On the way, winding around in our rather serpentine fashion, we encountered some crowd noise a few blocks off and an ambulance, siren blaring, racing towards it. There has recently been a train strike over the change in the retirement age from 60 to 62 (poor babies!) so I thought that the noise might be related to some type of street demonstration or protest.
As we got closer, it was evident that the "noise" was actually music, or at least it claimed to be. The crowd was under 30, mostly male and the music was thumping club music. My assumption was that it was a gay pride parade, though it seemed pretty tame for that. No wild costumes, no men stripped to the waist. The parade consisted of many large trucks with the flat beds replaced with double decker arrangements that held lots of people, all moving to the music and a DJ at the end, spinning the noise.
Both the crowd, which really seemed spontaneous, and the participants on the trucks were young. That is, except for a few of us past a certain age. This man was not keen on music either.
My thought, exactly. This parade turned out to be the 12th annual celebration of techno music sponsored by some of the music companies. The police evidently thought that there might be some incidents because they had a decided presence at the intersections.
They didn't seem to be enjoying the festivities very much. We just caught the tail-end of the parade, enough to see about three of these trucks go by. They were quickly followed by a phalanx of big blue (police) and big green (sanitation) vehicles.
It's interesting what you find when you are not looking for it. From there, we were onward to our original mission of going the garden. The flowers there are looking a bit tired, but still lovely just the same -- a bit like an older woman.
It was a chilly, gray and intermittently dreary day yesterday. Not a good day for taking photos. None the less, here is the garden with the French Senate building in the background. This is a lovely place. I like to just go and sit and people-watch.
The local kids were having a great time, despite the clouds and periodic raindrops. There was a concession for renting miniature sailboats. They were not radio operated, but instead were propelled by use of long bamboo sticks to push them into the water. From there, it was the job of the wind (of which we certainly had plenty) to move them around the basin. Sometimes, the kids needed a bit of assistance to get them moving. Here's a Dad providing technical assistance. The boat took off and was across the basin in no time.
(sidebar: take a look at the way the light plays on the water and you will see why water was easy for Renoir and Monet and so difficult for everyone else)
Today is our 40th anniversary. We started the day by going this morning to the Museum of Montmartre, which happens to be conveniently located just across the street from our apartment. I am so glad that we went. It really explained the development of this area and all of the colorful people who lived here. i chose this photo as characteristic of the place in general area because of the black cat. A famous cafe opened here in the 1890's called Chat Noir.
There is an iconic advertising poster of the place, done I believe (or at least in the style of) Toulouse Lautrec. Here are some posters that we saw.
Tonight, we are going to dinner on the left bank at a restaurant that doesn't post its prices on its website. That makes me a little nervous. However, we might not be around for the 50th, so we might as well live it up.
