Jérôme (7/10/2016)

Sunday, July 10, 2016
After breakfast, we waited for the 9:30 shuttle bus taking Viking passengers into Paris to Hotel Ampère. We were not part of the tour group doing an extended stay, as we had our own hotel reservations elsewhere. But we had arranged with our long ago "exchange" student, Jérôme, to pick us up at 10:00 at the Hotel Ampère.
Jérôme's father worked for the French company under Dyckerhoff when Kent worked for their subsidiary, ISPO in Mansfield, MA. In the summer of 1989, Jérôme came to spend a month going to work at ISPO. He was to stay with us for two weeks, and with someone else for two weeks, but ended up with us the whole time. He was an extraordinary guest who helped with housework, played with three-month old Brynne (he was her "first boyfriend"), and was always positive and appreciative. Also, he was and is very, very tall!
Although we had not seen him for 27 years, the relationship did not change. But now he has 15- and 17-year old daughters, and a 7-year old son! Today they were off on summer activities, as Jérôme guided us around Paris.
This time, we were in a car as we joined the traffic around the Arc de Triomphe! It was not too scary!

Going down Champs-Élysées, I could see landmarks on the other
side of the street, like Fouquet's (1899), a café-restaurant with $10
espresso shots; James Joyce and WWII biplane pilots hung out here

Ladurée is a tea-salon and patisserie,
known for double-decker macarons

Statue of de Gaulle in front of Grand Palais 

Charles de Gaulle (1999-2000) by Jean Cardot

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1808-1809), designed by
Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine; another of
Napoléon's commissions; this one was once topped by the
Triumphal Quadriga, the Roman bronze of four horses pulling a chariot

Napoléon "obtained" the Triumphal Quadriga from Venice in 1797. In 1815, they were returned to their place on St Mark's Basilica in Venice, and a quadriga by Baron François Joseph Bosio was made for the arch of Carrousel.

We found a parking spot in the Marais neighborhood, and the car's
warning system beeped loudly as Jérôme maneuvered into the space (KSS)

Now we were walking through Paris.

A fountain on Rue du Turenne

Place des Vosges (1605), a square surrounded by symmetrical buildings

Kent & Tamiko in Place des Vosges (by Jérôme),
one of the most beautiful squares in the world

Fountain in Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges

Tamiko and Jérôme (KSS)

Statue of Louis XIII (1825 to replace
1639 statue destroyed in the French Revolution)

Arcades around the square

Maison de Victor Hugo, where the author lived and wrote
many novels including a large part of Les Miserables

Hôtel de Sully (1624), unfortunately was closed

Randomly around Paris are pixel-art mosaics,
most done by an artist named Invader,
inspired by the video game Space Invaders

Jérôme and Kent in Passage St-Paul

Ceiling art in Passage St- Paul

Village St Paul, courtyard with antique shops

Antique shoes?

Basketball courts on Rue des Jardins St-Paul

We headed over to Île Saint-Louis, one  of the two islands in the Seine, and the one that was developed from 1620-1650 with hokes for the wealthy.

Steeple and clock of Église Saint-Louis-en-l'Île
(1624-1726) by François Le Vau

Jérôme treats us to the best ice cream in Paris, at Berthillon

Kent and Jérôme with ice cream cones

Housing on Île Saint-Louis/St Louis Island,
with penthouse gardens (KSS)

Seine boat with a hot tub (KSS)

A man swimming in the Seine with a swan (KSS)

Just a leisurely swim in a not-too-clean river

View of Île de la Cité/City Island with Notre Dame (KSS)

Tamiko & Kent with Notre Dame (by Jérôme)

Jérôme also treated us to lunch at Brasserie le Lutétia on Île Saint-Louis.

A pouting model (KSS)

An artist at work (KSS)

Back in the Marais neighborhood:

We ran into a couple Serbian dancers! (by Jérôme)

An art gallery

Le Pick Clops with a line-up of liquor bottle servers,
on Rue du Roi de Sicile (KSS)

A door in the Jewish Quarter (KSS)

Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue (c. 1913) with
an Art Nouveau façade by Hector Guimard

Orthodox Jews

Former Hamam/Turkish bath (KSS)

Jardins des Rosiers/Garden of Roses,
a Parisian secret garden

Espaliered trees (KSS)

Rue des Rosiers shop with old façade and canopy

A Jewish bakery (KSS)

Mosaic façade of a caterer and bakery

L'école élémentaire des Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais/
Elementary School of the Knights of St Gervais,
where there is a list of the 165 students who were
rounded up and sent to Auschwitz;
N'Oubliez pas/Lest we forget

An alley of pop-up shops

Jérôme had enough time to drop us and our luggage at the Hotel Flor Rivoli, before heading to his appointment.

Hotel Flor Rivoli

Hotel room

Hotel bathroom

View from our hotel window, with the
Métro entrance almost at the front door

Next: Musée du Louvre.