Potpourri for $200, Alex

Odds-n-ends observations from our April in Paris trip  

People don’t kiss one another on their cheeks anymore. Instead, we saw numerous people shaking hands – men and women. Odd and a bit sad. Along these lines, we saw many natives eating food “on the run” in the streets! Fast food and no cheek kissing? Is this Paris?

A somewhat welcome change, though they decrease the spiciness of walking in Paris, is that there are pedestrian crossing signals everywhere. And people (natives included!) actually abide by them!

An ENTIRELY welcome change is that the crotte des chiens are getting to be pretty scarce. Bertrand Delanoë, the maire, has declared war on insensitive owners and they are now fined about €300 per unscooped poop! Here we see one of the last few undisturbed examples. Did its owner pay the price?

There are now municipal bicycles everywhere that can be rented cheaply. The idea is that you pick one up at your starting point and pedal it to the station nearest your destination. The system cuts down on car traffic and pollution. It seems to be popular; we saw many people riding the distinctive gray bikes.

To further encourage their use, Paris has now sprouted bike lanes. I’m not sure how effective they are since there aren’t many and those that exist are crossed by pedestrians quite a bit.

Another initiative of the Mairie de Paris is electric cars. Similar to the bikes (and similar to our Zip Cars), these are meant to be rented from station to station, though obviously they can be used on round trips. Here is the station below our apartment window (and in front of La Rotisserie), and typically, most of the cars are out, suggesting that this innovation has been embraced. You do in fact see the electrics all over the place.

Keeping with the auto theme, the last time we were here, original Minis were everywhere. Not so so now! This may be the last one:

They have been replaced by Smartcars, the new Fiat 500s (LOTS of those), the new Minis (quite right), and these little single-seat Renaults (note that it’s parked in a space that even a Smartcar had to pass up):

This cutie was often parked down the street from our building at night and during the day we saw it parked in various places around the islands.

Too bad it’ll never be seen in the numbers we see the other tiny cars; too many repairs to the bodywork!:

Thankfully the odd 2CV or two is still cranking and clanking around the cobblestones of Paris:

And though the motorscooter is still seen everywhere, a new three-wheeler has really taken the Paris streets by storm:

These things are everywhere. They are nifty to watch go around corners because the front tires lean into the turn, not the whole bike. So, cool technology, but man are the geometrics, mechanicals, and pneumatics complex!

On one of our walks, we came across this art deco sign:

I was intrigued for some reason and googled it. Not only is Duluc Detectives a real detective agency, but it’s been around for well over 100 years, having been founded by M. Duluc in 1910:

Nice mug shot!

It's currently run by his great granddaughter. Their motto? “In order to decide, one needs to know.”

The company is semi-famous among Parisians for both corporate and private (very private!) needs. Another odd bit of whimsy: Duluc is the model for the Luduc Investigation Agency, the centerpiece of a series of detective novels by Clara Black. There's a nice write-up about this at Invisible Paris.

So, that's about it! We had a wonderful week in Paris celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and Claudia's birthday. The weather added a dimension - we lingered over meals much more (as you can tell from these pages!) - but didn't keep us from doing anything we wanted to do. 

 Au Revoir!

PS: Claudia wants me to add that she had a small, but significant triumph: She prevented me from purchasing a beret!

Or so she thinks...