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Project 365 – Week 22

Paris constantly surprises me. Streets that I use on regular basis still contain unknown elements, waiting to be discovered. Double-takes on my part become something I look forward to and I am also gradually more observant, provided I’m not in a hurry or lost in my own little world. I should start exploring them by foot instead of flashing past them on a bike or on the bus.

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Fontaine des Innocents

27 May: In the past, the royal procession of a newly-crowned King of France would enter the city on a route that includes rue St Denis and passing by Châtelet to get to the Palais de la Cité (today used as Palais de Justice). Commemorative monuments (most of them on temporary basis) would be erected along the route and the Fontaine des Innocents was among those erected to welcome the royal entry of King Henry II. Back then, the “fountain” was not free-standing but built against the wall of the former Holy Innocents’ Cemetery (hence the name), with taps to provide water to the citizens of Paris. The “windows” were actually part of the viewing balcony! It was moved to its current location in mid-1800.


Bird in tree

28 May: This little fella has been trying to hide behind the leaves, but its constant turns of head betrayed its existence. Pigeons are not often loved, and certainly if you ask F right now, he’d tell you he’s not happy with them. In the last 3 weeks, he has twice been “bombed”, once on his jumper and another on his jeans, not to mention some seem to have taken up residence not too far from our windows, waking us up far too early in the morning with the coo-ings.


Tribunal de Commerce

29 May: The River Seine is overflowing again. The amount of rain and snow that we’ve been getting through the (very) long winter means the water level of the river has been pretty much consistently high since February, albeit with some abatement period. Flooding warning had been issued so tourist ferry services were suspended pending on the water level. If you are curious about the buildings in the photo, the foreground building is the Tribunal de Commerce whereas the one further back is the Conciergerie, part of the old Palais de la Cité, where Marie Antoinette spent the last of her days before being guillotined.


Old game

30 May: This is a rather particular piece of item I spotted in the window of an antique shop not far from the Luxembourg Gardens. It’s a target shooting game, where there are four fishermen with their dangling “catches” and the aim would be to accurately hit the catches. This is not a game involving real gun – c’mon, the set’s made of paper and wood! – but toy gun loaded with “bullet” with suction cup. I used to have gun with bullets like this when I was a kid. In retrospect, I now wonder why would adults think it’s a good idea to give such toy set to kids…


Cinema

31 May: We could not have chosen a better quarter to live in, given F’s love of the big screen and the number of cinemas within short walking distance from our apartment. While a handful of them are larger multiplex cinemas, the majority of them are small (2-3 screens) and among them, Etoile Saint-Germain-des-Prés has only a single screen. Yup. One. They show only one movie at a time, and usually non-mainstream movies either. We like it that it’s not overcrowded (once, we shared the room with 5 others only) and the seats are lush and comfortable.


Luxembourg Garden

1 Jun: Thanks to the presence of a few very tall palm trees, we can bask in a make-pretend south of France scenery in the Luxembourg Garden on a nice and sunny day. Finally we are seeing an improvement in the weather, even if there’s supposedly a general trend of blah summer in store for us this year. I’m hoping for that forecast to be false. I’m tired of digging out my winter coat in spring, and I definitely do not wish to do so in the summer!


Eiffel Tower

2 Jun: It’s the “Saison sud-africaine en France” (South African season in France) and to mark its launch, for one week, the Eiffel Tower is bathed in the colours of their flag. Visible only from one side of the Iron Lady, this hommage will be repeated twice more, between 15 and 16 June on the occasion of South Africa’s Youth Day, and between 15 and 21 July to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day. Catch it while you can, and perhaps while the tower is performing its regular on-the-hour evening sparkles!




Category: Project 365

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6 scribbles & notes

  1. Danielle says:

    Love your daily insight! I’m bummed I spent last night in Versailles now though… would’ve loved to have seen the Eiffel Tour in color.

    • Lil says:

      Thanks Danielle, and fret not, there are 2 more chances to catch the Eiffel Tower in the colours so if you are around 15-16 June or 15-21 July, you should definitely go to Trocadero!

  2. Sarah says:

    Gorgeous photos!
    I wouldn’t worry about giving kids guns, even if you don’t they’ll take sticks and pretend they are guns!

    • Lil says:

      Thanks Sarah, and I guess you’re right, although in another way, a stick has no trigger mechanism with something flying out towards your “opponent”..?

  3. med says:

    lovely lovely shots as always…the eiffel tower ones takes the cake ;)
    dont really like pigeons as well…they love to bomb everywhere…especially on my balcony

    erhem…gun with ‘sucker bullets’ were fun yah ;) pretty harmless i guess when compared those with pellets….lucky kids these days have NERF!

    • Lil says:

      The final shots came from our testing of the EOS 100D – it’s really a different class of toy altogether!

      Kids nowadays have more than back when we were their age, that’s for sure. I used to play masak-masak by stealing flowers from neighboour’s garden and pretended they were veggies.

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