Eau de Paris

Funny how the things you now take for granted like water and electricity in a big western country are not that granted everywhere! To be honest, I never paid that much attention to the price of utilities when I was in Paris, because from the very first times I moved into my own place I knew it was something you had to pay and that it was not very expensive. Now that I am in Malta, I had to look into all this with much more attention for they have a different system here: the more you use electricity and water, the more you pay - that is the more each kwh and cubic meter is expensive. This to encourage households to be "reasonable". These bottles are part of the Eau de Paris collection, that you can find at the Pavillon de l'eau in the 16th arrondissement.

Paris giant has left...

Browsing through my old photos, I just came across this one! I originally posted a photo of him in January 2008 and went back recently there to see if he was still hanging, but he had left (he left in June 2010, in fact)! Why did they hang this guy on this school? Because of a legend: a giant called Isoire (or Isoré, or even Issoire which is now the name of the street) used to rob people there in the old times. Someone (Guillaume d'Orange) is said to have chopped his head off, and buried the rest of the body on site! I wish I knew the real story behind this one!

Sunrise on the Tour Saint Jacques

The Tour Saint Jacques is a Paris landmark I often posted on PDP. When I started this blog it was closed, then under repair, then it reopened and now it's fully "operational". Like I already said, this tower is all what remains of the Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie ("Saint James of the butchery") church, which was leveled after the French Revolution. But the most interesting part, if you're a visitor is to visit it and enjoy a view that most Parisians are not even aware of! Check this.

Freeze!

No the title of this photo has nothing to do with the current Paris weather (even though I hear it would be appropriate!), but with a big "street freeze" I photographed at the end of March 2009. It was fun, shame they don't do that anymore... Sorry for the late posting these days, but I've had to get my local Internet subscription, and it was not easy to choose!

Lost cause...

It's funny to browse through my old photos because it reminds me of many events that took place in Paris during these past 10 years. Hence this demonstration against the anti smoking in public spaces law from 2006! Tobacconists were not too happy about it because they thought it would harm their business! In fact it did not really unfortunately; after a slight drop after 2005, the number of smokers started to increase again...