Outside Le Trocadéro

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to "La Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine", a museum I will tell you more about later. After my visit, I had a coffee on the little terrace they have right outside one wing of Le Trocadero (and yes, the weather was nicer than expected!). Here is the scenery I could see when looking at the sky. Pretty cool.

C'mon we are in June!

This has got to be the rainiest and coldest month of June I've ever experienced in Paris. Like I told you the weather during the white dinner party was really chilly and the next 5 days or so will be rainy... Wait, that is not all: the temperature are, on average, 5 degrees (Celsius) below normal (sorry PHX-CDG!!)! I realize every day how lucky we've been with the PDP picnic! Have a nice weekend; time for me to go to bed with an extra blanket!! (BTW, if you're interested, CNN posted the debate that took place in Le Senat that I mentioned last Monday - June 9. See France on the move, part 1 to 4))

Le dïner en blanc 2008

I'm just back from Le diner en blanc (the White dinner party) where I had a lot of fun. Unlike last year, where I only took photos, this time I also participated. What a thrill! I received my instructions from my contact (there is no central organizer - at least nobody knows him/her - but only contacts of contacts...). I was supposed to join my group at 9 pm on Place Saint Philippe du Roule. Around 9:15 pm, someone - who obviously knew where the dinner was going to take place - took the group to... the Champs Elysées. Within the blink of an eye the whole lower part of the avenue was covered in tables, chairs, candles... and people dressed in white. Fascinating. Around 10 pm a band started to play music and at 11 pm sharp everyone lit sparkling sticks. Beautiful. Magical moment - even if the weather was a little chilly. Check here for more shots.

Two wheels beat automobiles...

No, you don't need to be naked to ride a bike in Paris! According to the French trade association of bicycle manufacturers it looks as if we are definitely turning to bikes to replace cars, especially in large cities. According to the figures they mention there are 5.7 bikes per person in France which ranks us 4th largest bike "consumers" in the world behind Japan, the Netherlands and... the United States. I would have thought the Netherlands and China were far ahead of us. Anyway, regardless of what you may think, I took this photo right in the middle of Paris, near the Pelouse de Reuilly.

Palestine in Paris

Last night on my way back home I noticed some unusual traffic on the Pont des arts. I stopped and found out they're having a photo exhibit called "La Palestine à Paris". If you wander on this wonderful bridge, you can see about 150 photos about the daily life in Palestine taken by two famous Palestinian photographers: Rula Halawani and Taysir Batniji. This photo shows one of the two street lamps at the entrance of the bridge that they used to hang a street sign that says "Palestine, life, simply life". I don't know why, but something tells me this photo will have less comments than the one of yesterday ;-)

Sex in the city!

Sex on PDP today? Not really, but nudity! Explanation: this weekend we celebrated "Le Vélo" (bicycle) throughout France and in Paris of course (since the creation of Velib', it is extremely popular to ride a bicycle here). This gave an idea to a few protester associations who teamed up with nudist associations and organized a ride through Paris with no clothes on to protest against the invasion of cars, scooters, motorbikes... in Paris. One thing is sure, they managed to get medias' attention; there were more journalists and cameras there than actual demonstrators! More photos on the making of, of course ;).

Eye on France

What would Joséphine de Beauharnais (I guess it's her in the photo!) have thought of today's (Sunday) debate in Le Sénat, where CNN was closing its Eye on France week. I don't know, but it was interesting to hear what the 5 representatives of the nowadays French society had to answer to the questions of Hala Gorani, the host of the debate. Has France turned a new page since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy? The answer depends on which political side you stand, of course, but all along this debate, I could not help but thinking that the set CNN chose to close this week was the Senate, that is something symbolic of our past glory. What is France currently building/creating/inventing... that will be chosen by the next CNN in 300 years?