My new friends Shawn and Jessica, from Boise, Idaho, who I met in Barcelona. We managed to get together for lunch when they passed through Paris, and shared more stories. They spent 3 months in Europe and are on their way home now - good stories and pics on their blog.
My fav French beer - although hearing me trying to order it in French has brought much amusement to servers here... along with the handle of my new luggage! I am done with the backpack; this fine specimen rolls, but can also be used as a backpack in a pinch can also be carried as a duffle bag. My next city transfer is going to be soooo much more pleasant!
Taking a picture of B with all things Perrier: her drink, the bottle, and there is an umbrella too, but this was the best pic of the lot. Oh, wait, what is happening in that ad behind her???!?
Close up of the ad.... it appears to be for a science exhibit.... lol...
Said bag doing double-duty on it's way home as a grocery cart.... that is one loooong baguette!
My little black tattoo on my shoulder got some pink highlights for the day, courtesy of my art pens and my niece's creativity... BTW, the tattoo is a Japanese symbol for "sisters" which I had done in memory of my dear sister Carol Leigh, whose presence I feel a lot on this trip.
Marketing innovation in Paris: there was a guy going down the street hanging little moped ads on bicycles....
Now this may just look like a random truck. In fact, it's where the construction workers who are doing road work here go for their lunch break. We had walked by and saw them inside, with baguettes and wine. Ah, only in Paris... Oh, there are more stories about this one... As we sat having our coffee with this view, the truck began a rockin'..... Much giggling from us... then we got busted when taking pics... by rather cute guy in the crew. Many bonjours and blushing in the ensuing days....
There are phallic symbols in Paris , which I'm sure I'll post pics of later, but there's not a lot of subtlety in the essentials, such as this series of condom ads, such as thie one for the ladies....
... and this one for the gents.... But they are amusing and get to the point (so to speak). I liked the innovation.
And the subway station immediately adjacent is well prepared to support the cause... In Paris, you never know when.... heh....
Branwen and her friend Maryanne who travelled here at the same time. Maryanne has demostrated a remarkable talent for running across us sitting in coffee shops or bars, it's really weird, she hasn't needed to call B one, but they have gotten together numerous times...
The mailman at our building. It is really interesting to watch, as none of the apartments have numbers on the doors. There are numbers on the mailboxes, along with names, but I do not believe there is any relationship to the address (do people just write the building address on the mail?!). He (and sometimes she) spends much time reading envelopes and looking for the appropriate box to drop it into. In the upper left hand corner of the boxes there is some kind of cross reference guide, but not sure how much it helps. One day, we saw the postman return about 20 minutes later with 1 more letter, I guess he recognized a name on a misaddressed envelope and came back to make sure it got to it's owner. So French that they care about these details.... 
Elegant coffee and crossoint served to me one morning at a local cafe (I know, only crumbs as evidence!); the cookie was a nice surprise. Now, notice the pattern on the table, hand painted... 
This pattern was repeated everywhere in the restaurant including, yes, the loo! This included the toilet seat, toilet paper roller, garbage can, toilet brush etc... They are also very into Marilyn Munro at this place, and her pic is everywhere too. It's really quite cool upstairs in the restaurant, shall try to take pics one day...
Exterior of said cafe... it's worth clicking on this image to enlarge it and see some of the details.
My niece doing the crossword puzzle I made for here when a search for a book of English crosswords proved fruitless...
I think I finally figured this one out. The backs of stoplights here have a red + that is only alluminated when the same light is red on the other side. When the cars get a green light on the other side, this red cross goes out. Didn't seem to be a sign to pedestrians, as there are the usual green/red walk/don't walk signs here. My theory is that they are there for jaywalkers (which everyone does) and cyclists (which are everywhere and fearless) so they can tell which lane of traffic entering a roadway has the red light. An absence of a red + and no cars in sight, means it is ok to fly across, as the other roads coming into the intersection or square must have red.....
Signs advising there is a spot nearby to plug in your electric car. I have also seen signs indicating the distance (e.g. 2km) to the nearest such place.
There is one of these plug-in parking spots down the street from us, right by our local park. It appears there is a fine if you use these spots to just park. Show your plug! 
And the ground markings for the spot.... 
Awesome freshly squeezed orange juice on a hot afternoon, along with a cafe of water if you want to thin it down, or just extend it.... and one of my doodles in progress sitting on the table, as I am always doodling when I am in cafes (the mermaid did eventually get a face)...
This really cool glass ceiling was in a book/art store I was in the other day.... 
Said bookstore/artstore in the St. Denis area.... they had Moleskines - yeah!!!! And got some more cool skinny pens for doodles... Only I could spend 49.50E and walk away with just paper and pens.... LOL....
That's it for this round... there are so many other things I have observed here, will try to continue to capture them in between my posts of the sights of Paris... ;-)
3 comments:
PK enjoyed this one... you Paris girls look so relaxed !!
Love the tattoo! Now you're a bad ass RW.
JEANNIE really enjoyed this blog and got many laughs! (she thought the sign saying LIVRES meant "LIVERS")
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