Pavarotti dans le Metro

After dinner, I decided to explore the Left Bank. I took the Metro to Monparnasse and started strolling to the Quartier Latin. I now know where there is a concentration of movie houses (near the Gare Montparnasse), a possible escape on a hot afternoon later on in the week. I wandered down some small streets and found myself at a back entrance of the Jardins de Luxembourg, just as the gendarmes were ushering strollers out – the park closes at sundown. The light was beautiful and I took many more pictures than I have included here.

Eventually, I strolled down the Boulevard St-Michelle toward the Rue St-Jacques – Cluny Metro station. On the way, I availed myself of one of the new high-tech self-cleaning and free public WCs. In fact, I was reminded of the green pissoirs of my first trip to Paris, in 1962. For my younger readers, these were circular metal open-air constructions that enabled men to urinate with some privacy. I don’t know what facilities were offered women. The new unit comes with sanitary paper, a sink, etc. and once you leave, it is out of commission while it is scrubbed and dried ready for the next user.

I needed several changes of Metro lines from Boule-Miche to the Place de la Republique, the stop closest to my apartment. There were several musicians who boarded the trains offering unwelcome performances. But on the final train, I looked up and there was a black curtain strung between two uprights and a Pavarotti puppet started singing La Dame e Mobile from Rigoletto and mopped his brow with a handkerchief – how brilliant!!!