Lovely Letters, Paris

As a former typographer, I tend to notice lettering and inscriptions, sometimes to the exclusion of its meaning: the lettering itself is just grand. Here are a few samples from a recent brief visit to Paris.

Above, a large and impressive high school's impressive plaque; below an entrance to one of the University buildings near the Cluny-Sorbonne Metro station.

Near the Louvre, the former building of the French grocers' union, with its Art Nouveau lettering and elegant doorway.

And a modern example, where the re-iterated form of the lettering eventually reveals the identity of the restaurant within, one of the world's best-known...