Impressions of Paris

I was thinking that maybe "how many chimneys have you seen in your life?" might make in interesting Microsoft interview question. The answer would depend, of course, on whether you've been to Paris. It seems that each room has its own chimney. The tops of every building are a sort of rooster comb--a crenelated row of chimneys. From Phiippe's apartment, I saw what looked like thousands but was actually probably only scores of chimneys. So many chimneys as to render the Santa Claus myth absolutely unbelievable. Each French child upon being told that Santa goes down each chimney must call bullshit.

The streets are amazing. Each avenue is lines with the clichéed 5 story 18th or 19th century buildings with the stone work, iron work, tall windows, shutters, the almost vertical roofs on the top floor. All the cliché images you have. That is the real Paris. At least in our arondissement. Speaking of arondissements, I should explain them. Paris is divided into these sections called arondissements. Starting at the Louvre, they go up from 1 to about 20 sprialing clockwise like a nautilus shell or a cinnamon bun. You use the ordinal form of the number. Like we are in the "8th". What it basically is, is the last 2 digits of the postal code 75008.

Elena managed to get herself scammed. It was fun to watch. We were on the bridge due south of the pyramid at the Louvre looking out at the water talking about something. All of a sudden, this short woman bends up from the ground. I have no idea where she came from. "You dropped this" she said and handed us a thick men's golden colored ring. We told her it wasn't ours. "Are you sure it isn't?" she asked. Nope, not ours, "maybe I can keep it" she said as she tried it on each of her fingers. "No, it doens't fit me--it was meant for you. Praise God for your luck." Elena wanted to return it to a Lost&Found and was inspecting it to see if it was gold. I said I didn't think so. The woman walked away. She walked about 20 feet and then turned around and came back and asked for €2 for a sandwich. We said we didn't have any money. She begged a bit. I had the ring in my hand sort of holding it out. Elena gave her some small money, less than a euro probably about 60 cents. She asked for more. Then when we said we couldn't give more, she brusquely said "give me ring" and snatched it out of my fingers and dashed off. Even after that, Elena didn't know it was a scam until I told her the ring was almost certainly not found on the ground, but was in the woman's possession the whole time. I wonder what the ring is worth and what she does when somebody tries to keep it. Elena got a bit vexée with me because I didn't tell her it was a scam. I was having too much fun watching it play out.

I went to a bar called "au Petit Poucet" because they have WiFi. But a 25cl Kronenbourg is a whopping €4,30! It is only €2,90 at a place just down the street about half a block. And I got a 50cl can for €1,80 at the Arab store near our place.

We got an Orange card which is a 1 week pass for the Metro. But it doesn't start until the next day. The bastards! Also, the Paris metro system needs more ticket machines. The French need to ask the Asians how to do subways. The Greeks apparently did because Athens has a really crappy subway system except for the most recent line which looks like it was modeled on Japanese subway systems.

We found 2 of Paris's not so numerous Starbucks. One at Saint-Lazare and one at Odéon station. So now we know where to come for our coffee fix. There are McDonalds all over, but the one near us doesn't advertize WiFi.

Elena is so funny. She always finds the worst in a place and declares she doesn't like it. But, then she doesn't take much time to start to see the good parts. I tend to start out liking the places I visit and generally don't change my opinion that much. They say (tautologically) that you never have a second chance to make a good first impression. With Elena, you probably don't even have the first chance. ;-) But she never keeps her bad first impressions. :-)