Recommended by an old friend, a forty
year resident of Paris, we booked this
rive gauch inn a month before our tour
of Europe. Arriving last of all to the
City of Light, we approached at night,
in the rain, on a narrow crowded rue.
The dapper gentleman at the front
desk was expecting us. We took the
dated elevator connecting two discrete
buildings to our room on le tres etage,
going out the west rather than the east
door which lead to other plus-half floors.
The room was tiny, its décor once
the height of luxury. The lobby
was small but pretty, the Paris staff
exceptionally helpful and friendly.
Best of all, we spied a plaque high
upon the wall outside the entrance
of our Inn, en francais its momentous
but inauspicious announcement here
paraphrased: This is the place where
The Treaty of Peace between England
and its former American Colonies was
signed in 1783, for the United States by
Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay.
first published in Poetry Atlas
©2013 Bonnie Manion