Roll #5

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		First we walked from our hotel to the Centre Culturel G. Pompidou. As we approached the unusual color scheme caught our eyes from quite a distance. The exterior of the building houses all the pipes and ducts to help maximize space inside. They color coded the different systems. The big white pipes are ventilation. The small white pipes are structural. The small blue pipes are water, the small red pipes are the sprinkler system and so on.
		Here is what the front looks like. I should note that some Parisians dislike the building. For some reason, the French aren't big on flashy buildings, but tourists love them. On this wall, the structural pipes are the most noticeable. Also, some of the exterior hallways are visible in this shot.
		There is a fountain garden off to the side of the Centre Pompidou (notice the big white vent tubes in the background), and in this garden are many moving fountains. This is one of the more famous fountains, the spitting lips, but I liked the one behind it better.
		Here is a shot from further away of the fountain garden. Notice, behind the highly modern fountain garden is an ancient neighborhood church undergoing heavy restoration.
		As we continued our walk around Paris (no tour buses for us, thank you very much), I saw this unusual item. Apparently, a bank was going to build offices in Paris, but wanted to keep the facade of an old building; either that or is required, by law, to save the old facade.
		So they gutted the old building and are keeping the facade in most places. It would be interesting to go back in a few years and first: find this place, and second: see the result.
		As the city replaces old, worn out items, with modernized (and handicapped-accessible) entrances, old metro entrances are becoming almost impossible to find. Yet, while walking around, this one showed up across the street from us, and the French teachers were amazed, so I took a picture to show that a few still exist.
		Here is a picture taken over the Place De La Concorde, where a large Farris wheel was erected for the New Year 2000 celebration, and it hadn't been taken down yet. Still, this photo does give an idea of how the city looks at dusk.
		As I sat writing this site, I opened up our tourist map of Paris and attempted to arrange these photos in the order that makes sense on the map. This photo, if I remember correctly, is the statue of the gilt Winged Mercury that was near our hotel (a Comfort Inn) and was between us and the nearest metro station.
		Just as Lyon has rising water problems, Paris was seeing the same thing. To the left is a road that goes along the river, which is now underwater. To the right is a park. It's hard to tell, but there are some poles sticking out of the ground and a few other things over there that would be hazardous in the middle of a river. A photo like this makes me ask: just how long is a cubit?
		We approached Notre Dame from the back. We were approaching from the other island in the middle of the Seine. There is still some scaffolding to repair the tower, but most of the exterior restoration has been completed, as seen in the next photo.
		This is the money shot of Notre Dame. (There were hundreds of people taking this same shot of Notre Dame.)  Much of the exterior has been completely restored to its original splendor. However, the saints and kings surrounding the doors still have no heads, but there is a long story behind that.
		Whenever a distance is measured to a city, it's often ambiguous where in the city the distance is measured to. Paris refuses to be ambiguous. Right in front of the doors to Notre Dame is this circle. This circle is the point in Paris that distances are measured from. Yet, for some reason, many tour guides leave this fact out. What a shame.
		People love to complain when their photos of stained glass windows don't turn out, or are barely visible. Yet, I hardly ever have that problem. Oh well. Here is a nice window in Notre Dame.
		This is another window, I don't remember which window is on which side of the church, but they're still impressive. This was a slightly more obscure angle, but still a very nice stained glass window.
		When the French build a town hall, they do it with style. Here we see the Paris city hall (located just across the river from the Island of the City or l'Ile de la Cité). I liked the style so I took a few photos. However, this was one of the best.
		Here, the Americans mull around the open space near the city hall. If you look in the background, it is easy to see the towers and central spire of Notre Dame. There are fountains between the city hall and the river. Also, in the upper left of the corner, there is a high-rise building located just outside the central area of Paris.
		There was a restaurant there called 'Indiana Tex-Mex.' Last time I checked, Indiana was pretty far from Texas or Mexico. However, I didn't name the restaurant so I have no idea what they were thinking. Oh, and in front of the restaurant is one of those Smart cars that you may have heard of. It doesn't look too safe.
		This is the famous Opera House of Paris. Supposedly there is a webcam that displays a live image of the opera house, but I'm still looking for it.
		This fountain was somewhere along the way from the Opera House. I believe this was outside of some old-city markets that they were in the process of rebuilding. I liked how the fountain and quickly snapped a shot of it (without really balancing the camera).