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Unexpected Pleasures

Tour Eiffel

While eating lunch at Le Lafayette Café on the 6th Floor in the Galeries Lafayette, I happened to look up from my plate of lousy fish du jour with overcooked green beans and saw the Eiffel Tower from my perch. That was my lunch treat.


As I was walking away from St. Etienne du Mont toward Boulevard Saint Michel, I passed by this plaque which says that Erasmus, the Dutch philosopher, was a boarder here for a year at the College of Montaigu in the University of Paris.


From Rue Galande it's a short walk to the quays of the Seine where the bouquinistes have plied their used books within plain view of the towers of Notre Dame since the 16th century.


A novel way to sightsee in Paris is by tricycle. I saw a couple of Yellow PediCabs around Notre Dame. No need to rush in a double decker bus. Slow and easy does it.


One of my favorite parks in Paris is the Jardin du Palais Royal. It's surrounded by arcaded buildings constructed around 1874. This garden was originally designed for Cardinal Richelieu in 1630. I love coming here whenever I'm in Paris. It feels like a sanctuary in the heart of a bustling metropolis.

Sunset in Paris taken from the Place de l'Opera. 

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”  Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

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Images by Charie

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