Misc. Bits & Pieces

This is an oddball collection of mostly unrelated pix.  These are shots I like but didn't fit in with what I was writing at the time.  Or they came from Susanne's camera after I published the post.

Here is a Citroen 2CV which stands for "deux chevaux", two horses, referring to the number of cylinders. It was France's answer to the Volkswagen and to me, reflects more of French quirkiness than emulating the VW's German engineering.  It was cheap, slow & very uncomfortable.  The front seats were lawn chairs, very practical for going to a picnic.  The sign says this sliding canvas-top model is for sale, built in 1980 (I didn't know they built them that late) & has 80,000 km (50,000 mi) which is very low because either the owner(s) wanted to keep it as pristine as possible or because they couldn't stand to actually drive the darned thing.

Deep philosophical question of the day.











During our wanderings heading someplace (forgot where), we stepped into the courtyard of the National Archives building.  More confirmation that no one builds public buildings like the French.  For email subscribers, click on Steve's Travel Blog above to view in your browser.

More cafe people.

Another Mlle. Noire.





























We stepped into a small church, yes even though the photo seems to indicate differently, on the scale of other churches, this one is small.  And judging from the brickwork inside & out, not very old.  But quite beautiful nevertheless.

Walking up to the front & looking back, we see the requisite pipe organ.

A closeup of the window seen in the first photo.

Susanne took this shot of a mosaic pattern on the church floor that is repeated throughout.

A clever way to exploit smallness in both car & parking space, assuming you're willing to risk a door bashing, accidental or otherwise.

 

"L'amour est mort."  What a depressing thought!

We caught a 10PM Eiffel Tower light show when it sparkles for five minutes only.  We just missed it when the kids were here.  Please forgive the first five seconds or so when I cut off the top.  I tried to edit it out, but the software saved the new clip to a format incompatible with this blog editor.

Here's what it looks like the other 55 minutes of the hour.

Courtyard of National Archives complex.

Moving day in Paris & other European cities.  Old buildings >> narrow winding staircases + the big things of modern life = the above.  "Demenagements" = "Relocations".

A modern looking Vietnamese restaurant.  Don't know about the food.

There are multiple levels of police.  Starting with the parking police, roaming the city & writing tickets.  There is a mid-level, they have cuffs & nightsticks but no weapons.

At the top level, there are these ladies, full fledged cops with sidearms.  The genders are integrated in Paris.  That had to be slow in coming.

Some of the Metro entrances are very ornate evoking the late 19th century when it first opened.

Cops on motor scooters.  In Paris traffic, maneuverability trumps speed.

This year's Nonsense English Award goes to this store name.  What on earth does a sportswear clothing store have to do with "Superdry"?  I understand that in the mid-20th century clothing was referred to as "dry goods" but that was then.