Mystery Photo - 2nd Installment

I received several guesses for the first installment of this feature. Thank you to all who played. Several guesses were clever but not quite right. For all of you still curious about Mystery Photo 1 the correct answer is: sugar beets! And congratulations to Jeanne-Marie who guessed it (OK, she's French so she had a leg up on this).

And now for Mystery Photo 2!

The 'not so mini' car...

In the U.S. the Mini-Cooper defines small car, right? Here in France, even though it seems cars are getting bigger and there are more of these larger cars, the Mini-Cooper isn't all that small. I offer in evidence these two photos - the first, three cars parked side by side, all different makes. Can you spot the Mini-Cooper?


The second photo is what here in France constitues are really small car. As you can see, it's small enough to park sideways in the space left between two 'normal' sized small French automobiles! (And I've seen this scene more than once!). Very useful, small cars!

Weekend in New York

No, I haven't gone to New York for the weekend. Strange title for a posting from my blog you think? Well, it came from a short travel article from Telerama (a weekly magazine with TV listings but also reviews of theatre, music, art. Last week I found a short travel article for a weekend in NY (titled NYC Loves Paris). For a restaurant, they suggested Cafe Gitane on Mott Street for espresso and said that you'd think you were at Place Sainte-Marthe, then suggested Barbes for a drink and some jazz, saying that the club was 'simply the most Parisian club in all New York. The final suggestion was a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the 'sublime Gustave Courbet retrospective'.

It just surprised me to 'send' French tourists to New York for the weekend and focus on things French...

Cops on the Beat

In one of my early posts I described the many ways the police here locomote - in patrol cars, on foot, on bicycles - most all of them pretty typical from the perspective of American cities. The one that caught me by surprise (so much by suprise that I wasn't prepared to take a photo) was cops on roller blades! Well, the second (or maybe it was the third time) I was ready so I offer you this photo as documentation!

Before they take the gloves off...

There are lots of motorcycles in Paris and, both because it’s milder here than in Minnesota and because for many this is their main transportation, when winter comes it’s not only the riders who put on winter clothes - they dress their motos for the season as well! And that means gloves that cover the handle bars and heavy blankets for the laps of the riders (these do double duty – it helps keep the rider warm and dry and keeps the seat dry when the motorcycle is parked)!