Parislog 92
February 3, 2007

Last weekend, I was not able to go on a fun photoshoot with a group I belong to because I had caught a bug. It was a sad day for me because I love any reason to go out and take pictures. And I really enjoy hanging out with this crowd. On the lucky side, this was the first sickness that I have had since I came to Paris. I was a little worried the first day because it started with a fever and then went to a sore throat and chest discomfort but then the fever went away and it just turned into a regular head cold so no worries. No fun, but no worries.So anyway, today I was feeling for the most part better and wanted desperately to get out of the house. I looked up what the photoshoot had been about and where, then took myself. This month’s meeting was in the Chinatown of Paris in the 13th arrondisement. It does not have the same sort of look that you expect from the downtown area. The buildings are not all old and in fact many seem to be from a horrible cement block period. The street was a little run down but not unsafe feeling so that was good. Of course there were the unknown foods in the windows and the writing that means nothing to my Occidental eyes. It also isn’t very big.I must say that the thing that struck my eye as the oddest were the huge groups of people surrounding 5 people. They were set in front of the “mall” and were writing people’s names in letters that were designed from pictures like a snake for an s. They are very common in all the tourist areas but I didn’t expect them here where there really did seem to be much of a tourist thing going on. I guess I must have been wrong though and there were many tourists in the neighborhood.