Glamor Digs in Paris

Slowly working through the backlog of photos we took on this trip. Flickr claims we've uploaded over 1900 pictures, but that can't be true, can it?

Anyway, I came upon a collection of shots I took of the B&B where we stayed in Paris. Cris found it through this fabulous website called "Alcoves and Agapes" and it's truly a private home where they take in guests rather than a commercial location. Located within about two blocks of the Seine, it's also very close to the Eiffel Tower. How do we know it's close to the Eiffel Tower? Take a look at the view from our bedroom window:



Yeah, that close. It's actually across the river from the apartment, but we considered it less of an icon of Paris and more of a "next door neighbor." No, it did not stop by to borrow a cup of sugar, but it did light up at night, and put on a light show on the hour which helped us to keep time as well.



The apartment itself was spectacular and HUGE. Located in a Beaux Arts building which was built about 1923, it was on the first floor and reached by a sweeping marble stair or a tiny little metal elevator that held about one person at a time.



Hannah getting into the elevator. When we got our confirmation for staying here, the company suggested in charming pseudo-English that the elevator should be used "person by person, and luggage by luggage."

Once at the apartment, we were greated by the housekeeper, a young woman about my age who had come from Poland and had lived in Paris about 10 years. She did not speak English! But I spoke enough French and she really had some English that it worked out fine.

There is no way to convey the decor of the place, except to say that "It is very French." Lots of beautiful furniture of every possible different era and style, beautifully arranged bric-a-brac, and bold and unusual (or do I mean eccentric?) use of color.



The sitting room fireplace.



Art glass paperweights on a sidetable in the sitting room.




View from sitting room to dining room.





Two different views to the dining room. The room had an eclectic mix of furnishings--the dining room chairs were acrylic armchairs, two black, two clear. Beneath the window sat a pair of low upholstered arm chairs that were covered in shiny gold fabric. The chandelier was a vintage glass design I would guess was from the 1920s, and the curtains would not have been out of place from an Ikea store--although I would guess there were NOT Ikea.

The bedroom where Cris and I stayed had the walls covered in gray silk, and several collections of objet d'art scattered on the walls.



There was a fireplace here as well.




The bathroom was incredibly elegant--black and white and gold tile, golden fixtures, etchings (prints, most likely) on the walls.



I am pointing the camera into the mirror to show the wall above the bathtub. The bathroom was long and narrow like a galley, and this was the only way to show the print of Napoleon in Egypt that was above the bath. The gold fixtures at the bottom of the photo are the bath faucets.



Here you can see the second of the two sinks, the end of the bathtub, and in the balck alcove the shower. The wc itself was tucked to the right of the shower, behind the wall at the end of the bathtub.

Can you blame us for thinking we had found the coolest place to stay--EVAH?