"Snapshots" of Paris

I was that person who forgot to check their camera batteries before spending a weekend in Paris, so I will format this post a bit differently…

Some “Snapshots” of People in Paris

--Tourists and policemen on roller skates

--A homeless man watching passersby from a mountain of blankets and sleeping bags

--A group of singers enthusiastically chanting “Hare Krishna’s” in front of Notre Dame

--A three-piece band, two accordionists and (possibly) a zither player, jumping onto metro cars on Sunday to play for change

--A human statue dressed as a sarcophagus in front of the obelisk in Place de la Concorde (there was a panda as well, but it looked as if his choice of theme wasn’t making him much money…)

--The rich and famous, dressed in striped fur coats and neons, exiting an event for Paris Fashion Week

--A band of stilt-porting folk dancers performing under the Eiffel Tower

And my lesser-known highlight of Paris:

Shakespeare and Company (http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/index.php), a bookstore just across the Seine from Notre Dame de Paris. Jammed full of fiction and non fiction from the old to the contemporary, my favorite part of this bookstore was the upstairs, where former proprietor (and poet) George Whitman used to house penniless writers in exchange for help around the shop. One nook houses a piano, free for the playing, and another a typewriter and a myriad of books suited to the aspiring author. Out the window, some creative soul has constructed a dramatic scene on the roof with plastic dinosaurs.