Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles

When I told my sister, that I also wanted to have a look at a pest-control shop in Paris, she told me that I am crazy. But then I convinced her and when we arrived there, she took way more pictures of the store than I did.

Julien Aurouze is a pest control shop in central Paris, situated between the Rue de Rivoli and the Forums des Halles. The eye-grabbing front window is festooned with dead rats and other critters. The shop opened in 1872 and was also featured in the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille. (That´s what I mentioned to convince my sister.)

Pigeon Man in Paris

Can you see the dove man?

Here he is:

This guy really loved his pigeons. They already sensed him coming and were flapping their wings like crazy before he even arrived. We were sitting in a cafe opposite and had been watching Place Edmont Michelet (near Centre Pompidou) for some time. Every few minutes tourists fed hundreds of pigeons just to shoo them away seconds later to get some good pics.
When the pigeon man arrived he shooed the tourists away and defended his birds against all the new people arriving at this place and shouting like crazy at them. The birds loved him. When I approached the place to have a closer look at him talking with the pigeons, he looked suspiciously at me but was relieved when I stopped a few meters away and didn´t run through the birds. And he liked it, when I asked him whether I could take pictures of him and his birds. Maybe he also smiled because of my French. ;)

Can´t Wait For Paris!

A few weeks ago, I won two VIP tickets to the Crazy Horse Show Las Vegas. The people at Crazy Horse were kind enough to exchange them for the show at Paris. (Thanks Crazy Horse!) I wouldn´t have had the time and money to travel to the States to see the show. I was pretty excited to get the tickets, but then I had a hard time thinking of a friend who would like to join me on the trip. Not a lot of ladies I know would like to see this kind of show. 


13 years ago I had a similar experience. I saw an ad in a newspaper: a trip to Paris for 4 days / 3 nights  including breakfast, the bus trip, admission to 3 museums, 2 guided city tours, 1 boat tour on the Seine, and a few extras for the price of  100,- DM (around EUR 50/ $60). Considering that you have to pay a lot more than this sum just to travel to Paris, my boyfriend didn´t want to join me. He said there had to be something fishy about the offer. I didn´t really care, because it wouldn´t be too bad as only $60 were involved. Actually I was really disappointed that he didn´t join me. When I told my sister about it, she was as excited as I was. So off to Paris I went with my sister and it was a great trip. We both enjoyed it a lot.*


So I asked her to join me this time too, though I know that she´s not too excited about seeing naked ladies dancing. We´ve both had a lot of stuff going on the past weeks and months. She´s just completed her studies as an early childhood educator and I´m currently at home with both kids. They´ve got the whopping cough and have been home for a long time. A few days off will be great for both of us.
Best of all: I could finally buy my first Moleskine City Notebook and I´m excited to fill it with some sketches and lots of places I would like to visit in Paris.



* Did I ever mention the story, that my sister and I went to a local restaurant with only a French menu. None of us could speak French and we were both feeling very adventurous ordering something on the menu - without knowing what we would get. Expecting some French speciality, we almost peed our pants when I received roasted chicken and my sister received a Bratwurst. :)