La rue

After the rain

We've had lots of showers lately in Paris and then suddenly the sun appear giving nice light for a picture.

Welcome to Virginia

Great Paris blogger Virginia (Paris Through my Lens blog) arrived in Paris and I know she's got that thing with the "Red Paris" so it's for for Virginia !
For all others, as you can see if you look at how people are dressed in this typical Café, even though summer is supposed to be nearly here we are not having the weather we should (12° this morning !).

Bikes

Paris is not Amsterdam as far as bikes are concerned but for the last two years the number of bikes has increased a lot. We of course have the "Velib" about 20 000 free bikes in the city but people are more and more using their own bikes. Here you can see two different ways of parking the bike. On the sidewalk or on the balcony.

Bazar

In French "c'est le bazar" means "it's a mess" and a Bazar is also a used for a shop where you can find ... everything like that one.

Sunset

Sunset on  very Parisian apartment building in the 11th arrondissement with the kind of sky I like.

La République

This statue representing the French Republic stands in the center of the "Place de la République" one of the largest square in the city. The square has been created in 1889 for the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.

Mardi Gras

Paris doesn't have a giant Carnival like Rio or Venice but last sunday there was a "Carnaval de Paris" parade and as you can see we had Brazilians on the show. The great thing was that they made the two parades of the day (Chinesse New Year and Canival) meet on the Place de la République.
Today for Mardi Gras we do not do anything special in Paris except maybe in schools where the have fun with costumes. The two main Carnivals in France take place in the North in Dunkerque and in the South in Nice (click on cities for more information). As for me, my best Carnival ever was in New Orleans.

A night at the Opera

This is the Bastille subway station and the blue building in the background is the Bastille Opera House. I took this picture while waiting for the subway back home after having watched the Opera "La Somnambula" with Nathalie Dessay in leading role of Amina. It was just fabulous.

The canal is freezing

Actually it did not snow long yesterday and roads were ok but the temperatures keep going down and we even have a -18°c in the Paris suburb. The sky is blue though whivh gives nice colors like these on the Canal near Bastille which is starting to freeze. Have a nice week end!

Sweet name for a "Café"

This Parisian "Café" 's name is " Waiting for gold". Quite a good name that makes you want to seat there, doesn't it ?

More Opera

Mozart was also played outside during the "Opera des rues" event. Yesterday we had this great "Cosi fan tutte" version at the Place d'Aligre in the 11th arrondissment. Really stunning.

So Parisian

Don't you think ?

Bastille's genius

On june 7th I posted a picture of this statue called the Bastille Genius seen from the back. Here he is from the front. This statue is on the top of the July Column in the center of the Bastille square.

Paris or Rome ?

Street sceen in the 11th arrondissement. We do have a lot of vespas, scooters, motos ... in Paris ! Too much to my point of view but these look nice and old fashionned.

Door

A building entrance in the 11th arrondissement.

Rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine

The Faubourg Saint Antoine street is in the east of Paris leading from Nation square to Bastille square. You can see the top of the Bastille column in the far background. This is a busy street with a lot of shops, cafés and restaurant. That's the street I am riding when going from home to center Paris on my Velib.

Ostrich

I discovered this ostrich on the wall yesterday when walking around in the 11th arrondissement (you can see it better if you click on the picture). 

The little "house" on the pavement in the center is a place where they sale newspapers and magazines. We can see an add for "Courrier International" magazine with Barak Obama on the cover. Nice to finally see a magazine saying good things on an American president !

I also like this composition because that's a different Paris than the nice and very elegant Haussman buildings of the west side.

Place de la Nation

This is my favorite building located on "Place de la Nation" not far from home.

Cirque d'hiver

The "Cirque d'hiver" (Winter Circus) located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris was built in 1852. It hosts real circus shows and sometimes other shows.