Tuesday the 24th... kind of ramble-y

 


Most of today's excitement came in the morning - the rest was spent in studio working and producing the majority of this blog so far....

so, in the morning i set out with a mission to find a skate shop i had seen saturday evening walking around. was HARD to find a specific little store from memories of a time when i was already a little lost.... so went more monument-hopping, it was in the opera area, but i had kind of missed the other highlights in the area. So when I couldn't find the shop quickly, I headed down a street (maybe for two blocks, things here are rediculously packed together) to see the Vendome column.

I've been reading Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne - a very excellent book, and it's exciting to read about things you've walked past in the very recent past, or know you can get to with all sorts of historical knowledge. On Friday night reading by the Pompidou, I was reading that a king had been assasinated... just to the east of the present Pompidou... pretty much where I was sitting. fun stuff like that. Anyway, the Vendome palace just kept popping up, so I was glad to see it.

Although... it wasn't that special, just a huge column in a plaza. Apparently the column was made from about 1300 Prussian cannons Napolean captured and melted down... you'd think i'd post a picture, but that was just a column. So this is from that plaza, they were doing restoration work on one of the facades. French construction is not as annoying as American though (although the jackhammers outside our window at 8 in the morning better stop soon, and it's concievable they will, they look almost done...), they do a great job putting attractive scaffolding up and covering it with tarps so it looks more like an art statement or even a new, modern facade. Or, in special instances, like this morning, and at the national galleries, they'll cover an area with fresh yellow pine boards - incredibly attractive :). So the picture is of that piece of French wonderfulness instead. although the column picture also had a gorgeous sky, it was a beautiful morning....