What's in a view?

 On July 9th we said goodbye to our boat, our guide, and our fellow passengers and headed to the apartment we are staying in in Paris.

This is the view from our window: the top of the Eiffel Tower. We understand that this lovely building was used by the Gestapo during World War II as a headquarters. The top floor rooms, where we are staying, were used to interrogate prisoners such as those they suspected to be spies.

I wonder whether they looked out and saw this spire above the rooftops.

Soon after we arrived via the smallest elevator we'd ever experienced, I hung my earrings on the shutters and did my best to capture both the earrings and the Eiffel Tower view.

This pair was made in Chile, and purchased at a Fair Trade shop. What do they represent? When I bought them, I loved the contrast of color, the trapezoidal shape, the planets in space. Hanging here, I saw bloodshot eyes gazing back at me.

John and I headed out on our adventures, we thought we'd descend the stairs. They are pre-war, wooden stairs. The metal bannister curves down the 5 flights to a tiny ground floor courtyard with no exit. As we climbed the stairs again, we felt a chill, imagining what might have befallen some who'd traveled those stairs during the war.

When we looked up at the shuttered windows, at the beautiful building where we're staying, we shuddered to think what might have happeded behind those shutters long ago.

And then we headed off to wander the streets of this incredibly beautiful City of Lights. Along the Seine, past the Eiffel Tower.