Holiday Statistics - Daily Temps and Steps

I've added a graph of the daily temperatures (from the internet) and steps (as recorded by my iphone).

A divertimento

Saturday 23 September 2017 - Election night and I prepare and consume an Italiano Banchetto.

A walk and a dance

Saturday 15 July 2017 - Last day in Paris. Here is a view from one of the windows of my apartment.

From the window by the lift I could look down on the Anne Frank park, so today I went down there and wrote in my diary!

Practical stuff today, sending off the Colissimo box, packing, and test weighing my bags. Headed to Montorgueil for lunch. There are several 'passages' in Paris, and this is one of my favourties, it being in 'my' area. There are some wonderful small shops in here.

After a wee zzz, it was off to a modern dance, called Drumming Live, set to music by Steve Reich. First a shot, or two, of the ornate metro station at Bastille.

Nice to get the the July Column (Colonne de Juillet) with Auguste Dumont's Génie de la Liberté (the 'Spirit of Freedom' gilded statue in the background.

Here's the modern opera house, Opera Bastille. I have an interesting memory of those steps (story for another day).

Inside, there are several modern sculptures. This one caught my eye because it looks like the characters in the Stravinsky fountain, but I was unable to find out who the artist was.

Although this venue is often criticised, I thought it was rather splendid.

View of the stage from my seat.

The work was, shall I say, interesting.

Bastille Day

Friday 14 July 2017 - I made a brief entry before, to bring you a video of the jets, but it was a big day, so never got around to covering it properly. Here's the report, but I'm afraid the fireworks are still to come - I need to learn how to edit the video.

I set off early, as I knew the crowds would be huge. Came to a stop just before the Louvre and the Metro wasn't going to stop at any other stations near the parade route. So it was quite a long walk from there.

What stupid schmuck would leave their car on the main route on this day? Deserves to get towed away, I say. So all the streets nearby were shut down, very heavy police and military presence, and frankly, I thought they seemed quite jittery.

The route was not direct. We went through the Tuileries and crossed the Seine (ie, away from the parade route!). Caption for the photo above is, "I'm following them!"

This shot shows the Pont de la Concorde and I made a decision to stop just before this bridge on the d'Orsay side. The crowd was huge by this stage, and the hapless hopefuls who carried on had to go further down to another bridge to head toward the Champs Elysees - and I reckoned they would not have got near it. Where I was, I knew I would see the fly-past - and I was dead right.

It was a perfect spot to see the aircraft. It was amusing, like they had bought everything out of the hangar. So there were lots of whizzy jet fighters, but also every transport and utility plane they had.

My position was confirmed as I was surrounded by English aviation geeks who knew every aircraft type and model on display. It was funny, really. I spoke to them about the restoration scene in New Zealand, and promoted the Classic Fighters show and Wanaka.

Afterwards, I wanted to kill time to let the crowds disperse, so had lunch back across the river, and then went for a Ferris wheel ride.

Great views, first time on this don't know why I haven't done it before.

On the way home...

And that evening, I have a cruise on the Seine with dinner and fireworks. As mentioned earlier, the Maxim's boat cancelled, so I was offered a substitute, still with window seat. And it wasn't half bad, the redeeming feature being an open deck at the back where we watched the fireworks. But compared to some of the other boats around, this did seem like a tub bought out of retirement for the occasion.

I promise, there will be fireworks before I'm done with  this.

I bought it!

Thursday 13 July 2017 - Not a big report from this day. I had been stewing all week over something I had seen in a shop or gallery (bit of both). Finally decided to buy it this day, and then had to buy some packaging materials, etc, etc. It weighed in at 4 kg so I decided to take it home in my suitcase. Other stuff then went home in a Colissimo box from La Poste.

Interesting graffiti. Guess where I'm on the way to? La Poste, of course!

I have no idea why I took this photo, or where. Can't even tell you when, because the file is telling an impossibility (early morning!). But it's a nice typical Paris street at night. The non-stop service signs amuse me, because they're on all the restaurants, but what does it mean?

I had dinner at a restaurant that had live jazz which was very enjoyable. Perhaps the photo is of that, lol.

Oh, and perhaps you are wondering what "it" is. You'll just have to come and see it.

Liberte and La Poste

Wednesday 12 July 2017 - A general walk around today. Somewhere along the way, I found a live, open, La Poste! Could it be that Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite is all about post for the people?

Started walking around Ile de la Cite, and despite having many photos of this ol' dame, I took another one.

This is one of a series I'm going to title "Dude on a horse".

I passed the boat that cancelled on me. I was originally going to do my Bastille Day evening cruise on the Seine on Maxim's Bateau Ivre. Beautiful old style with Art Nouveau furnishings inside.

In the Jewish quarter at the end of the Marais, the Fallafel houses are famous. This day, one in particular seemed to draw the crowds.

This scooter has "Oldies 50" written on it. Can't imagine why that caught my eye.

Trolling around...

Tuesday 11 July 2017 - Trolling around regular Paris haunts today, but as I set off, still looking for a convenient nearby La Poste.

What a surprise to find it closed and abandoned! Anyhow, onwards to Montmarte.

Looks even seedier with the truck outside, eh? But now to a favourite area, the Marais, and Pompidou is always enjoyable - great shops there.

The Stravinsky fountain is a highlight. It's always in a disappointing state of repair with only some of the animations working. This time, it looked like the sculptures had been repainted, but lots of the features weren't working. Here's what Wikipedia says of the fountain, "The Stravinsky Fountain is a whimsical public fountain ornamented with sixteen works of sculpture, moving and spraying water, representing the works of composer Igor Stravinsky."

After that I felt compelled to immerse myself in local culture, so visited several bars in the area. Nuf said.