Reflections on Paris or ‘Getting about and getting along’

By Mark
I think the architecture of the place has an influence on the character of it. Paris is predominantly composed of six story buildings with narrow streets. Most buildings have storefronts on the first floor, and apartments or offices on the rest. The metro is always close by and parking is for scooters/motorcycles so walking is popular, and its ordinary to see men in suits and women in high heels riding scooters. You will never starve in Paris because you can’t walk 25m without passing a restaurant or food store. The sidewalks are sometimes crowded, but unusual for a large city, people are polite and say excuse me and thank you as we all dodge around. So you have a walking friendly city, a little crowded by our standards because of the narrow streets, and lots of families walking together because living and working is mixed together.

You shouldn’t drink too much wine because you need to stay alert for the bicycle lanes and the posts. The sidewalks are protected from cars trying to park on them by metal posts every few meters. Not too challenging except for the places where driveways cross, and then you may get a surprise if you are looking at the map as you walk.

Coffee. Wow. Yum. Helps with the jet lag, oui !

We had a great day today, wandering about. We were looking for a tour book recommended food market and stumbled across a nice area of streets closed to cars. So nice after dodging traffic. Lunch was sweet crêpes and coffee.

The highlight of the day was Gaston the cat burglar. As we were chilling at the apartment with the window open, a woman poked her head in and apologized because, unseen to us, her cat had entered the apartment through the window. Naughty Gaston was soon reunited with his owner and we all had a good laugh.

Tomorrow we go to the airport to collect our car and then we are off to the Champaign region.