Libbi & David's Excellent Paris Excursion

The Parisian Assault
We arrive in Paris October 19, when the Eurostar Chunnel train delivers us to the Gare du Nord train station, a couple of miles from our lodgings at the Hotel Britannique. This was an absolutely killer location, a short block off the Seine, on the right bank about halfway between the Louvre and Notre Dame, just north of Chatelet.
Here's a bridge right near the Hotel.
A nighttime shot from about the same spot, with the Eiffel Tower literally sparkling in the distance:
Everyone always talks to Libbi, of course. Here she explains the personality types of the stone-faced saints of Notre Dame behind her:
And behind the Dame herself, is ourselfs:

It was right after this that we walked across the street we are facing in that photo, to find the Holocaust memorial we had been directed to by friends. It is a descent in all ways. Unless one looks to see, it can be ignored, as happens too easily to any of us. The gray sky felt all too right.

We crossed over to the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank This street is where we found Icarus, who flew home with us.
The street in the shot above is at the extreme right in this panorama. Notre Dame is at the extreme left. This is the entire east side of Rue St Julien le Pauvre. The church in the middle is, conveniently, St-Julien-le-Pauvre
Carhenge, apparently, in Square René Viviani. The five autosenses. It can be glimpsed through the trees at the left of the panorama above.
Turning left at the left end of the street in the panorama brought us to Shakespeare & Co., the same bookstore people that have a shop in Berkeley. It's right across the Seine from Notre Dame.
Thieves. They are everywhere. They'll steal anything. Oh, the humanity.
The very nice St-Séverin in the Latin Quarter. A number of the windows are done in Impressionist stained glass.
French tech doesn't necessarily suck. Evidence? This gate device in Les Halles.
White cobbles of a street in Beaubourg and Les Halles.
In addition to Beaubourg and Les Halles, Ile de la Cité, and the Latin Quarter, we explored some of the Marais. Here are shots of the Marais, starting with the Hotel de Ville (City Hall). Yow!
A typical street, with typically picturesque buildings. Ever wonder why picturesque is a French word?
An arcade of Place du Vosges. This magnificent place is a symmetrical square, still intact after some 400 years -- 36 houses, nine on each side, with four fountains and a statue of Louis XIII at the center. The arcade goes all around the square.
Looking straight up in the arcade.
A view of the park in the center.
At the southeast corner, Victor Hugo's house.
One of a zillion architectural details that I wish I'd shot more of, this little portal was a foot or two above the sidewalk.
Rue du Tresor, on our way from Place des Vosges to Rue des Rosiers. This guy saw me with a camera, so he quickly put on a beret and a scowl. He's actually Russian, but he's taking French lessons.
Rue des Rosiers, the heart of the old Jewish district. It was the Sabbath, as it happened, so nearly everything was closed. Is that really kosher, to cramp our shopping this way?
A typical cafe, this one on Boulevard Henri IV. It's been raining a bit, so everyone is inside. Place de la Bastille is visible just beyond.
Place de la Bastille.
A cafe there on the heavy auto traffic of Place de la Bastille. Time to rest the dogs and have a sip of cognac.
An astonishing urinal in the basement of that same cafe. Back-lit bronze glass wizardry of wizz.
Libbi and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, between the Louvre and the beginning of the Champs-Elysées.
Pont au Change, right by our hotel and Châtelet.
Back at a cafe at Place des Vosges, our last night in Paris.
Boo hoo! We came home the next morning. What were we thinking?

The Parisian Assault