Paris, always Paris

[hiyami]

I wanted to see Andalucia, an exhibition/fair about Andalousia, but these idiots closed at 2pm. 2 pm on Sunday afternoon. Just when most people FINALLY have some spare time after doing their weekly chores... I gather they weren't that keen on showing their culture/products and making money.

So instead I made my way up the Seine bank towards Notre-Dame, and took some shots :




The Eiffel tower. Obviously. Even living here, I still like the sight. She's sort of weird but sort of pretty, our Iron Lady.
Combining a phallic symbol with a female one.
OMG the symbol of Paris is a transgender!




"Vegetal wall" on a building Quai Branly.
"Ils habitaient des gîtes ignobles Quai Branly" (movie quote).
There's actually a strange construction in the making behind... I didn't find a good place from which to take a good shot of it. Need to look up what it is ( going to be).


Pont de l'Alma. Where Lady Di died. Posh posh place. Even before.


And under the bridge... people live, if I judge by the furniture.


Passing by Notre-Dame (of which I did take a 1543224th shot, but it has a lamplight in the middle, dunno how I didn't realize it), watching this statue more attentively more once. The guys look kinda creepy with the "melted" green bronze of their faces. I think it's Charlemagne. I didn't check.


A chocolate fountain in one of the many candy stores on the Ile Saint Louis.
This island on the Seine, next the one where is set Notre-Dame, is one of the spots where I often go, partly because the whole area is beautiful with tiny old streets and old monuments. And partly because that's where the mother house Berthillon is set, that do the famous sorbets... Done and eaten in the same place.
There's nothing that says to me "SQUEE, I LOVE LIVING IN PARIS" like walking around that place by a sunny weather while licking a Berthillon sorbet.


The island also hosts many small restaurants, heavy on the atmosphere. Why cows though? I don't know
I've never tested those restaurants, except one, supposedly one of the best Sushi restaurants of town, that was indeed very good. Though not eating sushis often, I can't testify if they're that much above average.


The next batch is all taken from one of my secret Paris little treasure places. Okay, it's not THAT secret, but it's a little spot of quietness and cuteness stuck between the Seine bank over-crowded and noisy roads, the Town Hall and the also over-crowded and noisy Rue de Rivoli.

Set right in front of the Ile Saint Louis, cross the Seine on the Eastern bridge and you'll find a small paved plazza near another of the gazillion churches of the town (Saint Gervais) :










As you can tell from the luminosity - I didn't alter it, I'm lazy and use the automatic mode mostly -, the sky and the shadows, today was a very, very sunny day in Paris, and very hot too. Over 30°C.

This isn't referenced as a plazza on the map. It is actually just a "dent" in the Rue des Barres below.




With that old half-timbering house hanging out there.


And a tiny teeny square stuck in the middle.




In the line of "Walking in Paris, you'll always find something you hadn't seen before" : the Azzedine Alaia gallery.
At the back of this backyard, there's an exhibition room. But I dig the backyar very much. And the ladder. I know it's very common in cliché New York, but we really don't have a lot of that around here.

Today was the first week of a (free) small exhibition of photographs from the World Press 2006 book. Beautiful photos (I didn't take pics of them because I think it's forbidden, for one, and because I think they're selling the book for the benefit of the free press).
But damn if you don't go out of this utterly depressed by the amount of pain and tragedies displayed... o_O
Mutilated bodies, starvation, funerals of a 5-yrs old girl...


Also, it must be a combined effect of "finals of the Roland-Garros tennis championship" + "rugby national finale" last night + World Cup in started, but for a sunny week-end over here, the streets are incredibly desert. Not desert-desert, but there seem to be only half of the usual people around... Like if we were in August already.

Which is GREAT! I love having the town for myself. Well, myself and a few other millions of tourists / locals, but still. Not as many as I'm used to.