Sunday, January 4, 2009

Lamp Posts

I hate the idea of doing touristy things. I live here, god damn it. I am no tourist. But it was inevitable. I had to walk to the center of Paris eventually. What's there? Well, there's this arch thing

and lamp posts like these

as well as lots and lots and lots of fur. Rich women, young women, old women, and non women (well, you know, men) all draped in layers of soft fuzzy death. I am the first one to complain about the frigid air in Paris during winter but looking around at all the dead animals brought out the Berkeley in me. It's not that cold lady. Wool works too.

Besides all the fur, the best way to describe the Champs Elysees (the main street that ends at The Arc) and the buildings that border it, including the Arc, the Louvre, and a slough of other structures is BIG. While you can barely fit one person on a typical Parisienne sidewalk, the Champe Elysees is wide enough for fifty. I don't think any streets are big enough for more than a single Smart Car on the outskirts of town but here in the center of things the streets are literally so wide that they just stop having designated lanes. It looks more like an IKEA parking lot than a thoroughfare. It's obvious that this area is meant to be impressive. I guess I was impressed by the crazy scale of things but it also left me wondering...is France trying to overcompensate for something?

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