More Blog Bites from Deb 3-30-15

***Vignettes from Deb: Several people have said they couldn’t tell whether it was Deb or Warren writing, so now Deb is italicized.

 

***Bikes all over Paris, with people riding blithely amidst the huge busses, trucks and crazy motorcyclists. Lots of the taupe-colored Velib bikes in use. Velib is the public bike sharing system here (like the one Denver has, but much bigger.) and it’s the biggest one of its kind in the world except for those in China. There are something like 20,000 bikes available and ~1250 stations in the greater Paris metro area. You see people on the bikes all over, and nifty little conveyances that pick up a bunch of bikes to get them transported back to the heavy-use stations.

 

*** But it’s the bicyclists that are the interesting part. Almost no one wears helmets, but a small number of people have day-glow vests that they slip on over their coats. The age and dress variety makes for fun people watching. A few minutes observation from a sidewalk café at rush hour included: dozens of fashionable young women pedaling in high heels, even the bizarre platform ones / several dignified gentlemen in expensive overcoats with adroitly tied mufflers, and their briefcases tied on the back of their bikes / a half-dozen women in their late sixties to mid-seventies keeping up nicely with the pack / a nicely dressed, forty-ish mom with a pre-teen son nearly as big as she riding on the luggage rack behind her / and of course, lots of fit young guys setting speed and testosterone records weaving maniacally through traffic.

 

***A sure sign of spring (besides the fact that every bit of gardenable soil in town is blooming) is that the Wallace fountains have been turned on. These fountains are one of my favorite symbols of Paris. In the 1870’s an Englishman, Sir Richard Wallace inherited a fortune from his father, and decided to share it with his beloved France. Clean water was a rare resource in Paris, and water-borne diseases were still widespread. Wallace had several models of cast iron fountains designed, including wall mounted and freestanding pillar shaped ones, but the best known is the big, 9’ tall one with four caryatids supporting a dome. Water falls in a small stream from the center of the dome. There used to be hundreds of these, all financed by Wallace. There are now around 70 of the big fountains left, and a handful of the other models, all still dispensing clean water from March through November. They are a godsend, not only to the homeless, but also to thirsty, grubby-handed travelers like me.

 

***We’ve been amassing a mental collection of Paris courtyards and passages. Often hidden behind the huge doors on the street are little quiet oases with potted trees and flowering plants sitting on worn cobblestones, sometimes rutted from years of carriage wheels. There are fewer and fewer of these available to the public as crime and privacy concerned property owners close them off with digital locks. But we’ve been keeping an eye out open doors leading back to quiet stores or tiny restaurants. Some are grey, glum and utilitarian, but many show the French delight in making even a small space elegant and as lovely as possible.  Warren will share pictures (ed. note: whew I'm glad I had some pics that met the requirements)