***
France/Spain 2011
Day 6 - 22nd March - Paris (Part 4)
Church of St Sulpice. I had no time and energy to go in.
Church of St Sulpice and fountain in front
Front of fountain
Dog and owner at play
Fetch
Front of Church of St Sulpice
Monument to Failure. Most street signs had explanations about the person or event the street was named after - but this didn't. It just had his name and his birth and death dates.
Fragmenting arm on side of building
This should be Rue de Rennes
??? centaur at what should be Rue du Vieux Colombier
"undress like a Princesse"
???
Fountain of the Four Seasons
I seem to recall that it looked different last time. Maybe I mixed it up with the one in Rome. It wasn't much of a fountain also, and I wasn't the only one annoyed at that: "The fountain is huge and richly decorated, but it had only two water spouts, and its grand scale on the narrow street, together with the lack of water, irritated Voltaire and other figures of the French Enlightenment"
Front of Fountain
Huge asparagus
Plaque to another guy shot by the Germans in World War II
I then went to Deyrolle, which was possibly my first taxidermist.
Various stuffed animals
Since my budget wasn't so high (and more importantly I still had a long way to travel) I settled for a Trochus Niloticus, Pecter Palliur (?) and a blue Etoile de Mer (Starfish)
Chickens and ostrich eggs
Largest busking group I'd seen in the Paris métro
Naturally I got solicited
Performance
Performing
I managed to get an audio clip of the pronunciation of "Franklin Roosevelt" in the Métro this time. "Franklin" is clearly mangled (pronounced the French way) but Roosevelt approximates the correct pronunciation. It's not as bad as it sounded in 2006. Oddly they played the station name only once - compared to twice on arrival at other stations. Perhaps they were ashamed at the mangling of the name?
George V is also commemorated on the Paris Métro - thanks to support during WWI.
I took this to highlight how hard it was to cross the road to get the bus to Beauvais airport. Notice all the people with wheelie bags suffering in the background.
Interesting book in the airport bookshop: "L'arrogance chinoise" ("Chinese Arrogance")
"La Chine tient ses promesses. Elle devrait dépasser les Etats-Unis et devenir la première puissance économique mondiale avant la fin de cette décennie. En trente ans, le niveau de vie des 1,3 milliard de Chinois a déjà été multiplié par dix. L'Empire du milieu ne veut plus des leçons d'un Occident décadent. Elle est prête à lui assener les siennes.
Mariage d'une économie de marché et d'un système politique autoritaire, ce régime, que l'auteur appelle l'«illibéralisme», séduit. Sommes-nous alors au bord d'un divorce douloureux avec le monde occidental ? Combien de temps accepterons-nous de voir classer, rétrograder, juger nos Etats, nos universités ou nos grandes entreprises par le Dragon Rouge ? Comment lutter à armes égales avec un nationalisme industriel sans égal ? Faut-il se retirer d'un marché aussi vaste ?
Six ans après son ouvrage visionnaire, Quand la Chine change le monde, Erik Izraelewicz dresse ici un constat terrifiant. La Chine a pris sa revanche. Economie émergente, elle s'est transformée en puissance arrogante !"
("China makes its promises. It will overtake the US and become the global economic superpower before the end of this decade. In 30 years, the standard of living of 1.3 billion Chinese has already improved by 10 times. The Middle Kingdom doesn't want to learn fromthe decadent West anymore. It is ready to hit out with its own.
A marriage of a market economy and an authoritarian political system, this regime, which the author calls "Illiberalism", attracts. Are we then nearing a painful divorce with the Western world? How long until we accept that we will see our States, universities and large companies ranked, demoted and judged by the Red Dragon? How to fight with equal might with an industrial nationalism without equal? Must we withdraw from a market that large?
6 years after his visionary work When China changes the world, Erik Izrelewicz presents here a terrifying conclusion. China has taken its revenge. An emerging economy, it has transformed into an arrogant power!"
They took out my stick to have a look at the security screening. Hah.
There was an American woman in the queue with a damn thin passport. I asked her why and she said it was old. Perhaps there is a connection here with American parochiality.
Absente brand of Absinthe
Land of alcohol
My lip balm is going strong even after 5 years. Maybe I don't use it enough.
French credit card machines are very smart. They read "patientez" ("be patient") then change to English after realising my card is foreign.