This round up is being posted later than usual. Despite last weekend being a long one, I was busy playing host (to a visiting friend) and tourist at the same time. My friend left this morning so I guess it’s time to get back to normalcy. Work to tease out, reading to catch up on, photos to sort, and blog entries to post. And oh, making up for lost sleeping time now that we’ve lost an hour to daylight saving. ;)

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25 Mar: This bouquet of flowers reminds me of Wexford – the sunny southeast of Ireland – of which the official county colours are yellow/gold and purple. Ironically, there is very little sunshine in Paris at the moment that Wexford may well be seeing more of the fireball in the sky than here. Still, this vibrant combination does cheer the day up a little. To the big guy up there: hello, we’d like spring whenever you are ready to send it our way?

26 Mar: Walk past the Morris columns in town and often you’ll see posters of current theatre announcements. It appears The Full Monty has found their way from Broadway to the City of Light, and its poster does well in conveying the comedic value of this musical. However, I do think it’ll be weird to watch something that’s originally in English to be performed in French. I once saw videos of Frenchified Mamma Mia and there’s only one word to describe it – mind-boggling! The tunes are familiar but you can’t sing-along to the songs…

27 Mar: A new photo exhibition has just been put in place earlier this week on the grille of Jardin du Luxembourg, celebrating the 100th Tour de France that would take place this year. This evening, the footpath along the grille was packed with men in uniform, journalists and a general entourage of people. I’m not entirely sure who they are, nor why the apparent need for a show-and-tell to such a big group of people, but they nearly made me miss my bus by blocking the way! On the plus side, I was happy to shoot this photo from inside the bus.

28 Mar: I peered into this window often but I have never step foot into this librairie that specialises in books of Tibet and its surrounding region. It is not that I’m not interested in Tibetan culture, just that I worry I would feel sad in knowing how much of their traditional customs and practices have been either suppressed or banned today. I do not agree with the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese government, displacing Tibetans to neighbouring south-asian countries or elsewhere further. However, it doesn’t look like this will be changing any time soon either. /le sigh

29 Mar: With the daylight saving kicking in on Sunday, this is pretty much my “last chance” to try to get a sort-of sunset shot from the top of my building. As the day lengthens, unless I stay in extremely late after work, it’s going to be tough to grab a shot. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been the most cooperative and the opportunity for a clear, non-foggy day to photograph the view has proven to be elusive. Given the fact that in a few weeks, I would not have access to the building anymore, to have this one shot is better than none.

30 Mar: I have passed by this spot on the Boulevard St Germain so many times, and yet it has until now escaped my attention that not all streetsigns on this road conform to the familiar blue plaques that are plastered at all ends of streets/roads in Paris. Isn’t this mosaic sign just so beautiful? If you want to search for this sign yourself, it’s found on the wall of the Collège des Ingénieurs, between the stations of Solférino and rue du Bac.

31 Mar: Closing hour of the Louvre is an experience to behold. Officially the most visited museum in the world 2012, the crowd that was rounded up from the various wings of the museum converged below IM Pei’s glass pyramid, slowly making their way up and out either by using the escalator, or the lift (for the disabled, the elderly, and the parents with children in prams), or by walking the spiral staircase. The trickle of people never stopped in all the time we were there – madness!