Rue de Fleurus

I walked up and down this street countless times during 1981-82 when I was a student at the Alliance Française in Paris. The school is at the far end of the street, around the curve in the photo. To my back is the west entrance to the Luxembourg Gardens on the rue Guynemer. For the first four months of my year in Paris, I stayed in a pension de famille not far from here. Gertrude Stein lived on this street between 1903 and 1938.

Looking west along the rue de Fleurus in 2011.

Later, in the late '80s and early '90s, Ken and I often stayed at a hotel at the intersection of this street and the rue Madame called the Hôtel de l'Avenir. The hotel was nice, but not fancy, and reasonably priced. And the neighborhood is terrific. The couple that owned the hotel sold it in the late 90s and the place has since gone upscale. By then we had discovered rental apartments and stopped spending our Paris vacations in hotels.

The updated and renovated Hôtel de l'Avenir, also in 2011.