Going a bit out on a limb with this shot because it’s out of focus, but I think it captures quite well the atmosphere of this totally unreconstructed bistro which we stumbled across at lunchtime. Food, wine, this is why I came to Paris… (well, OK, I came for a conference, but y’know).
So as you might have gathered from yesterday’s post (I said, don’t ask), we have been in Paris for a few days. France becomes the 22nd different country to feature on the blog. Not a new country or place for me, but it’s been a while (2003 was the last visit to France and around 2000, I forget exactly, to Paris). We were staying near Montmartre, a good place to amble around on a warm sunny day and enjoy the view over the city from the steps below the Sacre-Coeur, as these people (and several hundred others) are doing.
Clearing up after the Bank Holiday crowd. Saturday’s walk notwithstanding, it has not been the most eventful eight days, but there’ll be a burst of activity from tomorrow.
Went to the cinema tonight to see a superb film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly — if you’ve never seen it I highly recommend it. It was being shown as a charity fundraiser, which meant we were obliged to listen to the speeches beforehand, hence this picture. But I am being unfair — it was for a good cause. And did I say it was a very good movie?
Another work trip to London — I have several of these coming up. No real opportunities for photography during the day, I’m afraid, but while waiting in the pub after work for my friend to turn up I started taking photos of the other customers. I’m not particularly satisfied with this shot but it’ll do, I guess. I like the guy’s look, though. Sort of like a 1970s revolutionary crossed with Carlos Santana.
One assumes that he fitted through the window on the way out, so will also fit through on the way back. Otherwise, he’s in difficulty — there is nothing below him except a ten-foot drop to the Rochdale Canal.
Staffing the ‘welcome desk’ halfway through the last day of the conference is not the most exciting job in the world, I am sure.
Last day in California — it’s been an interesting and enjoyable week. Can I take the weather home, please?
Definitely don’t think I did San Francisco justice with yesterday’s shot — must have been the jet lag. This is much better. I apologise to the good people of the East Bay — Oakland and Berkeley — where I spent most of the day, but I have to go with this shot today. Could they have posed any better if they’d meant it? And love the cable cars too, one of those beautiful anachronisms that civic activism has preserved, and the world’s a better place for it.
So what’s in the carrying case? Inquiring minds want to know.
There he was, playing the theme from The Godfather. And happy with it. I make this only the second busker to appear on the blog.
Perhaps I could have got a photo to mark Joe’s birthday, 12 years old today. Never mind, let’s mark it anyway.
Being 42 