On page 137 of the David McCullough book it says "From London down to Dover, then across the Channel, Wilber and Berg were joined by another Flint executive, Frank Cordley. They arrived in Paris on the evening of May 27 (1907), when it was still daylight, and checked into the luxurious Hotel Meurice on the rue de Rivoli. "The Tuileries Palace and the Louvre are only a couple of squares to our left," Wilbur reported that same night to Katherine and the family. "The column Vendrome is behind us, and the Place de la Concorde and Arc de Triomphe are farther up the Champs-Elysees. We are right in the most beautiful and interesting part of the city.
He was also residing in one of the finest hotels in all Paris, indeed, in all Europe. The "New Hotel Meurice," as said, had only just reopened after major "refurbishments." The old "Hotel of Kings" had been made more sumptuous than ever. Its restaurants, in décor and cuisine, was now one of the finest in the city and a "rendezvous of fashion." One could take a magnificent new elevator to a roof garden, and for panoramic views of Parish there were few to compare, or, for that matter, from those guest rooms fonting on the rue de Rivoli, one of which, room 329, Hart Berg had reserved for Wilbur.
"Stay in Paris and taste the pervasive charm, the freshness of beautiful summer nights. The sky dusted with stars is radiant," read an advertisement for the Meurice.
Page 147 "Early on a Sunday morning in late July, the brothers were reunited. Having enjoyed an uneventful crossing on the steamer Philadelphia, Orville succeeded in finding his way to the Meurice, where he discovered Wilbur looking better than he had in years.
Page 149 "In mid-August, when it looked as though French interest in an agreement had revived, Wilbur and Berg returned from Berlin. Still there was no real progress with the French. Nor had there been with the Germans. In early September the brothers had little to do but bide their time, and to judge from what Orville recorded, they had become occupied primarily with sitting in he park watching the passing parade. If Wilbur had his Louvre, Orville had the garden of the Tuileries.
"You need not worry about me missing the use of the front porch," Orville wrote to Katherine, "I spend at least half of my time while awake in the park across from the hotel." There were hundreds of little iron chairs in the park, the rent for which was 2 cents a day, he explained. "A number of women are employed in going about to pounce down on every unsuspecting chap that happens to be occupying a chair and to collect the two cents."
The top of page 150 says....He especially enjoyed watching the French children, amazed by how well behaved they were.
The bottom of page 150 has this......Greatest by far was the spectacle of seeing so many - children, men and women of all ages - playing with "diabolo," a simple, age-old toy that had lately become all the rage.
