The entrance to this Metro station is a fine example of Art Nouveau, not a straight line in sight.
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The railing medallions on the Metro stop are quite nice, too.
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We went to the Ile Saint Louis on this rainy day, had lunch at a lovely place. The street names on the map were small and hard to read, so we photographed the map and then could magnify the map image on the camera or phone.
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A beautiful doorway on the Ile Saint Louis, complete with mascaron carved above it. Note the faces on each door.
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The day we were there, the French government fell. Imagine our surprise to see jeeps and tanks in the streets in front of Notre Dame. Ha ha.
Turns out there had been a large military celebration and parade that morning in honor of the liberation of Paris in 1944. But the government really did fall that morning.
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One quick view of Notre Dame. I couldn't resist. The stone has been cleaned and is much brighter than when we last saw it.
And LOOK HERE to see how Notre Dame has been restored. Yet another pic from 1960. (And interesting, too, to observe how the tourists dressed back then.)
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The placemat at a restaurant where we had dinner. We thought our French-speaking friends could translate all those terms.
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The capitals of the columns on La Madelaine. The fluting of the columns and the friezes have been cleaned recently, but maybe the elaborate carving is too delicate to clean harshly.
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The Opera. Also cleaned and restored recently, and lovely. It was raining and we were late, so we did not have time to go in.
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Even in the rain, some tourists are enthusiastic enough to ride, with their plastic ponchos, on the open upper deck of the tour bus.
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It stopped raining after lunch. Our friend Nan took several pictures of us on the bridge, just so we could prove that we had been there (together).
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Ms T and her friend Nan strolling up to the Place de la Concorde.
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Another picture of us, thank you, Nan. Yes, we apparently were in the same city as the Eiffel Tower.
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Cleopatra's Needle in the center of the Place de la Concorde. The tip is gilded, but the reflections are visible only from some angles. The Madeleine (to the right), and our hotel, and the end of our trip, are only a few blocks away. Sniff.
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A typical light pole in the Place de la Concorde. Astonishing detail and gilding. Everywhere you looked, there was something beautiful to see.
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Another view of Cleopatra's needle, where you can see the hieroglyphics clearly. The sculpture predated Cleopatra by a thousand years or two.
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Yes, you can drive a Lamborghini for 90 euros per trip. How long is a trip? Can you get far enough away from Paris traffic to open it up?
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Right next to the famous restaurant Maxim's is the less upscale coffee shop Minim's.
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Getting back to our hotel, where we will catch the airport shuttle to leave. Sniff.
Our room was the leftmost one with the balcony and table on the fifth floor. (Yes, fifth; the lobby is floor zero.)
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And finally home. Being seriously jet-lagged, we were confused and got up to see the sunrise back in Boston (over the Tobin Bridge).