Letterboxing in Paris: finding hidden treasures

Our hunt begins a stone's throw from the glass-pyramid entrance to the Louvre, where we can see a line of tourists bigger than King Louis XIV's ego snaking around the square. Happily, there's plenty of art history to be found here that doesn't involve being trampled by the Mona Lisa-seeking throngs. We count our paces from the Arc du Carrousel, the smaller and less famous of the two victory arches built by Napoleon in the early 1800s. Atop the marble columns, four gilded bronze horses flank a chariot led by a figure of Peace.

The scene was first designed to commemorate the emperor's military triumphs, but after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the plan was scuttled, the original horses returned to Venice and the sculpture transformed into a celebration of Napoleon's downfall. We take in unobstructed views down the Champs-Élysées before beating a path to a hedgerow next to a statue of Louis XIV sculpted by Bernini, where we find a box containing a stamp of the Louvre.

From there, we head off the main tourist track, making our way past the metro station entrance at Place Colette known as the Kiosque des Noctambules - a mesmerizing retro-futuristic canopy of aluminum and Murano glass beads created in 2000 by artist Jean-Michel Othoniel.

Ducking into a narrow passageway, we emerge at the serene Jardin du Palais-Royal, built in 1624 as Cardinal Richelieu's private palace and later the royal residence of King Louis XIV. The lavish gardens (honored with a "jardin remarquable" designation for design - the only one in Paris) are surrounded by a pillared arcade that has housed exclusive boutiques, cafes and galleries since the days of Louis Philippe II. The 18th century royal rented out the bottom floors to pay for his home expansion, thus creating France's first shopping mall.

Digging in shrubbery

We meander through the courtyard where Rowan plays leapfrog over Daniel Buren's 1986 installation of 280 striped cylindrical stumps before following the clue to Adolphe Thabard's "Snake Charmer" statue.

Lounging on a garden bench, we try to look nonchalant as Rowan ferrets around in the shrubbery, hoping not to attract the attention of two elderly gentlemen playing petanque and a group of children with long sticks pushing small boats around the fountain. After a few minutes, we have our prize - a stamp carved in the likeness of Buren's sculpture. We place our mark, re-hide the box and stroll back to Place Colette.

By now we're ready to do some scavenging of the edible kind. Across from the Comédie-Française (the legendary theater founded in 1680 where Molière was playwright in residence) we spy Le Nemours, a quintessential Parisian sidewalk café - complete with waiters in long white aprons and a coterie of fashionable midday wine drinkers - and fuel up on cheesy croque monsieurs.

Afterward, we climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and survey the daisy wheel of Paris' grand boulevards. From our perch, we scout the street where another box is hidden. The clue leads to a statue of engineer Jean-Charles Alphand, who turns out to be the guy who designed several of Paris' promenades, including the Avenue de l'Observatoire and the Champs d'Elysees gardens.

The following day, we trade off trips to tourist destinations with letterboxing forays around offbeat parks, palaces, museums and monuments. A stone's throw from Renzo Piano's inside-out Pompidou Centre, we discover a secret garden dedicated to Anne Frank. Along the banks of the Seine near Notre Dame, we explore the moving World War II Memorial to the Martyrs of the Deportation.

On our way back, we decide to brave the lines and scale Notre Dame's formidable bell tower, and are treated to a glorious sunset the color of a Van Gogh bouquet.

Gazing down over the gargoyles, spires and mansard rooftops, the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the distance, I realize my mouth has formed the familiar frozen ooohh shape of a starstruck Paris tourist. And I'm reminded once again that not all the best views in Paris are found by looking up.

Bonnie Wach last wrote for Travel on Washington, D.C. E-mail comments to travel@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page N - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle