Big roundabouts are all over in Paris. Kinda a free-for-all really. Plow yerself in and hope you can get out where you want!
These are window guards since a lot of the windows are at street level... Not exactly sure how they would keep riff-raff out since they are probably pretty easy to jump over...but hey, they're pretty!
So, compare these two photos and you can see how enormous even these statues are...(see the little man standing in the bottom left hand corner of the right photo?)
There is a permanent carousal on one side of the Trocodero (the place/building with the big plaza, then there's a ton of steps and a grassy area and fountainy thing...) and other amusement sorta rides for small kids on the other side.
The big plaza here is absolutely packed with tourists, especially of the Asian kind apparently! I haven't seen so many people taking photos of the same people in different spots (and the same spots!) as I have here! Granted, this IS the most recognizable statue in the world!
No, the Eiffel Tower ISN'T sitting on the roof of this apartment block, I am trying to portray that one can see the Eiffel Tower from pretty much anywhere, it's SOOO big! I'm possibly 2-3 miles away, maybe 4!
The pretty girl, herself... I was standing about half a mile away.
This statue is a full road, a sidewalk, a full set of stairs and a dirt path away from the Eiffel Tower.
Because there are so many roundabouts in Paris, there also are multiple streets that start off of the roundabouts, but in pie-shape form (the middle of the "pie" is the roundabout, the streets are the knife slices to make street wedges, so to speak)... so, there are a lot of these rounded "corners" of apartment blocks.
I've come to realize that Parisians like wrought iron. A lot. It's everywhere and really makes the city quite unique and so pretty... (even though there's a lot of grubbiness.)
Just a pretty colored door, which is incredibly common, the next door down was hunter green, and the next was deep blue.
One goes from the sort of doorways like above this, to here. Slapped with stickers/posters etc.
More wrought iron work...it really does make the city so pretty!
This is quite common, seeing bicycles chained up everywhere (and being ridden) but also the graffiti. It's everywhere. This is going down to my closest Metro stop.
A dead-end street, in all it's quaintness!
The ornateness of all the apartments and their numbering is quite stunning, I think.
Though I can't quite read French, I do believe this is saying to keep the dogs on a leash when entering this place. Not sure what it is, a nice set of condos maybe? I remember seeing a sign in London that asked that the dogs not "soil" the grass. Funny.
What's so interesting about the apartments in Paris, is that each "block" of apartments can be entirely different than the ones right next to them. If you can look closer, the ones on the right are flowered cement detailing. The photo below it is a closer and hopefully more detailed one.
Paris has a lot of this....
...and unfortunately A LOT of this. (If you can't see what I'm targeting, it's next to the front driver's tire...on the sidewalk. Yuk.)
A couple of Parisians walking...
A lot of people drive scooters or motorcycles. Actually, heard an accident involving a motorcycle in a roundabout (uh huh...enter at your own risk apparently!) just this afternoon!
Parisians love balconies. And wrought iron.
I kinda "stalked" this precious old lady looking quite French as I walked behind her. This is her just entering her building...
Paris also has a LOT of stairs...there'll be these rather dead-ended street and a mongo-flight of stairs up to a main street.
Just a typical Paris street...
SOOO good talking with you today. I'm trying another comment. Wish I had internet at home!
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