Bits and pieces

Staying in Paris I thought I would take things easier than when we would come here on vacation and time was more limited... but somehow the incredible Parisian energy for rushing around gets into your system and I find myself leaping off the bus and racing to....???? Not sure!!!! I AM on vacation after all. So...I have been lowering the speed thing and we have been trying to do less things at a more leisurely pace every day although JC thinks we are not!
I thought I'd post a collection of things with no real order or theme.
I like to look at the various ads...there are some really creative ones and it is fun for me to find them. Delsey is a brand of luggage and the ads make travel so dreamy. There is the Pont Neuf:

This next one is on Pont Alexandre III:

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I also liked this Rosé wine ad...looks so gorgeous in that garden!

On the bus the other day we noticed this sign...such a sweet and polite way to say that some strollers have to be folded up!

Waiting for the metro on Sunday I looked across the rails and observed this group sitting together. It is pretty much a metaphor ( don't know if this is the actual word for this) for France!

I see many cats lounging about and dogs too out on walks but this little sweetheart sits in the window of a neighborhood hairdresser every day. When I first saw him I thought it was a statue!

As you know the French love to smoke but some French people are working at quitting so there are many of these shops around which sell a type of electronic cigarette. You can buy flavored liquid to put into the tube somehow...seems like a mini hooka or something. Kind of fun names for the shops too.

 I particularily liked this statement:la bouffée de plaisir (a drag of pleasure...)

These green fountains are all over Paris...they are Wallace fountains named after an Englishman who had them set up after the Franco Prussian war when clean drinking water became too expensive for the poor. There are fountains like this in other parts of the world too.  Makes me think of the drinking fountains on the street corners in Portland!

Close to our apartment there are several elementary schools...here is one just about ready to release the children and all the parents are waiting to walk them home. The narrow street gets filled with groups walking home and it is fun to walk behind them and catch up on some school gossip!

When JC and I were over in the Marais last week we happened upon the open gate to the Hotel Sully which is usually closed...of course we walked right in to the beautiful gardens...we were not the only ones there. This is the main location for the monuments historiques. The building was owned by the ministre des finances of Henri IV and the descendants of Sully lived in Portland where one was a professor at Lewis and Clark College!

In the back courtyard was this "official" car for monuments nationaux...isn't that a great print all over in the shapes of various monuments?!

Here are some nice views in the Quartier Latin...I like this little courtyard area which actually becomes a passage way.

A street by the Procope restaurant...you can see l'Institut de France at the end there...

Here is the St. Michel fountain. There was a piano set out here one year when we were on a trip and passers by could sit down and play!

I found these lamp posts very elegant. Little crowns on top and tendrils of gilded ivy winding up the post. Theses were over near the Palais de Justice.

I adore hollyhocks and the Square des Batignolles park has masses of them around the edges of the pétanque or boules playing area...so many pretty colors.

Just through the park over to the rue des Batignolles is located the Mairie du XVIIe arrondissement where JC and I were married. You have to get married first by the Maire in an official city hall ceremony and then you can have a religious wedding afterwards if you would like. The Mairie is way down on the left.

Here are a few fashion shots. These in a store window...for children

for men...

Here is a French woman on the bus...her skirt is silver denim. I see lace tops, skirts, dresses all over the place.

Another shop...the designer here uses African print fabric. The name of her company is owl paris. She makes pillows and home decor as well as clothing.

This bright outfit was in the metro.

I saw this ad and now I want to read the novel...not sure it is a real novel though because I think this was an ad for coffee!

Of course I have been taking pictures too of windows with geraniums blooming...here are two more of those:

Near my cousin's apartment they have painted the metal sidewalk posts in multicolors...to me it looks like flower stems:

At the Fiat showroom there was this wonderful sign! I feel kind of like that is what I am doing!

The rail strike continues in France and many trips have had to be cancelled. We went over to the Champs Elysées Monday for a stroll and I took this picture...we both marveled at the number of people out on the sidewalk...no it was not a demonstration! and the street was packed!

We also did not see George Clooney at the Nespresso store but when we got back to rue Legendre just down the block a bit they were filming a movie or TV show...we hung around a bit to see if we could recognize any actors but no...guess we are too American now!

I'll be back later...time to take some more photos!