Librairies et La Seine et Notre-Dame
This morning I woke up with a very sore left ankle -- tendinitis I suppose from walking so much yesterday. Rather than trying to do anything, I sat with an icepack and ate sushi (which I had bought on a whim the night before). Then I also discovered that my SIM card had a zero balance and I wasn't going to get the 1GB of data I had been promised. Lies.
So I got up at 8am, hobbled out for lunch (and a SIM recharge) at 1pm, and finally at 4pm felt well enough to go for an excursion. I pointed my map at the best-known English bookstore in Paris, namely Shakespeare & Company. This was a very nice old shop right by the river Seine, yes, outfitted with reading rooms and manual typewriters:
In case you aren't aware, bookstores in French are librairies and libraries are bibliothèques, which I fortunately found out in an earlier visit to Montreal. At the end of the day I also found a more modern bilingual bookstore called Eyrolles (an unfortunate name for English speakers...) which had an amazing selection of technical books: programming, virtualization, digital art (Gimp!), raspberry pis (with a full shelf of actual ras pi 2's and 3's and Arduino shields!), digital photography (photographie numérique)... and so on, but then the shop closed and I was sad :(
La Seine
In between the bookshops I walked over to the Seine, which was right nearby. This photographer was shooting the wall frescos and when I waved at him, he did a little dance :)
The river has been flooding very severely over the past few weeks but it is starting to recede. There is a lot of silt and mud piled up and it mostly looks like this:
Some people are adamant about still enjoying the river, such as this determined woman in crutches and ill-suited shoes. That's dedication. Her partner is somewhat worried but she's not having any of it...
Even the cool kids stopped to have a look -- definitely Parisians but blasting NSFW English rap at high volume from speakers inside their hoverboards. Dude.
The Notre Dame
Right in the middle of the river on a small island, I couldn't miss this.
It was very very busy. At least half the people were speaking English (the guys behind me were backpacking before starting a job at Amazon in Seattle). There was some French army wandering around too to make an appearance. It's basically Times Square (well, I guess that's the Eiffel Tower but I haven't been there yet).
Even France isn't without its homeless, unfortunately. (Yes, I gave her something in return for the picture.)
I was very enamoured with the gargoyles on the outside and took many photos with my 200mm zoom lens. I have some better shots but this one wins for serendipity. With the gargoyles and the ravens, it looks like a shot out of Middle Earth. If this was a movie, the Morrigan would definitely make an appearance in the next scene.
Inside was an actual statue of Jean of Arc this time
some shocked-looking vassals
very very high ceilings
and nice ambiance.
Except the angel was kind of creepy. (From most of the walkway, you can't see the angel, only its shadow.) I have to admit, Doctor Who does have a point here.
The Notre Dame reminds me a lot of the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal (unsurprisingly). Same facade, similar execution. I was surprised at how religious most of the visiting French were.
Unlike the Montreal version though, this Notre-Dame has a creepy crowd-control voice which says "SSSSSSHHHHH! Silence s'il vous plaît. Silence please... [two other languages]". I swear, the "sshh" sounded like a hissing snake and totally inappropriate for a serene cathedral. I'm probably just still thinking about the Morrigan though.
Miscellaneous
Right by the Notre Dame is a nice love lock fence:
One of the locks was labeled "D&E, Pagan, 2016". Have to appreciate the honesty. I of course took some normal city shots, here are some favourites
and another, more dramatic car park shot
I also managed to order food from a waitress who didn't speak English at all (ici au ici? etc) and made use of the magic phrase sans de la viande, and voilà,
I also just responded to a missing cat ad with the picture I posted last time, and of course the poor woman thought it was definitely her Pou Pou (sp?). She ended up climbing on a roof with catfood. Alas, the neighbour has four cats, and my picture was of one of them. :/
Until the next time,
~~ dwk.