Paris: the Perch of Pigeons

Today's title is my addition to the list of Paris's usual reputed nicknames: The City of Lights; The City of Love, etc... Pigeons are everywhere. You could practically pet them because they're so used to humans and don't fly away when you approach. I'm used to the birds I see scattering long before I walk by, but I've nearly run some pigeons over on my promenades because they stay put. They're so funny too, I can't help but imitate their waddle (especially the head-wiggle part) every time I see one. One of these days I'm going to look up and realize that everyone's staring at me while I do it, and then I'll probably have to rethink the whole pigeon waddle thing.

So, today was "la grève" in France. It's kinda weird. In America, when there's something we don't agree with, we petition, vote, campaign... In France, not so. In France, we strike! Why?? Because vee can't do somezing zeemple like zee puhteeshun. No no no. Vee must compleecate! C'est la vie! Well anyway, for something as rebellious as a strike, I think that it's really random that they actually have laws for strikes and that people actually follow those laws. eh? Like, today the big thing was the metros. They found out ahead of time how many train conductors were planning on participating in the strike so that they had the train forecast printed on line the night before. For the trains I take to work, 2 out of every 3 was supposed to show for my first, and 1 out of every 2 for the second. Ils sont fous ces gaulois. Tis another culture.
Well anyway, la grève on the metros = super crowded trains that come a lot less frequently depending on where you are.


So I'd decided that I wasn't going to go sightseeing today, cause I wanted it to be simple and it wouldn't be with the trains. But, as fortune would have it, my afternoon job today (which varies- I spend my mornings at l'etape and my afternoons doing whatever people need done) was running errands all over paris, and I happened to see the Sacre Cœur while I was at it. Fun stuff. It was me and one other girl who works there (probably in her early twenties) named Elodie. We brought food for the weekend to one guy, who wasn't in his apartment, and then we were going to visit one other guy in a different arrondissement (division of Paris, there are 20 total. they're each like a mini-city with it's own city hall and citizenship records everything), but when we got there the code that we had to get into the hotel building didn't work, and the guardian wasn't supposed to be there for another hour, so we left. I found the perfect street to buy souvenirs in. We talked and walked and exchanged funny guy stories (random people hitting on you in France, to be exact). Btw, Elodie is French, she's an intern from a city called Banlieue. She has the funniest facial expressions. Her expression is always an exclamation point to every sentence.


Let's see... any funny stories today? Mmmm... not really. I was really excited because I started writing tonight's entry at about 9pm instead of 11:30, but I guess that I'm not as inspired too early in the evening :) Either that, or it's just because my head is spinning from all the walking in almost-intense heat today...
Markou (I have no idea how that's spelled) and I played cards again today. She showed up later though, so we didn't have a chance to finish our game. I like to think I would have won it if we'd had time... Oh, and I remembered that it's Senegal that she's from, not Seychelles.


Two different shots of the Sacre Cœur (the colors are different for some reason)

One of the views from in front of the Sacre Cœur

And, like I said before, the lamppost pictures are always the bomb diggity