Europe Continued: Paris Day Two

So when Felipe and I are in Paris, we treat the time as if we lived there (but didn't have to work of course!). We spend the days walking around the parts of the city we love. It could be like the day before when we walked along the Boulevard St. Michel near the Latin Quarter, or along the Seine by the Pont des Artistes. This was a favorite spot for Felipe. He told me about having picnic style lunches with his friends on weekend evenings here, and so we often stop by to sit on the benches and people watch for a while. This visit was not as nice, as it seems that there was all sorts of changes passing on the bridge. People have started placing locks on the railings of the bridge, meant to symbolize their and their partners undying love - but in reality the bridge is entirely covered in locks...it's a bit unsightly and Felipe lamented the new "eyesore". Secondly there were people all over the bridge pushing for you to sign some sort of paper, none of them spoke, they just held out the paper and made a writing motion with a pen, asking in that way for you to sign some sort of petition. I'm not one for signing random things, so we politely declined. Thirdly, there was some guy hustling people playing three card monte (or as I guess the French call it: Les Trois Perdants). It's a public place, so of course the people may do what they please, it was just a bit of a let down from our past visits to the bridge.

We decided instead to relax a bit along the Seine itself, and so enjoyed a bench and watched some boat traffic, and people walking by.




You can see that many of the trees along the Seine have graffiti carved into their bark. I was taking some photos and notice the graffiti on the tree of the first photo in this post. I couldn't help but notice that inside of the heart it appeared that someone had carved a "F + S", maybe it's not that...but "looks like it" is good enough for me! If I ever were to carve my and Felipe's initials inside of a heart on a tree, I suppose I would do it next to the Seine in Paris. However, I'm not one to go carving into tree bark (it feels a bit wrong), so I'll just enjoy that someone else did it for themselves and it worked out for Felipe and I as well :)

Unrelated to this area, but having to do with our walk that day, we passed a little street market and I had to take a photo. I'm not sure the older woman by the butcher quite understood why I was taking a photo....

I would LOVE it if NYC had street markets like this! Sure we have some farmers markets, and a really terrific and large one in Union Square, but they get SO crowded and so cramped full of people that it's not a very pleasant shopping experience, for me at least. These little street markets are all over the place - I've never seen them so packed that you couldn't hardly move.... Well maybe someday we'll live in Paris and I can enjoy shopping at them.