More photos on Flickr and
Instagram and YouTube

We had late check-out from this hotel , so we had a late start to crossing town to our hotel for the last days of our trip. Our favorite hotel.

But, being frugal (on the small things), we take the Metro. The Metro is efficient and cheap, but not “easy” when hauling luggage, since you have to carry it up/down/up sets of stairs. Almost never have escalators or elevators interior to the lines, but sometimes on exit. There seems to be fewer musicians in the passageways between lines than in the past and definitely none in the subway cars (which was like being held hostage to a bad musician). But today we happened upon a group of about eight that sounded great.

While waited for our suite to be readied, we had a drink on the house in their atrium.

“French 75″ €29 ~$35

Weather today is mostly cloudy, but with that comes cooler weather, which is welcome!

August in France is/was la fermeture annuelle. While the tradition has changed somewhat, we still see some (smaller) shops shuttered with notices about “la fermeture”. Something Americans would find highly unusual. One effect is that we’re finding the streets less busy.

Not far from our hotel is Place Vendome.

You may notice various shades of lighter/darker on some of the buildings. In all the years we’ve visited, I don’t think we’ve ever seen Place Vendome not having one or more buildings being cleaned, being renovated or the statue being restored. The Ritz Hotel (top photo, on the left side where the awnings are seen) took years to renovate. Place Vendome is home mostly to expensive Jewelers, the Ritz and the French Ministry of justice.

One treat in which we’ve continued to indulge ourselves are macarons at Laduree.

Note the pronunciation. There’s one “o”: ‘mah-kə-ROHN” . It’s a meringue “cookie” with different flavors of ganache fillings available. We shared a Fleur de Sel and a Chocolate. The large size probably has a diameter of 3″. €5.20 ($6.15) each. They do have a smaller size, but really, why would you?

Our hotel room doesn’t have the same view of La Tour Eiffel that the other hotel did. But if you didn’t see the video of it, it’s on YouTube.

The hotel surprised us with a bottle of champagne awaiting us when we returned to the room. It’s our 38th wedding anniversary!