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 Is there anything more beautiful than the bridges over the Seine? This one is Le Pont Marie and I took this photo yesterday evening from Le Pont Louis-Philippe right when a Bateau Mouche was passing underneath it (you can see the additional light coming from the boat). Le Pont Marie (named after its architect, Christophe Marie) is very old ; it was built between 1614 and 1635 and at that time several houses could be found on it. A huge flood destroyed 2 arches in 1658 and several houses - and inhabitants! - were taken away by the river... They decided not to rebuild the houses when they fixed the bridge...
 Here is a very typical and historical area of Paris I never told you about. It's called Le Sentier (after the name of one of the major streets that runs through it) and it's the heart of the French clothing wholesale. It's a place where a lot of immigrants started their company - and sometimes made their wealth: originally mostly Jews (from North Africa), but now more and more Chinese and Pakistani. It's also a place known for its illegal workshops (constantly chased by the Police though) and illegal day workers hired to carry loads of garments and fabric from one place to another on these little red and blue trolleys that you can see in the photo. And, last but not least, in my opinion, it's the next up and coming area of Paris...
 Le Palace was a mythical place when I was young. It was the equivalent to what Studio 54 was in New York in the 80's 70's: the club to be! It was closed in 1983 after its owner died and did not really reopened until a few days ago, after it's been turned into a theater again (see more of its history here). I'm also happy to post this photo today because it brings me back to when I started PDP with my little Sony compact camera: I posted a photo of Le Palace on April 8, 2005 ending the caption with " Nobody knows what the Palace is going to become." Now I know! Time flies and PDP has already a history!
 From what I understood from yesterday's comments, everyone seems happy after the US elections! I thought of celebrating the event with a little glass of a typical Paris beverage: water! As a matter of fact, the Paris town hall has been promoting tap water for several years now, and they even just opened a water museum in the 16th arrondissement where I photographed these 3 really cool pitchers (designed by Pierre Charpin). The whole purpose of this PR campaign is actually to let Parisians know that their tap water is just as good as bottled water, that it's much more environmentally friendly than bottled water and that it is about 300 times less expensive than bottled water! More here - in French - if you're interested.
 It's a tradition that has almost never ceased since 1924: the "straw vote" at the famous Harry's Bar... The principle is simple: any American citizen (who can show an American passport) and who is older than 18 can participate in the vote. The results are posted in front of the bar (and on the Web site) every week leading up to the election until the very final moment (I took this photo at 7 pm on November 4th Paris time). The interesting part is that ever since 1924, the straw vote at Harry's Bar was wrong only twice: in 1976 (Ford/Carter) and in 2004 (Bush II/Kerry). At the time I'm posting this photo, I still don't know if they were wrong a third time...
 Those who have been to Paris probably have come across the Bouquinistes, these typical book sellers who don't really have a bookshop but a "box" along the Seine embankment. There are currently 217 of them along the Seine, running no less than 900 boxes - that makes a total of roughly 300 000 old and new books, postcards, photos... The first ones appeared during the 16th century and they managed to survive until now, even though there has been several attempts to eradicated them (either for political reasons or economical ones). I took this photo in one of these boxes thinking it would be perfect for our theme day. On a different note, may I also wish a scary Halloween to all my American visitors! Click here to view thumbnails for all participants to the theme day.
 It's a classic, but it's always nice to see. I also took this photo from the rue Boissy d'Anglas, like the one 2 days ago. It's Le Dôme des Invalides, that I showed several times here, but not from this angle. You don't see much of that kind of architecture in New York, where I just arrived a couple of hours ago ;) But I love skyscrapers too! If you want to join the NYC PDP party on Tuesday 28, around 5:30/6:00 pm. Stay tuned..
 Here is another typical Paris scene! We often call the bar that can be found in cafés, "Le zinc", after the name of the metallic chemical element (even though, and I'm sure it will be a surprise to all my French readers, I found out that no bars have ever been made out of Zinc!). The little red and white napkin under the glasses is also very French: the red and white motive (which can also be green or blue) is called "Le Vichy" because it was originally made in Vichy (in the South center of France) - It was Brigitte Bardot who made it famous when she got married in a Vichy style dress in 1959!
 I may have spent 2 days in what we call the 21st arrondissement of Paris (that is what we call Deauville because, during weekends, you find more Parisians there than locals!) it still feels good to be back home. To celebrate, let me offer you - and Suzy in particular LOL - a real cliché(!). Now I have to work on my next trip to the US (I have no idea where to organize a PDP party in the big Apple?!) and take enough Paris photos to keep you guys busy while I'm away ;)
 I know that for most of you, La Parisienne probably refers to a sophisticated, elegantly dressed young woman... But the Swiss made her a cigarette! The brand was created in 1887 and owns apparently 16% of the Swiss market. Now, the funny part is that this photo was given to me by a real Parisienne, a one that PDPers know very well: Guille! Precisely I was supposed to take part in a another of these nice dinners where she and other PDP followers (Lynn, Thib, Katie...) were gathering last night, but I really needed to sleep. BTW, I'll be on vacation 2 weeks from next Monday (Boston and NYC).
 We're experiencing a sort of Indian summer in Paris at the moment (sort of, because we have no actual Indian summers in France!) and it's quite nice. Here is the photo I took this morning on my way to work. I took it from the Pont des Arts, where I waited for someone to walk "into the sun" (which was hard, because people nicely kept waiting for me to take a picture before actually walking pass the objective!). When I see this, I understand why so many people are in love with Paris ;)
 This is probably not the most beautiful photo I've ever posted here, but what it shows is interesting. In the background, there is a large painted wall on which you can see the remains of two typical old French ads: one for the soap Cadum and the other one for Dubonnet, a wine based aperitif. Both of these brands are very well known in France even though they are extremely old (Cadum was first launched in 1907 and Dubonnet in 1846). On top of that, both products still exist and are currently sold even though their advertising campaign is somewhat different nowadays ;). BTW I found this wall in the 13th arrondissement in rue de Tolbiac (close to number 126, obviously!)
 I'm just back from a mythical place in Paris: La Coupole. Located at Boulevard du Montparnasse, this brasserie was created in 1927 and remained one of the hottest places to be seen at until the 60's. People like Josephine Baker, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and a large number of other artists and celebrities of the time used to go there for a drink and a good dance in the basement dance hall. I went there for the inauguration of the brand new Coupole (dome) that 4 artists just decorated.
 The weather continues to be nice so I went back for a walk to the Luxembourg gardens. I took this photo thinking that even if these two women have a "slight" difference of age, both of them paid attention to what clothes they would wear today! In French we say "Clothes don't make the monk" - l'habit ne fait pas le moine - but I don't really agree... You can deduct a lot of things by the way people dress, at least in France. In England people are judged by the way they speak, in France they are by the way they dress!
 I'm just back from dinner with the Benauts - and Michael who showed them Montmartre and Le Sacré Coeur this morning - at the excellent Le Georges restaurant on top of the Pompidou Center (also called Beaubourg Center) and here his the view we could see from the table we where sitting at until the sun went down for good. We had a lovely time and I'll post more photos on the making of later. But right now I just want to go to bed! Have a nice Sunday - and a good Labor day weekend if you're in the US.
 If you already visited Paris and went under the Arc de Triomphe you probably know the story, but I think it's worth telling. So... Under this arch, there is a tomb, dedicated to all soldiers who fought during WWI (right behind the flowers in the foreground in the photo). To make it more universal, the journalist Gabriel Boissy came up with the idea that an anonymous soldier should be buried there. To do so, they picked 8 coffins of soldiers who were never identified and asked the Private Auguste Thin to choose one by dropping a bouquet of flowers on one of the coffins. The soldier was transfered to the Arch of Triumph on November 11, 1920 and every day, at 6:30 PM they revive the flame that burns next to the tomb.
 To prove to you that Paris is such an open-minded city, I wanted to show you this woman and her dog who decided to take a stroll between the revelers of happy hour one evening. I realize that for some of you, you'll be disappointed to notice that it's not a "French poodle", but therein lies our diversity. We welcome most any animal and their owner when it comes to sharing mojitos in the 2nd arrondissement!
 A very Parisian scene today and... a very odd way of carrying such a music instrument through the streets of Paris! I took this shot rue Montmartre (2nd arrondissement) while I was having a drink with friends on a terrace. Of course, I found out later that this lady did not just happen to carry her cello (is it really a cello?)... She was actually playing it in front of each café, to collect a few euros - (of course, I contributed ;).
 Things are pretty rough at the moment on my side so I went back to Montmartre for a walk around the vineyards (it's the green part, in the background) and I came across this little square, named after Roland Dorgelès, a French journalist and writer who became famous after a hoax: he attached a brush to the tail of a donkey, made it paint "something", called the painting " Sunset over the Adriatic" signed it by the donkey's name anagram Boronali (first name Joachim-Raphaël!) and managed to exhibit the "masterpiece" at an art show in 1910! It sold for 400 francs (1 400 of today's euros) apparently.
 Another of our Bastille Day tradition: Le défilé militaire (the military parade). Last year I was too lazy to go so I posted a photo that I stole from the television (!), but this morning I made the effort to wake up early and pay the French army men a visit. And I did not regret it; even though I'm not too much into military things, I enjoyed the parade and its final climax: the landing of 7 paratroopers right in front of the official tribune on the Place de la Concorde. Really impressive. Almost at the same time another tradition took place, this time in Southern California: a PDP gathering! Starring Tall Gary, Pont Girl, Carrie and Petrea and her husband. If you're a true visitor to PDP these names will undoubtedly ring a bell! Now, you can see them for real...
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