Post by GitteK on Jun 19, 2007 15:03:17 GMT -5
BUMMER IN THE MONTMARTROBUS
Late in the afternoon I hopped on the Montmartobus to rest my legs and get a ride to the backside of the hill. Then after a few stops 2 ratp officers get in and start asking for tickets to control if people were cheating. My conscious was as white as the driven snow because of my Carte Orange, so no probs there. But across from me in the bus was this senior Swedish couple and when the ratp officer reached them, only the husband could find his ticket.
The wife searched and searched and produced I think 10 purple t-tickets from her handbag and countless pockets in her trousers, but each time it was an old used metro ticket. The couple discussed in panic what they could do to make the officer understand and accept that she had in fact not been trying to cheat, but that she had lost her ticket. No good.........
End of story: she had to pay cash 57 euros !!!! I heard her say it to her husband "femtisju" .......
Morale: ALWAYS throw out old used tickets, so that you ONLY keep the one that you presently use for riding bus/metro.
And cling on to that one as if it was a 1,000,000 euro lotto coupon.
A VIEW THAT KILLS YOUR SLEEP
Returned to apt. after jazz+hash-session. But when I opened all my windows wide open, my eyes turned wide open too.
To my left just a little up the hill was Sacré Coeur, all lit up against the black velvety Parisian night sky. A dreamlike vision. Right in front of me further down was Notre Dame, Pantheon and Dome d'Invalides equally lit up. The city looks like an Alladin's cave when you see it from above. No, I cannot see the ET, only the laser beam. There is this highly irritating building on the other side of Rue des Abbesses that stand in the way. Why is there never any Stinger missiles around when you need them most ?
A STRANGE CHAPELLE
Went to see the church at Hôpital Pieté-Salpétrière. What a strange place. Most churches down here clearly "tell" their history, they feel alive and you can relate to them, religious or not. Not so in Chapelle Pieté-Salpétrière. Felt deserted, empty. Like a corpse, left by its spirit; you could call and no one would answer. Like a house left by its inhabitants who might have been emigrating or fleeing from something. So strange - is the word: uncanny ?
The hospital owes its name to the fact that it is built on the site of an ancient gunpowder factory. As far as I remember the hospital was built by Louis XIV. It has been used for mentally ill women and "fallan" women alike - partly prison, partly hospital - and it has a very tragic story. I think it was at one of the most bloody periods of the revolution that the revolutionary mob went berserk and slaughtered a great number of these innocent women. (History-savants: correct me on this). That's maybe why the chapelle has such a sad and sombre atmosphere.
It was also in this hospital that Lady Di died after her traffic accident.
Late in the afternoon I hopped on the Montmartobus to rest my legs and get a ride to the backside of the hill. Then after a few stops 2 ratp officers get in and start asking for tickets to control if people were cheating. My conscious was as white as the driven snow because of my Carte Orange, so no probs there. But across from me in the bus was this senior Swedish couple and when the ratp officer reached them, only the husband could find his ticket.
The wife searched and searched and produced I think 10 purple t-tickets from her handbag and countless pockets in her trousers, but each time it was an old used metro ticket. The couple discussed in panic what they could do to make the officer understand and accept that she had in fact not been trying to cheat, but that she had lost her ticket. No good.........
End of story: she had to pay cash 57 euros !!!! I heard her say it to her husband "femtisju" .......
Morale: ALWAYS throw out old used tickets, so that you ONLY keep the one that you presently use for riding bus/metro.
And cling on to that one as if it was a 1,000,000 euro lotto coupon.
A VIEW THAT KILLS YOUR SLEEP
Returned to apt. after jazz+hash-session. But when I opened all my windows wide open, my eyes turned wide open too.
To my left just a little up the hill was Sacré Coeur, all lit up against the black velvety Parisian night sky. A dreamlike vision. Right in front of me further down was Notre Dame, Pantheon and Dome d'Invalides equally lit up. The city looks like an Alladin's cave when you see it from above. No, I cannot see the ET, only the laser beam. There is this highly irritating building on the other side of Rue des Abbesses that stand in the way. Why is there never any Stinger missiles around when you need them most ?
A STRANGE CHAPELLE
Went to see the church at Hôpital Pieté-Salpétrière. What a strange place. Most churches down here clearly "tell" their history, they feel alive and you can relate to them, religious or not. Not so in Chapelle Pieté-Salpétrière. Felt deserted, empty. Like a corpse, left by its spirit; you could call and no one would answer. Like a house left by its inhabitants who might have been emigrating or fleeing from something. So strange - is the word: uncanny ?
The hospital owes its name to the fact that it is built on the site of an ancient gunpowder factory. As far as I remember the hospital was built by Louis XIV. It has been used for mentally ill women and "fallan" women alike - partly prison, partly hospital - and it has a very tragic story. I think it was at one of the most bloody periods of the revolution that the revolutionary mob went berserk and slaughtered a great number of these innocent women. (History-savants: correct me on this). That's maybe why the chapelle has such a sad and sombre atmosphere.
It was also in this hospital that Lady Di died after her traffic accident.