When we walked over the bridge across the Seine River from our apartment on Isle Saint Louis to Isle de la Cite, this is the first building you see. Esmeralda is a restaurant on the ground floor. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that the restaurant owner named it for the gypsy in the book, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Notre Dame cathedral is just across the street to the left in this photo. Victor Hugo wrote the book in Paris in 1831.
We noticed thousands of these little Smart cars. Great idea to own one of these as the streets are so narrow and parking is difficult to find. Love the architecture of the buildings with the black iron railings. I don't know about this one, but many of the buildings on both islands were constructed around 1650.
Summer
Photo: Swede
The buildings always amaze me. We have a hard time with 50 year old homes! LOL
Posted by: Al Vignolini | 08/16/2012 at 01:29 PM