Parislog 34
August 8, 2006

I came out of my grocery store and caught a little girl of maybe 3 years old standing up. Something about the whole thing felt strange and as she was running into the store yelling at her mother, I noticed a large wet spot on the pavement. The puddle was trickled down the slight decline and it dawned on me that she had just peed on the sidewalk like a dog out in front of the whole world. I was stunned.

During August the city is just as empty as can be and not be a total ghost town. It seems that a great many of the Parisians living here take their vacations in August. Many of those people seem to be the small merchants making it a little challenging to shop. Walking down the roads, the windows are often covered with the big metal screens with signs on them telling when they will be back. For once, you can walk down the tiny sidewalks without having to elbow some room for yourself. The city lets a lot of the parking meters have a month off too. I am guessing that has more to do with all the meter maids being on vacation rather than being generous to the left over inhabitants.

I spent another Sunday at the Louvre. I spent three hours there and literally spent it all in one corner on one of the three floors. The section was the Flemish and Dutch paintings of the 17th C. Some of the paintings were spectacular. The detail was so fine that I felt that if I could touch it the carpet in the picture would actually feel soft. Another one had such incredible detail that it even included the dirty feet.



The similarity between 2 paintings, one by Koninck and the other by Rembrandt stunned me also. The only difference that struck me at first was that they were mirror images and then I started to notice other details but it was a little eerie at first.