Monday 26 December 2011

Nailing Christmas


iPhone Photo Chronicles
~ Nailing Christmas ~


Nailing Christmas, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.
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The fancy loopy lights of the Champs Élysées had remained a mystery to me until yesterday when I took a trip down there from Trocadero, via the Eiffel Tower.

Splendid. Very well done. In the most pointless coincidence you're likely to hear this year, the French actress Audrey Tautou, who turned them on this year (the lights), was the heroine of the Christmas video we watched when we got home, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, which features tons of Paris, although not, as far as I'm aware, the Champs Élysées.

I'm trying to think, but it might be the first time I've done such a thing on Christmas Day. It's amazing how many people had the same idea though. Thousands of them. I mean, how unoriginal. Couldn't they have stayed in and watched the... what do they have in France... the Emperor's speech or something?

Also amazing is how many people were working Christmas Day just like any other.

The Arab-run corner shops I can understand. The cheap-Indian-staffed, bargain basement supermarket chains, fair enough. The Jews don't 'do' Christmas, of course. The Chinese march to the beat of a different drum.

So who does that leave? A bunch of average people overeating and drinking (as if they needed an excuse), millions of snap-happy Japanese tourists grinning all over Lady Eiffel, not forgetting a few adults (and some innocent children) belonging to a group which occasionally gets together to celebrate the achievements of a fictional mass-murderer who massacred, notably, his own son by getting people to hammer nails through his hands and feet and leave him to rot.

Anyway. Call me a traditionalist, but it looks like I'll be sticking with Wallace & Gromit and The Snowman again this year, given that choice. Oh, and Amélie and her beloved Montmartre. How many of your favourite Paris places can you nail?

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Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

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