Black is a popular color, even in the summer (which the current weather isn't). So I look for ladies whom I call "Mademoiselle Noire". Here's my first nominee.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, here's a colorful lady I'd call "Madame Mess".
Yes, both ladies happen to be smoking; still see a lot of it here. But thankfully the laws are much the same as in the U.S., smoking outdoors only.
BTW, all those tattoo parlors & electronic cigarette stores we saw last year...mostly gone now.
And now for our first "C'est Paris" moment, when something happens that doesn't make much sense so we just chalk it up to that's the way things are.
Susanne & I decided to stop for a bite. Our way of snacking is to order an item then share, "partager" in French. So we ordered a cold seafood plate (salmon/lox, small shrimps, octopus, pickled herring) & told the patrone "partager, s'il vous plait".
"Well, by golly, if you crazy Americans are going to partager my food, then you damn well are going to partager the place mat & the napkin/serviette! I'll concede separate tableware, though."
The plate arrived & we dug in, forgetting to take a photo, sorry! We did politely ask the lady then had to resort to nagging until she brought another serviette. The lox was not smoked but still good. The shrimp had a white sauce, good. The herring tasted like smoked whitefish from a deli but alot stronger, good but needed bread to moderate the flavor.
I saved comment on the octopus for last. They were small, about 3-4 inches, head & arms. They were soft, not chewy & had a delicate flavor. IOW, if you can ignore what they are, they're quite good. I dove right in...Susanne was hesitant at first but agreed they were just fine.
Fortunately, Susanne & I will eat darn near anything.
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On the Pont des Arts a pedestrian bridge, the love locks have taken over. It's a fad that is causing great mechanical stress to the bridge & that stresses the Paris city fathers. They are working on a solution to eliminate them. Cutting them off doesn't work...more appear in their place. So they have to figure out a redesign of the railings.
Pesky things, aren't they? Very much akin to an infestation.
There always seems to be a sexy lingerie poster on the back of the buses. Susanne shot this year's edition.
And some ladies boots that interested her.
OK, we now moved into the larger apartment that the kids used when they were here. But because of a glitch that we knew of in advance, we must move from this apartment to another one this coming Saturday. (Long story, won't bore you.)
After much searching from Scottsdale, we found one just up the street. We are now at # 19, Blvd. Beaumarchais & will move to # 71. Yesterday we strolled up there to have a look from the outside. Susanne is peering in; she says it's a much newer building, we'll be on the ground floor in the back.
Just up the street, the sign to the right of the door of #99 means either this is a law office of several lawyers or a couple of avocados live here. Same word, two meanings.
Artistic graffiti & taggers who just vandalize walls & signs compete for space.
This young lady is using a terminal to rent a bicycle (known as a "velib"). Racks of bikes are placed all over Paris and is a great way of getting around (for the very brave) since the first 30 minutes of each rental is free.
Take a look at the stand. You sign up for a specific bike number (The wise check each one out, not all of them are in good repair at the time) & upon payment with your membership card, the bike is released. Just take & go. To turn it in at any velib stand in Paris, find an empty space, put it back into the holder & voila! the transaction is complete.
Other cities all over the world have copied this program.
BTW, here ladies in skirts & dresses have no problem riding two-wheeled vehicles. They're just extra careful & don't sweat occasionally showing a bit more leg than expected.
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Today Monday dawned cloudy threatening rain. By mid morning the threat was made good...a steady drizzle all day long. We didn't feel much like battling the weather all day so I went out to the ATM, got some euros to pay the new landlord on Saturday, then hit the Monoprix to buy dinner for eating in tonight. Below are the "before" & "after" pics of the dinner prep.
The object is to turn this:
Into dinner for two:
Lighting for these pics was a problem. Using flash (these two) bleaches out the colors & the effect is sort of blue-white. Because there was no natural light coming into the room (cloudy, late afternoon), the indoor lighting pic was very yellowish. And in my rush, I forgot to take one with flash & Susanne at the table.
Tomorrow's forecast shows improving weather...some chance of rain, periods of cloud & sun. High temp 71 deg F. If you use Windows 8.1, get the weather app & choose Paris as one of your places & you'll be working off the same forecaster as me.
Update: Tuesday morning it was dark & cloudy. We set out for Place d'Aligre where Susanne's friend Rachid works. Silly us, we didn't take umbrellas. Long story short (LSS) it started to pour; we had to turn back. It rained until early afternoon. Then the sun came out (and so did we). There was about 4 hours of sunny, warm weather until it turned to rain again as we headed back.
BBFN
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