Magical Monday - Beach Head

A head, a beach and an ice-cream man.

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

Christmas-tree-ageddon in Paris

In the UK, taking your Christmas decorations down after the 6th of January brings bad luck, so they say. In the France they don't seem to have this superstition. Christmas decorations hang suspended across the streets of Paris as late as February and March. There is a small delicatessen near us where the Christmas decorations hanging across the shop front stay there 12 months a year. Hey, why take them down, when you just have to put them up again?

Through out the whole of January Christmas trees appear on the pavements of Paris. Strewn around lampposts.

By trees.



Tossed in gutters.


Here the tree has been dismembered.


Some body is making an effort here. It's IN a bin and everything.

Here the Christmas tree has been put in a biodegradable gold plastic bag. Apparently this is no longer what one should do, there are drop off points where you can take your Christmas trees all over Paris. They should not be left there in bags, and even less so dumped in the street.

Here the road cleaning heros of Paris are taking away a truck load of badly diposed of Christmas trees.


And here somebody is simply having a wee joke.

I spotted the below tree after writing the above post. That's no mean achievement to get that tree up there. I shall be keeping an eye on it to see how long it stays there. Watch this space!

Apparently in 2011, 29 000 trees were collected from official disposal points in Paris and in 2012 this figure had gone up to 37 000. People are learning. The hope is that in 2013 the figure will be greater still.

For information of where to drop off your Christmas trees in Paris here are two links with all the details:
Où amener son sapin? (Mairie de Paris).

Recyclage des sapins de Noël : où déposer votre sapin à Paris en 2013.

We have a fake Christmas tree of sorts that is has now been used 8 times. I think we'll carry on with it for a few more years.

Magical Monday - Visitors from Loch Noodle

MM: week 12
Visitors from Loch Noodle

First I saw one.


And then I saw two!



When the kids saw these photos they both groaned. This is what they think of some of my photo-taking antics.

Every Monday, Magical Monday, I post a photo that is hopefully puzzling, fantastical or unexpected.

More photos from the Magical Mondays series can be found here.

Time for more Oddities

My collection of quirky Parisian snapshots has been building up in my 'Oddities' folder. What do you make of this fellow (spotted in the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen)? How would he look in the corner of your living room? Maybe in the kid's bedroom?

Or maybe you'd prefer this fine gentleman?


This cockerel, spotted in La Cité des Fleurs, made me smile. Could you look a bit more furious Monsieur Coq? Et bah non. Not possible.


Yoohoo! I'm over here.


Refreshment drink?


Perhaps you'd like to grate some carrots?


Flipflop art...really?


I prefer these giraffs.


I'm also quite partial to the plaster art, prevalent in our neighbourhood.


A love this giant silver scoubidou on Rue Chappe near the Sacré Coeur.


I found this silver human statue making his way home after a hard day's work quite sobering.


I didn't know what to make of rue Durantin covered in feathers. Where did they come from?


This cat, watching the world go by, made me laugh out loud. Can you see it wearing a virtual flowery house coat? I can.


A previous 'Oddities' post can be found here.

Random Parisian oddities

I wrote a post recently on beautiful strangeness, odd yet beautiful things I had seen in my travels round Paris.

Here, I've gathered together a plain ol' oddities collection.

Here's a scenario that is not at all odd if you happen to be a Parisian. But if you're not, then you maybe a little taken aback. The spaces at the other ends of both these cars were not big. I wonder how they managed when it was time to move.

I'm rather partial to these urban hay bails.

Here is a FANTASTIC shoe shop, KATA, on boulevard Barbès. There are quite a few of these KATA shops but this one is the biggest and the best. It is located in an old theatre. I don't know how long this shop has been here, but they haven't even taken down the velvet curtains since it was a theatre. There are white tiles on the floors and wire basket crates of shoes piled high with anything from filthy broken ancient shoes you wouldn't touch with a barge pole, to designer 'chaussures de marques' that you can pick up for a song. This is one of those places you have to go to regularly. Sometimes they have amazing bargains, and sometimes they have nothing. They may have something you adore, but will only have it in one size. I mostly get the kids shoes here, why pay 80euros for a pair of kids shoes when you can pay 10? I only managed to take this one photo because I was quickly asked to stop, but you get the gist. Unfortunately I didn't get all the elaborate gold mouldings on the ceiling.

On the subject of footwear, there seems to be a few street artists in the Montmartre neighbourhood who like shoes. I have now seen about 4 pairs of trainers strung up on a wire, round and about the 18th.

Some people prefer slippers.

Which brings me to the slipper factory, 'fabrique de pantoufles', out by Porte de Montmartre, which always makes me smile when I walk past.

As do these chairs. You can't fault their logic.

This shop also made me chuckle (it is now a hairdressers). It reminded me of my brain. Cluttered.

These doors to an 'école maternelle' (kindergarten) left me confused. How on earth can you justify putting rifles on the front door of a school for 3-6 year olds? A school that was designed to be a school?

In contrast, I LOVED this bath we spotted at the Marchés aux puces at St Ouen. It's not even one of the 'sabot' baths that have a step/seat in them. We have a pretty small bath, but not this small.

I was a little perplexed by this sign.

This shop confused me as well. What is it you people are selling?

I found this chair in a entrance way to an appartment block on rue Durantin. 

'If you're tired before going up the stairs. SIT DOWN. But don't take the chair'. NB-enormous red chain to prevent such a thing happening.