Farewell Paris ... for a while

When people say 'pack lightly' you nod and go sure, sure but in some instances I wished I'd taken that advice. The following images show the entrance/exit to my Parisian eyrie which I loved and enjoyed.
The trauma of the first trip upstairs with my case and bag and coat had faded from my mind over the two lovely weeks spent in Paris.
By the end of my time I even could get up the six floors of steep steps without stopping and learnt to 'strip off' at the bottom of the stairs rather than at the staggering top.
Needless to say in the entire time coming and going from my abode I encountered 3 human beings. The first a pleasant woman vacuuming the corridor outside my front door, a resident I thought keeping the hallway nice, we 'Bonjoured'. Then on the ground floor another woman mopping the foyer, not a resident, we 'Bonjoured' Finally a young man in a hurry who zoomed past me outside my front door on the sixth floor and completely ignored my 'Bonjour'.
There is a thesis to be written on the analysis of communication from potential or perceived political complications of the options of Parisian residential movement - for example - who gets to use the perfectly working elevator that went to my floor???????

 View from the hallway near the stairs.

Some old hippy attempts at interior decorating

A view back to my little place at the end of the corridor

View from the top of the stairs

 View down the stairs

Groovy old hand painted door

 Out the window on the top window in the spiral staircase

 Next one down

 next one down

 A view from whence one came....

 The next floor down

 Next

 Next

The ground - there was also a cellar but truly I was not prepared to go subterranean, it really looked pre C18th

 View up from the 'courtyard'

 Another angle

The charming vestibule

The vestibule and street door.

It is never really dark.

My window is the far right white dormer window in the centre of the photo.

Charming,  now imagine negotiating the previous journey in the pre dawn darkness with a rather heavy case and coat and bag. I negotiated it by doing it two floors at a time with half the stuff then re-tracing to get the other stuff. No one tells you these things. This must be a huge part of every hotel tarif - what you pay to avoid these situations. 

But I managed. It took time, I didn't risk any falls. I only wish I had found the stair light at the top of the stairs rather than the only one I knew at the base. 

 But my last evening was lovely, I took myself back to the jewellery shop I discovered on my first day and went out for dinner.

 This is from the bridge over to Ile St Louis

 From my spot at the brasseries back towards the top of Ille de la Cite - 5 minutes from my place.

 A  better view with the back of Notre Dame.

 This is south and I have yet to work out to what this dome belongs - I'll figure it out in January

 Xmas cheer on the street

 The view from the bridge across towards the Hotel de Ville

 Same view

 Xmas trees everywhere

 The northern tip of the Ille de la cite

 The street that follows the island from north to south

This magnificent medieval structure really is thrashed. However it will outlast all of us.

Paris is so far removed from anything one could experience at home that it's best just to find out for one's self the myriad of things about this city. It really is amazing. Without the language one is always on the outside. I think the locals are pretty tolerant of the many many visitors and much of the economy in the area I stayed depends on tourists.