Thanksgiving in Paris

Dante after his bath this morning.

Helping some dude down off the store shelf. I love this place, it's called Delevaine and they've got the coolest stuff for guys.

Paris a clear day for the Eiffel Tower

Ah yes, a postcard picture of The Eiffel Tower, you knew I had it in me! First clear day since we got here.

Paris spectacular mansion on Francs Borges

This amazing mansion on Francs Borges is now a school.

The Edith Piaf museum. A contribution run apartment that she lived in for a year, according to the proprietor, which is stuffed full of all kinds of memorobilia of her, including dresses she performed in. She was tiny.
Pere LaChaise cemetery and yes we went to Jim Morrison's grave, covered with cigarettes. Chopin's was much more lovely. The thing that surprised me was the terrible state of disrepair some of the tombs were in. I'd always thought that if someone'd bought their plot and paid for it that part of those dues would be upkeep. Guess not. This one wasn't nearly in the worst condition it was just weird and eerie to be able to look inside the broken tomb and see the bare ground inside and the garbage that had accumulated inside it.
These were in better shape.

Paris

The Metro strike isn't quite as benign as I thought on the first day we got here, the delays also apply to the buses and tonite we waited for a while for the 95 bus take us home and decided it would be better to try the metro. Although there was a train every 10 minutes or so but they were completely packed at 8pm and we let two go by without getting on. Without the stroller it would have a been a very tight squeeze. With the stroller, it was just not going to happen. Finally we went back to the 95 bus and I folded the stroller up and we squeezed on.
The beauty of a bus ride in Paris is of course the marvelous sites along way. There's something really amazing about your bus stopping right inside the plaza of the Louvre.

Or going past a very Jules Verne style metro station. In fact alot of the city makes me think of Jules Verne. The interior of the Cite metro stop is like being inside what I imagine the engine room of the Nautilus would look like.

The lights of the Printemps. All from the bus window.

The French Metro Strike in Paris

We've been here since Saturday and rode the Metro for the first time tonite. For one thing during the stike it's free. For another what they call a delay in train service is more like everything normal back in New York. A ten minute wait between trains!!! Quel Horreur!! So we took it to see Crazy Horse, no pix of that. But the most packed subway platform I've ever seen in Paris. When you board, there are eight seats that fold up in the entrance section of the train. It got kind of packed at one point and immediately everybody that had a seat on one of those folding chairs got up to make more room for the people getting on. I'd love to see that happen in Manhattan.


A random artsy image of sugar dispenser and counter in a cafe.


The Champs Elysses on a rainy night.