| Paris: chimney riots and naughty shops |
[Jun. 7th, 2009|06:17 am] |
A further instalment of anti-tourist photos from Paris....
The elegant villa-style buildings of Paris get endearingly chaotic once you're up to roof level. Here's a veritable riot of chimneys:
And an absolute frenzy of balconies. Note the stone inscription over the door - 'Passage Du Ponceau'. This means 'Passage Of Ponces':
This one is just crying out to have some Modern Toss-style speech bubbles coming out of the vents:
Paris is a city of parks and gardens. And here are the rules, posted at the gate to every park, which you must memorise before you're allowed entry. Park keepers will suddenly jump out from behind trees and insist you recite Rule 457 subsection 2(b) at a moment's notice:
Paris is also a city of Minis. They're everywhere, used as everyday city cars, in a way that they're not in London these days. Most of them have been fitted with nudge bars, because the standard Mini bumpers are really for novelty value only. But here's one owner who has improvised an impact-absorbing collision protection system out of two 5-litre drinks containers and a bit of washing line. Now why didn't Alec Issigonis think of that?
I have a theory that if you want to learn about a country, go shopping. Handily enough, Paris has lots of shops, where you can buy all manner of necessities for elegant modern living, such as headless naked bodies:
There seems to be some sort of competition among French pharmacists to see who can have the most elaborate animated LED sign. The humble green cross chemist's shop sign we know in the UK is transformed into a frenzy of dancing lights in Paris. Here's one, caught in mid-animation:
And here's another, which - I kid you not - was making Scottish tartan patterns in bright daylight. I think this is Gunn tartan, isnt it?
Strangely enough, Paris, the city of risqué abandon, is terribly innocent in some ways. You'd never get away with this name for a children's clothes shop in the UK:
However, the proprietor of this kiddies' clothes shop - just down the road from the one above - really must be having a larf:
As Obélix never quite said, these French are crazy! |
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| Comments: |
That third one needs the Modern Toss treatment I agree!
And hurrah for the last two. I love rude signage me!
you travelouge is once again brilliant - may i call you the new alan whittakar? | |
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