Jean's coat of arms.

Cool carved-stone ceiling over part of the spiral staircase in the Tour de Jean Sans Peur.

Tour de Jean Sans Peur.

Bofinger ceiling.

Bofinger.

Place des Vosges.

The Carnavalet Museum has a nice collection of old shop signs. This one (about 4 feet wide) seemed appropriate after my lunch at Bofinger.

A glass of espresso before hitting the Carnavalet the second day.

One of the courtyards at the Carnavalet museum.

The same courtyard through an interior window.

And another window.

Inside the Carnavalet.
Happy-happy-joy-joy...

This is the organ at St. Eustache. I silhoutted the blur that was the organist taking a bow so you can get an idea of the size.

The silhouette on the left is a young Japanese guy who shared my shelter for ten minutes without so much as meeting my eye. He's either very shy, or very freaked out by an old lady laughing at the lightning, or very local.




I wish this were a better shot. I was trying to catch the rain hitting a table when I realized the guys in blue had started waving at me and my camera. They couldn't possibly be Parisians. About then was when I realized my camera was catching a lot of spray, so I had to put it away.

1) France takes credit for having invented the shopping mall a few centuries ago. Here and there around the city, there are these "passages" or "galeries," covered areas lined with little shops. This one is the Passage du Grand Cerf.

I looked up "cerf": it means "stag." Don't ask me why this is named the Big Stag.

Oh, crap, the kid has spotted my camera. I'm exposed as a tourist. He wants money for something having to do with Senegal.





2) These places are so cool. They should be humming with shoppers, but the ones I've seen have been rather dead. Even on a Saturday, many of the tiny shops are closed, and there are empty storefronts scattered about.



4) Out the other end and we're on rue St. Denis, the Big Stag Party.


5) Back inside, looking in the other direction. I like the 1800s better.