Prowling my world, camera in hand

The highlight of the week was a brief trip to Paris. I was there from Tuesday evening until Thursday afternoon, attending a conference at the OECD headquarters. Because I needed to travel ultra-light, I took my most minimalist outfit with me–the Fuji X100 with its fixed 24mm (35mm equivalent) lens. The weather was what one might expect in Paris in late November, but the city is always magic.

But first, a few pictures from home.

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Morning light on my street:

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This is where I feed the homeless cats. However, this one is not homeless, it lives in one of the nearby houses. He just likes to prowl and possibly steal some of the food I and others put out for the strays:

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We had some rain early in the week:

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A very tempting sign on my habitual cycling route in the mountains:

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The village of Busot looked particularly pretty this morning against the backdrop of the hazy mountains:

And then on to Paris.

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I flew to Orly Tuesday afternoon and made my way to my hotel in the 16th Arrondissement. As I was walking from the RER station to the hotel, I crossed the Seine on the Pont du Garigliano and saw this magical sight:

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I dropped my things at the hotel and headed back out to meet up with a friend for some beer. We had agreed to meet on Place Saint Michel, a lively square in the Latin Quarter. It was cool but dry, and I enjoyed photographing the city around me. Here some cyclists in conversation. There were many more bicycles on the street than was the case when I was last here two years ago:

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Café on Place Saint Michel. The outside chairs are good for watching human traffic, and for smokers, since Paris too has gone smoke-free indoors:

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A striking building in the Latin Quarter. At first I thought, “nice reflections of the leaves”, until I realised that those reflections were actually painted on the façade:

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More street art:

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We ended up in a bar called the Mayflower (no idea why). It had an excellent selection of Belgian beer on tap, and for food equally excellent saucissons, simply served on a small cutting board with a knife:

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The only strange thing about the Mayflower was that all beer was served in standard English pint glasses. Normally, each Belgian beer has its own glass and serving it in a plain glass is somewhat sacrilegious:

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For some reason, we stopped for a cider in another bar in the Latin Quarter, where there was yet more art to be seen:

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I spent all Wednesday in a conference room at the OECD, followed by dinner with a group of economists from various IP offices. Afterwards, I walked to the Etoile-Charles de Gaulle metro station along Boulevard Victor Hugo. It was raining, which lent a certain atmosphere to the place:

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Sadly, there are homeless people in Paris like everywhere else. At this time of year they sleep in telephone booths or, like here, in shop entrances, building quite elaborate shelters:

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Boulevard Victor Hugo ends at the Arc de Triomphe, always an awesome sight, whether in black & white…:

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…or in colour, with the bright lights of Champs-Elysées in the background:

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Champs-Elysées is always beautiful but especially at night:

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Thursday morning I got up early. Walking along Avenue de Versailles towards the metro station, I passed a street market, just being set up. Here, fruit and veg:

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The butcher:

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The fishmonger:

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Again, I spent most of the day at the OECD. In the afternoon I walked to the Mouette metro station. I hung around on the surface a little while, photographing this typical building, before descending into the bowels of the metro to go to Orly and fly home: