Paris – January 12, 2023
Theatre
Before getting to today’s pictures, I should let you know that I did indeed make it to the Theatre de la Huchette to see a performance of “La Cantatrice Chauve” (The Bald Soprano). It was wonderfully well performed, and, luckily, I have read the play in English, so I was able to follow along fairly well.
Belleville
I didn’t have any particular plans for today, so I chose a metro stop at semi-random; looking for one that wasn’t near a lot of tourist attractions. I ended up at the Belleville stop, and saw this film poster in the metro station. Someone had written the French word “caïd” (“boss”) over the heads of some of the actors.
It turns out that Belleville is pretty much a residential/business area. It happens to have a Chinatown, so that was a bit of a surprise. Here’s a store that sells twisted bamboo; I have left out pictures of stores with Chinese characters in their names as I didn’t have an interest in taking such pictures.
And now, in pretty much chronological order, stuff that caught my eye.
I wonder how the people who do these get up that high on the buildings.
Not sure if this was an attempt to be abstract or if alcohol or drugs may have been involved
Hey! I found the head of the Winged Victory of Samothrace!
An interesting pattern
And some interesting architecture
Not often that you see circular windows.
Again, wondering how they do this.
It’s unusual to see artwork added to the street signs.
This and the next one were in the window of an agency that assists immigrants. Artist is Jacky Didiot
Clever logo
This has a real art deco vibe to it.
This one and the next one were painted on the side of a storage container.
If I have become hardened, it is because I have seen my soul splitting.
Place de la Nation
OK back to the “Paris” part of Paris.
The top poster asks the people to decide on pensions; the bottom poster asks for raises in salaries and pensions:
Great name on this store: “Wednesday on the Moon”
Triangular buildings aren’t only in New York.
Chocolate!!
Gare de Montparnasse
Took the metro back to the hotel and had to switch at the Gare de Montparnasse train station; decided to explore around there a bit.
Here’s a very clever accessibility device for visually impaired people using the station: they have their own “lane“ with guides that let them know if they are off course. (These may exist in the United States, but I can’t recall ever encountering them.)
Some photos from the metro station. You always know when the next two trains are arriving, and the station name is in very large lettering (there are signs every 10 or so meters), unlike BART, which has signs that are almost invisible and invariably half-hidden behind a pillar so that you have no idea where you are when you look out the window.
Grammar/Linguistics Note
French has masculine and feminine forms for job titles; a man who is a train driver is a conducteur; a female who is a train driver is a conductrice. So how do they do a “gender-neutral” advertisement to recruit new drivers? Here’s the solution: conducteur·rice·s. Another advertisement for security agents (not shown here) has agent·e·s to cover agents and agentes.
