The Grittier Paris

Today Lori was cooking and I decided to look for the seedier, grittier Paris and I found it! Unfortunately, it also means less pictures. Since I was alone, I did not take my camera out as much.





I started my day with a Metro trip to the Bastille. There is a old railway which the city of Paris converted to a raised walkway. Underneath the walkway, there are trendy shops and art galleries. I enjoyed the walk up top because I got a birds eye view of the city (and a lot of the homeless which lived up there). I tried talking to several of the guys but no one spoke english. The raised walkway has very nice gardens and foliage.







I then ran into another strike going on - the doctors were protesting the proposed changes to the medical care from their current socialized medicine to a model closer to the one we have in the US. So I ended up talking with a bunch of the doctors and discussing the pros and cons of both systems. I spent about an hour talking with a whole group of them - very interesting exchange.






I then Metro'd over to the area where Canal St. Martin was. This certainly was not uptown. There were a lot of little restaurants - Indian, Greek, Ethiopian, Turkish - a very mixed neighborhood. I did have a great little picnic on the Canal St. Martin - a Greek sandwich. I walked over to the St. Louis Hospital which was a hospital set up for plague victims. A very nice (not crowded at all) square. I only went a short way on the Canal St. Martin - it did not look like it was doing much and I wanted to get to the Sentier/Beauburg districts.













I began walking toward the Sentier Metro. The neighborhood was much poorer and much more ethnically diverse. The houses were apartments - new and rundown. The streets were dirtier and more graffiti. Of course, I did not see any tourists. I did talk with a couple of people who told me if I wanted really different, to head to the eastern suburbs of Paris. This is where I would find a very diverse and struggling area. The French government has had lots of rioting in that area and lots of social issues. They really work at keeping the tourists out of that area.








I ended up at Les Halles (don't ask me how but I did). I did find the covered passage that Dad, Patricia, Doug and I found last year and then onto the Ile de la Cite. I stopped at the Shakespeare Book Co just to look and then walked thru a bit of the Latin Quarter. I then got on the train and returned to the apartment.











Lori and I had dinner and then headed to the motorcycle show. I have never seen so many motorcycles before in my life. When we came out of the Metro, there were hundreds (and these were not dealer's bikes - these were the folks in the show!).














On the Metro trip back, a jazz band got on on our car with a very cute little girl. They played some ragtime and the little girl just danced away. It was very cute and fun.

















Tomorrow - Lori is cooking and I am walking - Art Nouveau is on the list. It will be our last day in Paris - so sad!