Here's to city life!

The most memorable moments of living in big cities, hands down, has got to be when something out of the ordinary happens and people in the streets start talking to each other. That's when you realize that even though we pretend to ignore each other under normal circumstances, we're actually (for the most part, haha) totally normal and sociable people who are artificially separated by the social construction of the modern city.

In any case, these exceptional circumstances all too often involve something bad, like when my subway train got stuck under the East River and we were afraid we'd either die in an inferno or else have to evacuate on the tracks. Yes it may have reaffirmed my faith in humanity, but it wasn't particularly pleasant, either, haha. So when something exceptional and positive occurs, it's always such a magical experience.

Like yesterday, when Paris randomly got blanketed in 3 inches of snow. Not much by most standards, but here in Paris this was a Big Deal. So on my way to a meeting yesterday afternoon I grabbed my camera and headed straight to the Luxembourg Gardens:


The coolest part was seeing all the people taking pictures too, armed with cell phones, iPhones, and all kinds of cameras. This was when I realized just how noteworthy the snow was, that even regular Parisians were totally into it. We were all smiling and commenting on how beautiful the gardens were. And there were kids having snowball fights all over the place. The center basin area was closed off, which was actually awesome because it allowed for some better pictures without people in the way, haha:


And the Luxembourg Palace (where the French senate meets now):


Even Marie de Medici liked the snow, haha:


And the replica of the statue of liberty:

From there I headed on to my meeting (in the 6th, at the EHESS), and on the way I found a velib stand:


Perhaps even funnier than the stand was the dude standing next to one of the bikes trying to figure out how to clean it off. Which seemed like one of the dumber ideas I've seen in a while, because they don't clean the snow off here. Naturally. I almost bit the dust at least a few times on my walk over to the EHESS. There was no salt, and no one was about to go out of their way to shovel either, haha. So yeah, biking in those conditions, not the smartest thing. But I was nevertheless amused by the guy trying to figure out how to clean off the bike effectively.

Finally, the EHESS is right next to Sèvres-Babylone:

Of course, the snow is pretty much all gone now, but it was great while it lasted!