Paris and I ~ 'Keeping Abreast Of Things'

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Keeping Abreast Of Things ~

Keeping Abreast Of Things, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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There was an article on one of the on-line news services about breasts the other day which grabbed my attention.

Nothing surprising about that, you may be saying. That there was a news piece on breasts in France, I mean.

Anyway, apparently a local mairie (town hall) has been told to 'tone down' its patriotic Marianne bust, which proudly presides over all the daily goings-on such as court hearings and civil ceremonies. The problem seems to be that the Marianne bust is just a little too... busty. And it's true that this particular version of the republican icon does look as though she's got a couple of falsies in there.

You can just imagine defendents gazing dreamily over the heads of severe judges or young men about to tie the knot being nudged back to the present.. "Err, ugh? what?! Oh yes, um, I do, I do! - Sorry, my mind was on something else darling..."

Which is rather strange, given the omnipresence of the aforementioned appendages here in France. For a start, more than half the population has them. Furthermore, they have few qualms about getting them out for general ocular consumption for a few weeks every year on holiday. And finally, places like Paris are positively heaving with the things on any public building you might care to contemplate. Boobs are, literally, all over the French capital (and we haven't even started on advertising...)

There was a funny interview with an elderly Monsieur who couldn't understand what all the fuss was about (been there, done that, got the grandchildren to prove it), and another with the local po-faced mayor saying something surely politically correct about the affair and not wanting to shock the sensibilities of some.

If anything, I'm most takenaback by images like the above, from a museum courtyard just off the Place des Vosges in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. Isn't it just slightly bizarre to have a decidedly pert pair stuck on the female torso of what quickly metamorphosises into a lion(ess)? She's not even covered up, for crying out loud! At least Marianne was wearing a dress of sorts.

In every park, on any monument, all over the Louvre, on the front of the Opéra Garnier ferchrissakes (although once attacked with ink, it's true), breasts are everywhere. It's a fact we have to live and deal with every day of our lives, and I for one am prepared to face up to the challenge. If there are any further devolopments on the Marianne issue, rest assured, I'll keep you abrea... oh never mind.

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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