Click on the above photos to enlarge them.
In the summer of 1964 I stayed at the Hotel La Louisiane 60 Rue de Seine in Paris.
This was a small hotel with a large history. It was a favorite of artists and writers and jazz musicians going back to the 1940s. Miles Davis and Bud Powell and Chet Baker and many other jazz greats stayed there from time to time.
I met Bud Powell's childhood friend(Buttercup) and her little son in a cafe on the corner of Rue de Seine and Rue Buci and talked with them awhile.
Below is a link to a good story in Ebony magazine about Buttercup Powell and her son.
http://books.google.com/books?id=JeEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=buttercup+powell&source=bl&ots=w7PFJ3pE_5&sig=XTvMDVOqc6KJGNwmZU8-s4RblYo&hl=en&ei=TUV6TZ-BIcq-0QHy4JzQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=buttercup%20powell&f=false
In Paris that summer there was a killer known as "The Slasher" killing people in the suburbs of Paris. Buttercup's little boy Johnny asked me if I was the slasher. I told him no. Bud Powell was in an instituiton outside of Paris in the summer of 1964. The movie Round Midnight covers some of this time period.
Here is some information about Bud Powell and Buttercup Powell.
http://www.robertfulford.com/powell.html
What I remember of the Hotel La Louisiane from that summer is that the hotel was full of jazz musicians and artists. The man who owned and ran the place was a patron of the arts. The hotel was cheap and in a great neighborhood. Rue de Seine was still a bit of old Paris. I remember the butcher shop directly across from the hotel on Rue de Seine had full sized skinned hogs heads hanging on the wall facing the hotel.
I met the painter Walasse Ting at the hotel also that summer. Here is the wikipedia entry on Walasse Ting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walasse_Ting
Here is some information about the history of the hotel. Scroll down on this link to read the colorful history of the hotel.
http://www.hotel-lalouisiane.com/eng/history.html
Here is a good photo and history of the hotel on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18561434@N07/2905091385/
Here is the tripadvisor link for the way the hotel is now. Some good reviews some not so good. It is no longer cheap that's for sure. But then nothing is Paris is cheap anymore. But the link below provides some good photos inside the hotel.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187147-d634777-Reviews-Hotel_La_Louisiane-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
