Across the street from the Louvre, the Palais Royal, its court of honor and garden, and their surroundings are a stunning microcosm of culture in Paris: its history a background for its present, its present a dialogue with its past, its future clearly in need of change, but gently, please.

I crossed the city by bike one late afternoon and checked into the Hotel Aviatic so as to test the hotel and investigate the surrounding neighborhood. Within 10 minutes I sensed that the Aviatic could hold its head high in its category, that of the 3-star Left Bank charmer. First there was the warmth of the welcome. Then the fact that the receptionist took my unusual request for a safe place to keep my bike for the night seriously and immediately sought a solution (the kitchen, until the luggage storage room could be rearranged).