the happiest couple in Paris

the happiest couple in Paris (in front of Notre Dame)  (c) David J Ourisman, 2016, all rights reserved

First report from Paris — We have spent our first two nights at Le Meurice, the hotel with simply the best location in all of Paris for seeing the highlights of the city. Our Prestige Suite on the fourth floor overlooks the Tuilleries, the large formal park in the center of Paris with the Louvre at one end and the Place de la Concorde at the other. From our room, we can see the Musee d'Orsay directly across the park as well as the gold domed roof of Les Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) and the Grand Palais.

Yesterday began with a visit to the Marmatton Monet museum in the 16th, truly a worthwhile stop for lovers of French Impressionism. Boasting the world's largest collection of Monet's works stunningly displayed on a wonderful scale, anyone who has visited the massive Musee d'Orsay will appreciate the jewel-like Marmatton. We also did a walking tour of sites associated with the Occupation and Liberation of Paris during World War II. The tour was led by our favorite Parisian tour guide, Antoinette Azzurro, who has developed a number of theme-based walks.

I have done a site inspection of the Grand Hotel du Palais Royal and today will be visiting the just-opened-after-renovation Ritz Paris as well as a new Virtuoso hotel, La Reserve.

Paris is about people watching, whether sitting at a small table at a café watching the world pass by, seeing young families playing together in the park, or seeing the happiest couple in Paris (pictured above) as they walked together in front of the Cathedral du Notre Dame.

copyright  (c)  2016 by David Ourisman LLC.  All rights reserved. We provide Virtuoso and other Preferred Partner amenities as an affiliate of Brownell Travel. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.