After our drive from the Loire Valley, we returned our rental car and hopped into a taxi to get to our new hotel, the Hôtel du Louvre. As you might imagine, it is located near the museum.
We stayed here not because it’s close to the Louvre but because the hotel was offering a 33% discount when staying three nights.
So we were able to get a fantastic room at a price within reach. By contrast, a similar room at our favorite Paris hotel, the Vendôme would have been around $1,400/night. Oooooucha.
Now that we are back in Paris, we have no agenda whatsoever other than to enjoy being here. We’ve both seen all the major sights and so are content just being. Our first full day we walked over to the left bank and tried to have lunch at our favorite bakery, Poilâne.
Makes you want to walk right in, doesn’t it? The bakery was open but the cafe was undergoing renovations and so we wound up just picking another cafe that wasn’t nearly as delicious as Poilâne.
There is nothing on these shelves that is not delicious, and all of it baked in their wood-fired oven underneath the shop.
From there we walked over to the Place Saint-Sulpice, which is one of the most beautiful squares in Paris, and is known for its large Bastille Day celebration.
The church on the square is also known for it’s humongous pipe organ, the Delacroix paintings, and for where the Marquis de Sade was baptized. My friend Isabelle was also baptized here, although I don’t think there is any connection.
From there we took the short walk to the Luxembourg Gardens on a sunny Paris day to just sit and watch Paris walk by.
For the kiddos there are pony rides. Most seemed to enjoy it, but a couple probably have had better times doing something else.
We even had the opportunity to watch the retired men playing their favorite game of pétanck, which is sort of like bocce.
Paris is fairly empty right now. Residents normally flee in August, but usually they are replaced by tourists. This year only a few tourists are here, although more than a few weeks ago.
The net effect is a Paris that appears emptier than we’ve ever seen it.
