Thursday, May 03, 2018

Where I stayed

On this trip, I stayed in the Best Western "Le Swann" on the right bank, not far from the St.-Lazare train station. The hotel is a "literary" hotel and its theme is Marcel Proust, the famous French author. For those familiar with his most well-known work, "A la recherche du temps perdu," you might chuckle to know that there were two Madeleine cakes in the room when I arrived. The hotel's name, "Le Swann," is a reference to the first volume of the novel, "Du côté de chez Swann."

The subway entrance at the recently renovated Saint-Lazare train station.

Curiously, I took no photos of the hotel's exterior. But I did take a few shots of the room, which I found to be very comfortable. The place was well insulated for sound and at times I wondered if I was the only guest (I wasn't). Even though mine was a very quiet room on the sixth floor, each morning, between five and five-thirty, I could hear (and feel) the low rumble of the first subway trains rolling by below street level.

My room. The big sliding glass panels separate the sleeping area from the bathroom.

The big train station was downhill from the hotel, so most of the time I walked there to get to the métro (subway). But on the way back to the hotel I transferred at St.-Lazare and took another train one stop to the much closer Europe-Simone Veil station on the number 3 line.

12 comments:

  1. Is that a César's sculpture in the first photo?

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    1. No, not César. The "bulle" is the métro entrance by Jean-Marie Charpentier. The tall sculpture on the right is by ARMAN and is called "Consigne à vie" and is supposed to be a pile of luggage, in bronze. :)

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  2. Great city shot and I love the luggage sculpture. Don't you wish you could make all the cars stop for you to unobstructed shots?

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  3. Oh! I love hotel room photos! And, discovering new hotels in Paris! Merci :)

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  4. Your hotel room looks very nice and quite suitable for one person. The only thing Proust I can remember is about rats, and best not to go there.

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  5. weird clear door on bathroom

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  6. Love your room and I spy the Nespresso machine- I have one like it and use it every afternoon.

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  7. mitch, then it would too much like Disneyland!

    judy, I recommend it. The neighborhood is nice and well-connected métro-wise.

    andrew, agreed.

    melinda, it's translucent. There's a blue background with some of Proust's handwriting in white, so it's not totally see-through.

    evelyn, it was nice to have that in the room.

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    1. Good point. I'll look at these scenes differently with my camera. Thanks!

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  8. Walt, having written a thesis on Proust back in the early 80s, I love that you're staying in a Proust-themed hotel. Charles Swann is a character/mentor to the novel's narrator who appears throughout the 3,000-plus pages. The Musée Jacquemart-André on Boulevard Haussmann is worth visiting for those with an interest in the period Proust describes, the late 19th-early 20th c. period.

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    1. bob, I'm not sure I knew that about you! One of the ladies I saw on this trip was talked about that museum. I don't remember if she went this time or if it was a good memory of hers. When are you two coming back to France? ;)

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