November 2012 trip to Paris: Where we stayed

We wanted to stay right in the heart of Paris, and so I somewhat extravagantly (hey, it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip!) rented an apartment on the Ile St-Louis, one of two islands right smack in the middle of central Paris. It was at 24 Rue le Regrattier, a place owned by an affable fellow named Pierre who would come by on his motorcycle once in a while to check on us and figure out why the hot water kept quitting on us. From this location, we could walk to most of the places we wanted to see, or easily catch the Metro for the farther-off ones.

Noah in front of the apartment (holding "Les Arc du Noe," which he'd just bought at a bookstall on the Seine). Like most old buildings in central Paris, this one has a courtyard in the middle that you can't see from outside the building (just like a castle, sorta). You enter the courtyard through a huge old door, punching a code into a keypad, then have access to your apartment from the courtyard or interior stairwell.

Our building's courtyard had an ancient well, not used for more than a century, but picturesque indeed.

The view looking up from our courtyard. Though it was November, the sun did come out occasionally.

Our apartment's living room was rather incongruously modern and hip. It used to be an art studio, Pierre said, before he converted it into an apartment. It was pretty cool, but if I were Pierre, and had such a cool place, I might clean it more often. Just sayin'!

Among the apartment's startling but cool features were glass floors in various spots and a staircase leading ...

... down to an ancient stone basement where ...

... there was a very weird but cool kitchen! We celebrated Thanksgiving there with Paris friends Silke Schroeder, Chris Welsch and Allison Johnson.

While ambling about a block from our apartment, we stumbled across this sign on a building where Camille Claudel, sculptor Auguste Rodin's talented and doomed pupil-lover, lived. (Speaking of which, I highly recommend the 1988 French movie "Camille Claudel," starring Isabelle Adjani and of course, Gerard Depardieu.) Ghosts roam everywhere in Paris.