Paris

Olivier of the Sex Book Shop is right--there is nothing like Paris! David has fallen in love and I enjoyed seeing the city anew through his eyes.  There are few photos because everything is a photo and someone else has taken a much better one. As you all know, whether you have been there or not, Paris is full of 'eye candy', photographed by the famous photographers of the world. However, there were some small scenes about life in Paris that we wanted to share with you.

While it wasn't the school holidays, there seemed to be a large number of students of all ages at the museums we visited. We were both impressed by the skill and enthusiasm of the guides taking them around, showing the paintings, explaining exhibits. In most cases, they were holding thestudents' attention, eliciting questions and making them laugh. Pretty impressive, we thought, in these days of blasé youth.

David visited the Musee des Arts et Metiérs, full of technological inventions from the 16th century to today. There he found an experiment with a pendulum illustrating the turning of the earth. These three little boys stood, fascinated for a long time. Future scientists in the making, David thought.

When we went to the opera, we were sitting beside a couple in their 20s who had come all the way from Lille in the north of France, by train, for the evening! We were deeply impressed until we realized that it is only 225 km away. However, in France that is a very long way for an evening out! They were keen opera lovers and did this journey quite often it seemed.

There are in Paris, as there are in La Rochelle, many "sans logis", homeless men and women. Invariably, they have at least one healthy and well cared for dog, often two. They are always leashed and most often very well behaved. In a Metro station, we saw a man begging, with a dog on a leash  but his dog was a small skeleton. The image stayed with me all day and I wished I had given him money but when we returned in the evening he was gone.

As in Toronto, there are designated seats for the elderly. An elderly woman entered  a crowded Metro train and two men immediately lept up to offer their seats, one of which she accepted. But now there was an empty seat . . .  what to do? They gestured back and forth to each other in an 'After you, Alphonse' kind of way and finally offered the seat to a very young and beautiful woman. Gallantry still exists in Paris! AND, from our experience, the rude Parisien/Parisienne has disappeared. We met helpful strangers wherever we went: a bus driver got off his bus to point out the stop we were searching for;  the people at the desk of the Orsay museum kept the group waiting while we rushed off to buy tickets for a tour; waiters were, without exception jolly and helpful; passers-by stopped to give us directions. I was amazed, having suffered the rudeness of waiters and sales assistants in the past! It is particularly interesting as the city is becoming larger, more crowded and presumably, life is more stressed for people.

We had a small slice of living in Paris by staying in an apartment,
beautifully furnished and very comfortable even though only 25 sq. m. in area.  As we staggered up another perilous circular staircase with our small suitcases, we wondered: how is furnituredelivered? David found the answer: through the windows.

We had a lovely wander along the Seine, and were amazed by the amount of river traffic. There were all sorts of heavily laden barges surging along, being pushed by small boats with cabins.



If you look closely, you can see the captain, bare-chested with tattoos!
During this walk, we came across "home". Although I did not have the same emotional reaction as I did to the Jardin des Cousins in La Rochelle, it was still fun to see this, on a side street, in the middle of the Quartier Latin.

It was a wonderful week: full of adventures; what else could it be? It was Paris, after all!!