French Lingerie at Le Printemps'

No, I did not take this photo in Amsterdam but this morning in Paris, on my way to work. More precisely I took it in the window shop of Le Printemps, a huge department store next to Les Galeries Lafayette where I already took this shot. As you already figured it out they have a Lingerie special at the moment and I thought I could show it to you. BTW, these are not real women but mannequins! There is a limit to french male chauvinism...

Gare du Nord (Northern Station)

Originally, I did not plan to publish this photo today but Blogger seems to experience some hosting problems... Anyway here is the Gare du Nord, the station you will go to if you want to travel to... the North of France (Lille in particular - blink Elisabeth!) but also to Brussels, Amsterdam, London... It's beautiful a building, built between 1861 and 1865 by Jacques Hittorff (well the main station for some part have been extended recently due to the incredible expansion of railways in France) with statues all over representing famous northern cities. More (in French) here.

Moliere is watching you!

With over 2000 years of history France has produced a few good men... And that includes, of course, Moliere whose magnificent statue (well, this one anyway, for I am sure there are thousand statues of him!) is to be seen on rue de Richelieu (2nd arrondissement), not far for the Comedie Française the "home" of French theatre. His real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin and he lived between 1622 and 1673. He wrote tens of plays and he is adored by the French, including me! To learn more about Moliere go to Wikipedia.

Wedding day!

On some special occasions - like a wedding - people rent old luxury cars like this one and they go through Paris in search of a nice area to take photos. I took this shot at Le Louvre but could not see the just married couple!
I love the balance between the car , the pedestrian and the bike, just entering the picture...

Paris dog poop...

I am sure you heard that walking down the streets of Paris was a real nightmare because of the gifts left by our dog friends... According to local stats - who on earth counted?! - there are about 200 000 dogs in Paris and they produce 16 tons of poop daily!
But the situation has improved a lot. Quite surprisingly dog owners tend to be more disciplined - thanks to signs like this one (it says: "I like my neighbourhood, I pick up my dog poop") and they are also afraid of paying the 183 euro ticket, so that walking down the street is not as bad as it used to be.

Painter in Passage Verdeau

Today is Sunday, I woke up late and I felt lazy! So I went down where I live (in the Passage Verdeau, 9th arrondissement) and took a picture of this painter. The Passage Verdeau was open to the public in 1846 and a lot of antiques and old book shops are to be found in it together with a couple of restaurants (I recommend the excellent Italian one called i Golosi on the rue de la Grange Batelière side). You can also have a view of the roof of this passage on this photo or this photo...

We're all in the gutter...

...but some of us are looking at the stars..." [or the blue sky!] What better photo to illustrate this quote by Oscar Wilde? I took it in the 13th arrondissement where they definitely built a lot of tower buildings to fit as many people as possible. Although most of the Parisians would think they are ugly if you look at them with a "different" eye well they can also be beautiful.

New streetcar in Paris

Do you remember the Petite Ceinture photo ? If yes you know that, before, there was a train line around Paris that is now closed. To replace it there is a bus line but very soon part of it will also be replaced by a Streetcar (a tramway in "French"!). It is being built at the moment - as you can see on this photo - and will be delivered in 2006. If you want to know more I suggest you pay a visit to this great animation (high speed connection highly recommended!) and/or to the website (in French) they created for the occasion. You can also have a sneak preview of the delivery of the first train of this line being delivered here (very unusual...).

Paris Blogue-t-il III (Paris Bloggers gathering)

Like all large cities Paris bloggers like to meet from time to time. The 3rd gathering of this kind took place yesterday evening in the same place (L'entrepôt, a movie theater/bar/restaurant in the 14th arrondissement) and it was fun. I got to meet the usual "blogeoisie" plus new comers and ended up discussing art and music with a DJ from Australia. In the end a artist performed, "live" and made this great painting. I don't know his name, but I trust somebody will tell me today in the comments...

The Grand Palais' facelift

The Grand Palais, a magnificent glass palace that was built for the 1900 universal exhibition was closed for renewal in 1993. And for the first time since then, it has just been reopened to the public (although it will be totally completed in 2007 only). This new palace looks absolutely fantastic - especially under the lights and sounds of two artists Thierry Dreyfus and Frédéric Sanchez who created the new scenery. By the way I did not take this photo myself but Michel Colson (whose photos are awesome) did and gave me the authorisation to use it.

La taverne du Sergent Recruteur

If you’re looking for a typical meal experience while you’re in Paris, I recommend you pay a visit to this “tavern” which is located in the middle of Isle St. Louis (more precisely 41 rue St-Louis-en-l'Isle). Don’t expect fancy cuisine or anything but just a “different” atmosphere supposedly inherited from the Gaulois era (the first inhabitants of France) – meaning wine, solid food, large quantities… The name of the place (the recruiter’s sergeant tavern) is said to come from a time where young men were taken to the place for wine and women and would awake the next day to find themselves signed up for the French army… Nothing of that kind nowadays, as far as I know!

Leave the Euro zone?

"Here is the cure to our problems: let's leave the Euro zone" this is roughly what this poster -that I shot recently in Porte Maillot (17th arrondissement) - says. For those of you who don't know, France joined the Euro zone in 2002 like 11 other European countries* and at that time almost everybody was very excited about it; at last we would be able to travel withing Europe without having to change currency. But times change... France's growth rate is low, unemployment high, French people would like to close the borders again (they rejected the constitution, remember?). In my opinion it is pretty naive to think that it would solve our problems - but that is what some people feel like today and I just wanted to show it to you.

* Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Portugal.

Death danger!

This sign is familiar to all French people. You find it on all places where electricity may become a danger. Here it's near the Gare du nord (Northern Station) where people could jump over the fence and get electrocuted. In fact this sign is probably here for legal reasons; so that in case of an accident the railway company can claim "well, we warned you..."

Wine promotion

These funny little huts actually belong to a little "wine village" that they temporary installed in the Bercy area. I love the contrast between the modern offices and the little tents. The whole idea of this village is to promote wine for you know what ? French people drink less and less wine! According to a very recent study, we "only" drink 70 liters of wine every year (compared to 160 liters 60 years ago!). Worse: only 62 % of the French say they drink wine, compared to 81% in 1980... "Tout fout le camp!"

Paris, capital of fashion

And that includes Africans... Obviously. I simply love the way they dress.

The right stuff (L'étoffe des héros !)

Not far from the Sacré Coeur church, on the lower part of Montmartre there is a shop that all Parisians know: Le marché Saint-Pierre. It's THE place to go if you want to buy cheap fabric. And when I say cheap fabric I mean unexpensive, not "cheap"! I personally do not like this place too much for it reminds me of when my mother would drag me there as a child (!) but I must say I went back there recently to take this photo and, well, yes all this fabric makes it a place to see!

This woman is a dangerous outlaw!

I already explained the pigeons situation in Paris in this post and in the meantime I discovered that according to a law (the sanitary code, art. 120) it is forbidden to feed the pigeons in our Capital. And though, I suppose this moment is probably one of the main highlights in the day of this old lady. It is silly but this picture moves me!

Oscar Wilde had a lot of female admirers...

You all know the English Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900). But what you may not know is that he died in Paris and was buried in famous Père Lachaise Cemetery (it may sound odd but if you come to Paris don't miss it!). And what you surely ignore is that Wilde grave is covered in lipstick kisses from his admirers... Fantastic!

Brazilian Drummers

Last week-end, I was heading to Bercy and suddenly I heard an enormous hum coming from my left at a street crossing. I turned my head and here they were: 20 to 30 Brazilian drummers (it is still the year of Brazil in Paris!) starting their march to Le Marais. Very impressive! Here is just one of the drummers. (click here to see a wider view.)

Break dancing in Les Halles

In the big shopping center of Les Halles (1st arrondissement) there is a place where all break dancers of the city gather to train in front of everybody. Some are very good, some are just beginners but it's always fun to look at them. Curiously they are all very shy; the minute you hand out a camera they stop dancing. I had to "steal" this scene by taking the photo from above where they could not see me.