Not Room 22.

There are only two places in Paris hotel-wise which seem worth staying at for the luxury of character, one of which is obviously the Hotel de Crillon and the other is the fabled Hotel Esmeralda.  I had to take a pass on the first this time around because the suite was a bit out of reach but did stay at the second for one night of the three that I was in town what seems now ages ago but was in fact just last week.

Trying to locate it was a major plus, navigating through the streets of an otherwise touristy neighborhood filled with restaurants and the like.  It did not seem appealing at all, and then making a sharp turn, one found oneself at the renowned Shakespeare and Company bookstore- and all seemed well and good in the world.  With the Seine running alongside and Notre Dame in the background, it really did feel as it were the center of Paris (something I will get back to in the next post).

After finding the hotel, which was mere steps away, I found that the room I was given was less than New York City sized which is barely habitable for humans, which I did not find that bad really having lived in much more suspect environments (although not for many years), but the one thing that irked me was that it did not have the view of Notre Dame which I requested and which they said would be provided.  So, making my way down the stairs back to the reception- you see, they have no elevator in this four hundred year old building- I asked to change rooms. This was greeted with no surprise, and I was handed the keys to another room.  The surprising bit was that it was not in the hotel proper, but in the building adjacent.  Now, that was strange.

Upon entering the new room, it was many many times the size of the one I had been shown and it had the requested view of Notre Dame.  I later found out in the evening that it was an apartment in the same building that the elderly proprietor M. Bruel lived in (on the third floor), and even with my tragic comprehension in the French language I could make out her wondering why we were staying there instead of the main hotel.

The best part, though, was that it looked very similar to the room (actually, number 22) depicted in the famous children's book Linnea in Monet's Garden, as shown below.

the open door on the left was where the apartment was located.

the room view of No. 22 from the children's book

Apartment No. 2, where we stayed.

the view during the day.

and the view at night (building side lamp aglow)