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.