10 Paris

1. The Paris of the west – Denver, Detroit or San Francisco, USA or Montreal, Canada

2. The Paris of the east – Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Hanoi, Shanghai, etc
3. The Paris of the north – Tromso, Norway

4. The Paris of the south – Asheville, N Carolina, USA

5. The Paris of America – Cincinnati

6. The Paris of Africa – Abidjan, Ivory Coast

7. The Paris of the prairies – Saskatoon, Canada

8. The Paris of the plains – Kansas City, Missouri

9. The Paris of Siberia – Irkutsk

10. The Paris of South America – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Down and out in Paris and London

Cassowary Colorizations, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

I first came across George Orwell in school and have read 1984 and Animal Farm and some of his essays. I recently picked up and read his mainly factual account of poverty first in Paris then in London, which first appeared in 1933 and was Orwell's first full length work. I love his lean style. He's very journalistic. The book has the distinction of having been rejected by T S Eliot.

While in Paris he is on the breadline working as a plongeur in hotels. In London he is a fully fledged tramp for 30 days. The two halves are not a neat join and the Paris section is probably more interesting. Apparently the supposed order of events is fictional.

The book reminded me a little of W H Davies' Autobiography of a Supertramp but when I checked that came out some 15 years before. Davies did review it favourably. Orwell mentions Jack London in the book and was apparently an admirer of hiss People of the Abyss about life in London's east end, which came out in 1903.

The book is interesting for opening the door on other worlds and the many anecdotes it contains. The thought that some people are wholly occupied simply with feeding themselves, working and sleeping is sobering. Perhaps some of us have too much time on our hands.

 

10 cities named in Beatles songs

1. A day in the life (Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire)
2. Get back (Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona)
3. Back in the USSR (And Moscow girls make me sing and shout)
4. Maggie Mae (To the port of Liverpool)
5. Kansas City/Hey, hey, hey, hey (I’m going to Kansas City)
6-10. The ballad of John and Yoko (Standing in the dock at Southampton/Finally made the plane into Paris/Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton/Made a lightning trip to Vienna/Caught an early plane back to London)
(Also LA in Blue Jay Way)

French Cruelty

I was rather distressed to see on the recent trip to Paris cases of cruelty to garden gnomes. They look happy enough but such incarceration cannot be right. This shot was taken in a street near Notre Dame. I plan to take things up with the French Ambassador.

Iconic Paris

Took this on the recent trip south

Paris witness

Apart from the statue of Coligny the only other sign of any life I saw in Paris was this German gentleman hoding up texts to be seen by passing traffic. I am not sure that this is the most effective approach but it heartened  me to see someone doing something.

Gaspard de Coligny

Paris is a lovely palce in many ways but largely devoid of Protestant witness. It was a joy to stumble across this 19th century statute of Admiral Coligny (1519-1572) at the back of an Eglise Reformee. A stout Protestant he was martuyred with many others in the St Bartholomew Day massacre. See here for more on Coligny and here for a little on the church.

Fat Boys Slim etc

Some fun pics from Paris

Parisienne Solution

This sign is found in the Paris buses that we used. I have never seen anything quite like it in England. I think it says something like

Opening and closing of windows

You can open or close the windows as you please. In the case of a disagreement between passengers, priority is given to he who prefers the window closed.

Brady Paris

While we were in Paris we saw these signs. The Bill (my dad's name) is a shop and Le Brady is a cinema. It gives its name to a nearby arcade, presently full of Indian restaurants. In Paris, shops selling similar items often seemed to be found together in our experience. We came across rows of shops selling bridal wear in oneplace and in Montmartre there were music shops and African hair places all in one place.

Down and out

We're just back from a few days in Paris. We're tired but there's lots to do. This was taken on a Paris bus between th Arc de Triomphe and Garde du Nord. More to follow.

Paris (Van Leer)

This video features a track called Paris by Thijs Van Leer from his solo album Renaissance illustrated by old postcards found on Flickr and footage of the Eiffel Tower from 1898 found here.

Le Clochard (Bread)

Here's another Focus track with images. Jan Akkerman is on guitar with accompaniment from Thijs Van Leer. Le Clochard (Bread) is the second track on the first side of the second album, known best as Moving Waves. The pictures were found here.