I had a very quiet, slowly flowing sort of day in Paris yesterday. Both my friend and I were on the iffy side of a cold, so were not in any kind of mood for adventures and epic efforts.
After a leisurely lunch near the Chartier (we had planned to go to that restaurant but arrived too late - massive queues!) we drifted down the Boulevard Poissonniere, and I wondered why the French thought fish were poisonous......
We walked past the famous cinema the Rex, and trickled towards the Bastille, where A wanted to buy some stickers (don't ask). Then fate, in the shape of a flea-market (brocante), struck. Obviously all other plans were shelved, and we spent two hours or so working our way through the various stalls.
By the time we got to the sticker place I regretted my choice of footwear, and installed myself outside a little cafe, while A went off in search of her stickers.
Having accomplished that task, we shuffled back to the Metro and took the #5 back to the Gare du Nord. Luckily the authorities have recently set up a new bookshop with a Laduree franchise in tow just before the Eurostar terminal, so we were able to recover from our labours - we had walked four out-of-sight hours that afternoon!!! despite our fragile condition - and await my boarding time in reasonably gracious surroundings.
As you can see the weather was dry but overcast, and light conditions not ideal for photographs. Nevertheless I think it is important that I take the odd picture for these blog posts, just so my readers realise that Paris doesn't always resemble the images postcards and coffee table books from Paris like to suggest.......
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| The Rex cinema |
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| A insisted I took a photo of this, rather than his twin, statue - the twin is rather defiled by graffiti, and it makes Paris look a bit vandalised |
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| I loved all those old light fittings! |
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| The flea-market! |
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| Little cafe near Bastille |
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| Modernist church hulking nearby |
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| New Eurostar amenity |
