Karate at the hôtel de ville and swans on the Seine

Just when you think you've figured her out, Paris throws you a curve ball.

After waking up early this morning to a mad homework and cookie snacking session, I decided it was time to get out of the apt. I am in Paris after all. Good thing I live in the heart of the city -- dragging my little lazy butt downstairs and the 2 blocks it takes to get to hôtel de ville was about all I thought I could handle. However, as the story usually goes with my walks into the city, I was seduced by everything that was happening around me, and decided to spend the afternoon as a flâneur.

I brought along my camera, and boy was I glad I did. There's clearly always something happening in Paris. Today a festival to stop some disease I had never heard of brought out a full group of brazilian musicians and dancers as well as a karate demonstration. The brazilian drums were beating so wildly as the karate demonstration went on, it almost felt like taiko.

Karate demo.
Brazilian band on stage.

I stayed and listened to the music long enough to decide that I was going to see what else was happening near by. I crossed the bridge to île st. louis where I saw a great crowd of street performers. I almost squeezed my way past the spectators to see what the fuss was about until I saw an even more amazing sight -- swans! On the Seine! I had to go over and take pictures. It was pure magic.
I enjoyed many other sights along the way, too. The smells, colors, and sounds here are amazing. The art of spectating is well rewarded with interesting people, shops, and skylines everywhere.

Some chocolates I found in a window on île st. louis.
They reminded me of Sarah's chocolates.

City of wine.

The light purple + green combo is one of my favorites here.
There's something so Marie Antoinette about it.

My mom sometimes asks me if I go see films. To this I reply, "Why would I ever need to see a movie when I have the whole city to watch for free? Paris is my cinema!"

Interesting people watching by the Seine.

Large scale poster art on the river.

The only bad thing about city watching is that, between the long walks and windows full of chocolates and pastries, you tend to work up an appetite. I satisfied mine with a baguette from biatrix accompanied by the last of my first wheel of brie and some blackberry jam. Yum.


Some budget tips for the day: some of the more expensive supermarkets can surprise you with randomly inexpensive items!
Today I found out that there is an even cheaper brand of fake nutella than the one I've been buying at Franprix! Surprisingly, they only sell it at a store that is usually more expensive (G20). However, they don't sell it at all of the G20s, so I didn't know this was available until I went into the G20 at St. Paul. G20 also has this brand of products called 'ep' that is as cheap as, if not cheaper than dia (ED's brand) but they don't always have 'ep' products at every store. From now on, I'm going to check out this G20 in the St. Paul area for nutella and some other cheap-er items.

Total Damages today:
baguette from biatrix: 85 centimes