In the upper left you can see one of the original “mini” cars parked in a way that only a mini can. That McDonald’s in the upper right was a “large” coffee… not large enough for me. We watched “Jersey Shore” with French language overdubs – can you believe that someone in France wakes up in the morning with the official job of translating “Snooki”? In the lower right there was a model right in the middle of the busiest street, doing a photo shoot.
Upper left – the place advertises itself as Lenny Kravitz’s favorite falafel stand. I saw a line of the old Citroen convertibles out for a weekend drive. Starbucks had people sitting outside like a French cafe.
This one is for our friend Gerry from Valparaiso Indiana. There is a cafe chain in Paris called “Indiana Cafe” and they serve Tex-Mex food, check out their site, and no I can’t figure out the connection, either. In the middle the translation for environmentalists was “tree hugger”, an excellent translation. They had a bird cage outside the window, which seems like a big tease.
In the lower left is one of those cooler old French cars with the rear wheel covered and I hope you don’t have to change the tire. We had a very friendly cat follow us and apparently a goat with goiter.
Cross posted at LITGM
Great work, thanks. We await your illustrated travel guide.
Just to clarify, did the goat follow you too?
“In the lower left is one of those cooler old French cars with the rear wheel covered”
The Citroen DS 19
It was way ahead of its time in styling and technology. It did not sell well in the US, probably because of its underpowered 2 liter 4 cyl. motor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_DS
“The Citroën DS is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1955 and 1975. Styled by Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni, the DS is known for its aerodynamic futuristic body design and innovative technology, including a hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension.”
“The DS was historically significant for many reasons, one being that it was the first mass production car with front power disc brakes. It also featured hydropneumatic suspension including an automatic levelling system and variable ground clearance, power steering and a semi-automatic transmission, and a fibreglass roof which reduced weight transfer. … Inboard front brakes (as well as independent suspension) reduced unsprung weight. Different front and rear track widths and tyre sizes reduced the understeer typical of front-engined and front-wheel drive cars. …”
Smart move – with the euro in a deep doodoo now is a perfect time for European vacation…before SHTF on this side of the paddle…
I am going next year, hope the Euro stays cratered but I don’t think I need to worry too much about that. Who knows I may need to buy French Francs by that time.
I posted on my recent trip to Madrid with my daughter on my own blog. It is a bandwidth hog as they are videos but someone might be interested. I found Madrid to be a very clean city reminding me of Paris and pre-hippie San Francisco. Most men dressed in suits and ties, even at the bullfight. The women wore rather formal clothes and I did not see an obese person in 5 days. The Metro is very similar to that in Paris and heavily traveled. I’m going to post a few more videos when I solve the file size problem.
Pamela Geller @Atlas Shrugs, speaking of Madrid, asks:”I wonder how the crippling islamization of Europe has affected their tourism business?”
Apparently, not much.
I saw no sign of Muslims in Madrid. We did see the African sidewalk peddlers who are so common in Paris and Venice. I can’t recall seeing a woman with a hijab. I did see a few Muslim women in Paris.
My daughter is studying Arabic manuscripts from the Andalusian period of Spain before 1492. We were there for a meeting on that subject. She’s looking for a grant to spend next summer in Morocco. She went there a couple of times during the year she lived in Grenada. She says Grenada is a bit primitive for an American but Madrid was great. I would like to copy the bathroom we had in our hotel for my home.
“Starbucks had people sitting outside like a French cafe.”
Odd that this is something worth mentioning. I should probably visit that america of yours, cause I can’t understand why wouldn’t they be sitting outside, if it is sunny. I live in Finland, and McDonald’s has patio/terrace-tables, so you can have your nuggets “outside like a French cafe.”
I haven’t been in France in 10 years, but then I could smoke and drink beer at McDonalds. That was weird.
“I saw no sign of Muslims in Madrid. We did see the African sidewalk peddlers who are so common in Paris and Venice.”
Never been to Madrid, but I guess Spain has more South-American and West-African immigrants. They are not (at least noticeably) muslim. But I guess that spain’s and France’s tourism suffers from immigrant-related problems. That is the case for most of western Europe. Immigrants seem to fill that tourist-cheating/robbing niche. Islamization probably isn’t a problem for tourists.
I probably didn’t spend enough time describing Starbucks. I went all over town trying to find a boring, large US style coffee – the type that you get when you go to McDonalds or Dunkin’ Donuts. But I pretty much failed; the “large” coffee at the McDonalds down the street from my hotel was tiny, as I show in the photo above. So when I did see a Starbucks everyone was outside treating it like a traditional French cafe having a little drink, instead of the monstrous “venti” coffees everyone drinks here. I just thought it was funny, that’s all.