Travaux En Cours

Today's post is for Virginia who blogs over at Paris Through My Lens.  We've never met but her photos always delight me; she sees Paris with a joy and attention to detail that are truly remarkable.  Some weeks back, she posted a photo of the famous Hôtel de Crillon at night.  Always ready to be a killjoy, I sent Virginia, who lives in Alabama and gets to Paris only sporadically, a photo of the hotel in its current state:  under scaffolding.  Regrettably, I seem to have deleted that photo from my computer.

At any rate, yesterday, I had occasion once again to be in Place de la Concorde and I noticed that the scaffolding had been given a face lift suitable for the elegant hotel it covers.  If you look at the wing on the left (under construction) and then back to the right, you will notice the difference.  Much better, don't you think, Virginia?

What's more, walking across the bridge from the Assemblée Nationale into the big square, I had one of those moments when I realized, once again, how lucky I am to call Paris my temporary home.  In one fell swoop, I could pan from the Eiffel Tower on my left, to the Grand Palais, the stately place with the Crillon and the Hôtel de la Marine with the Madeleine church peeking in between, the top of the towers of Sacre Coeur, the entrance to the Tuileries, the wings of the Louvre, and even lovely Notre Dame de Paris down the river to my right.  Even with the gray December sky hanging low above me, sick and sniffly, I could not fail to marvel at it all.