Parislog 73
October 21, 2006

I have as of yet to comprehend how there can be living establishments built on a busy street and left there long enough to become pseudo homes. I find these places with complete setups, beds, chairs, end tables, and food services areas. It hasn’t just happened once. The first one I notice on Ave. General Leclerc was a bed that had cardboard boxes on either end making surfaces for stuff and creating a sort of semi room. The owner of the pad would just hang out there. I never saw him act up or anything but it was all there on the sidewalk. Another one was on Rue d’Alesia. This one had a whole small community of tents and chairs. There was the food and clothes area as well. The fire station was 12 steps away.
These ones are gone now but they were in existence for many months maybe even 6. Now a new one has cropped up in another area of Ave. General Leclerc. This one has nice beds and boxsprings. It has a nice black end table and tarps to cover the beds when it rains. I noticed it when I walked out of the shoe store. There it was on the other side of the sidewalk near the roadway.What I don’t understand is why they get left there so long. What happened to France’s famous social security system that people pay half their wages to? I don’t know if it is half but I know it is a lot. Tax on your purchases is almost 20% and that is after you pay part of your salary to the government.

Parislog 72
October 18, 2006

While wasting time so as to be on time to my hairdresser, I went for a little stroll. Walking along a street in Paris near Bastille, I found this Landrover. Excuse my ignorance, but who needs a car like this in the city and how did the driver find so much mud?

If you want to see a remaining piece of the famous Bastille, it will only cost you the price of a metro ticket. Go to Metro Bastille and follow the signs to line number 5, direction Bobigny. I have seen it numerous times there but this time it was all tagged up with graffiti. What idiot would think that this was the place to graffiti? At least they didn’t do it on the actual stones.
Hari Krishna is in Paris! I had just walked into a store when I heard the familiar sounds of the song and the drums. I looked out the door and there they were, all 3 of them.

Parislog 71
October 15, 2006

This weekend A* and I went to Fontainebleau to the chateau of the kings. It was a truly amazing place with many architectural styles and furnishings in one place. The oldest part of the site was a medieval keep dating from the 12th century. The main entrance to the chateau is a double horseshoe staircase that creates a most sinuous and grandiose entrance.

There are so many notables that have lived there, or rather stayed part of the year, usually the fall, for hunting. Francois, Henri, Henri IV, Louis XIII, IV,V,VI, Napoleon, Napoleon III. King’s were born there, died there, and were married there. It is a truly rich place in history as well as style.

We both got the audio guides to better understand what we were about to see. I was fortunate enough to get entrance free for being registered as unemployed. What a cool thing. For most of the visit we were in relative piece and didn’t get surrounded by tour groups too often. Usually when that would happen we would give a little wait and get back out of it. There was one wonderful moment when we were sitting in the keep room and we were completely by ourselves. It was an awesome feeling. Later we had the tour guide from hell come around us. He had 2 clients and was speaking as loudly as if he had 50. He stood right next to me where I was listening to my audio guide and I actually could not hear it. I asked him to not be so loud and all he did was point to his guide badge and keep on speaking as though it were a giant field in which he had to project. Grrrr.

On our way out we found a dozen old collector cars parked in the courtyard. There was nothing around explaining why they were there. They were stunning cars though.

Afterwards we went to a cute little teashop and had tea and a little sponge cake. Then we walked around the town a little. It is a surprisingly big town with quite expensive clothing stores. I guess it is a well off little spot.