To get out of the apartment while the noisy and dusty renovations were underway, I took off on a cold day to just walk around. I was gone all day and, because of the metro strike, spent most of the time walking. I did get on metro line 1 and it was almost scary as people were really pushing to get on the trains even though they were full. They just forced themselves in and somehow the doors were able to close although the conductor had to make several announcements at each stop to get clear of the doors as they sometimes couldn’t shut. In any case, I got as far as Tuleries and got off. It was really cold but the sky was blue and a frosty sun was shining and it was nice to be outside.

There are signs saying keep off the grass but these birds, I think they are seagulls, can’t read. I wonder why they picked this particular section of the park for their nap?

A Wallace Fountain providing drinkable water. You don’t see many of them working during the cold months.

 I even made it up to Montmartre. How would you like to climb these stairs everyday?

 The sun sets before 5 PM these days. I went into a cafe to sit down, warm up and have a cup of tea and got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 6 PM through the cafe’s window. You can see the lights of the cafe reflected in the window that I was taking the photo through.