8 July 2019
Bonus update
Paris at 7AM - Pictures of the Seine and The Louvre
I dont have to be at the office until 10am, how luxurious, and it is only about 10 minutes walk from my hotel. That meant I could get up early, catch a train to the nice part of town, wander around, gawk at tourist things, all on a Monday morning.
First, the weather update, not so hot this morning, quite cool in fact, but still sunny. Now the jetlag update, strangely I have none? Seems impossible. I slept from 10pm until 6am both nights I have been here without waking up. On past trips the first night is a decent sleep due to exhaustion from the flight, but then the next few nights I tend to wake up at 2am and cant go back to sleep, not this time so far. Also I have not found myself yawning in the afternoon / evening at all.
Now for the Paris at 7am update - ridiculously quiet. Even at 8:30 many stores, cafes and bakeries are not open, and there is no one on the streets. What time does work start? No wonder my meetings dont start until 10, thats what time people wake up.
Now for an escalator update - none of them work. Ever. There are no working escalators anywhere in Paris. They all became filthy metal stairs about a decade ago and there is no plans to fix them. People sit on them and eat the food they bought because theres no seats in restaurants. More great culture.
And then as I returned to the train station by my hotel to go to work, very loud alarms were going off, people ran out of the station, all the ticket gates were open and waiting on the other side were soldiers with guns and police with dogs. I have no idea what was going on. Of course I stood around trying to find out what was going on, because I am a fool.
Its the Louvre, from the outside of course, pyramid shot coming up later. I went here last time and photographed people photographing the mona lisa. Even at this early hour there were South American girls trying to get me to fill out a survey / petition. They either try and rob you, or once you sign they demand 20 Euros, as you just signed to agree to sponsor a Peruvian childs education, or to provide clean drinking water for Ugandan nuns or some such nonsense. I had some choice words for them, they ran off and hassled a young Korean couple, even grabbing at them. I would kick them in the face if they grabbed me.
Probably shot of the day. Really happy with this camera in conjunction with auto settings in lightroom. I basically dont edit these photos, just enable lens profile corrections and hit auto.
The bridges are all vandalised with locks.
Is everyone (no one) getting tired of photos of old buildings taken square on, centered and aligned? I am.
Here is the pyramid. A big line is already forming. Hours before it opens on a Monday. Apparently there are other entrances with no queues, but I guess the pyramid thing is a line experience.
I went to relax in the park. You are not allowed on any grass anywhere in France.
I thought I better take a photo of me, to prove I was here and didnt just steal photos from google image search like the Indian family that faked climbing mount everest.
Near the park is a spooky abandoned fun fare. I dont think its actually abandoned, but it is not open at 7am.
Now for a couple of shots of streets that all look the same. This one has a pole sticking up.
Most streets have foul smelling water running down them for some reason. Who is the water authority of this city?
Last photo of the morning, a bunch of old cars on the back of a few trucks in the 'opera' area. It kind of looks like what we call in Australia the variety club bash, or the shitbox rally.