Clever Pup cum Paris Flaneur
Galeries Lafayette Dome, by Hazel Smith (aka The Clever Pup)
Just like dominoes... I saw a boy, 9 or 10, trip into a display of mannequins at Galeries Lafayette and bang, bang bang, bang, bang - all five plaster ladies toppled onto the floor; their arms and legs falling off in the process. The poor kid. In passing I whispered, "C'est OK", but he started to cry despite his age. He told his mum he was hurt, but it was just his pride. The day before, my minibus driver told me that the word "gendarmes" meant "people with arms". Now these mannequins were "gens pas d'armes"... (The Clever Pup)
To go full disclosure, I concede that almost four years of Paris life and flanerie (1999-2003) irrevocably altered something in my DNA. Which is to say, maybe-just-maybe Hazel Smith's The Clever Pup blog post (and evocative photographs) won't enthuse you as totally as they did me. Maybe. But probably they will. If you are a flaneur. Or a flaneuse. Or you know Paris. Or you want to. It's a tasty amuse-bouche with unanticipated pleasures aplenty. I won't spoil, but I will tease you with a few of the ingredients that just might be on the menu:
- Musee du Moyen Age (aka the Musee Cluny)
- Petit Pont across the Seine
- Pompidou Center
- Rue Saint-Martin
- Rue Rambuteau
- Les Halles
- Saint-Eustache
- Galeries Lafayette
- Bourse (the Paris Stock Market)
- Dehillerin
- Galerie Choiseul
- Galerie Vivienne
- Eiffel Tower
- Sacre Cour
- Paris Opera
- Le Galfa
And did I mention the photographs? I wonder if this fair Torontoan is on Twitter, the medium would seem to fit her meandering ways... I'll take a look!