franco-anglo-mascots

One of my tasks at work this week was to make signs to post up around the center that will encourage students to speak French (because in theory, we're an immersion program, although the kids seem to stick to French for about a week before relapsing back in English). I was bored and took this as an opportunity to get creative with Photoshop, creating a few mascots of francophone/anglophone fusion to decorate my posters.

I called this one the Statue of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. She is armed with a (not-so-)Petit Robert, the classic French dictionary, and a baguette.


Next up, Oncle Sam wants YOU to speak French!
My last experiment in graphic design was a parody easily understood by Parisians, of the ubiquitous "Wall Street English" métro posters. The company has long been the most well known (and most obnoxious) business English program in the city, and the current campaign features, as Tom describes it, "terrible stock photos and slightly-too-old young people" with either American or British flags imprinted on their tongues:
For my version, I altered an iconic image of a more heroic smarty pants. I call him Freinstein:

Mobile moments

Time for yet another installment of pictures taken around Paris with my mobile phone. To start us off, some cool graffiti in the Saint-Germain area:
A chef making noodles in a process similar to pulling wool at "the best noodle place in Paris"--aka, Pâtes Vivantes, in the 9th arrondissement:
A really gay shop window just down the street from the Amélie café:
Being in France is a good reminder than a lot of the world isn't as supportive of Israel as the US is:
This one hashes on Sarko AND Israel:
Taped up on an advertising light board in the Metro: "this space is (temporarily, alas) without an ad...so, take advantage!"
(presumably) the same artist had then commandeered the other empty spaces for political posters, encouraging anarchy, accusing the government of terror tactics, etc. Here's an example--one that goes along with the protest against the pushing back of the retirement age that I wrote about a few weeks ago: ("whip all of our leaders on to the anticipated retirement")
A smashed phone booth--part of he aftermath (also: couches, flipped cars, trash, smoldering cardboard, riot police man-handling Asians just trying to get home and the lingering, gun-powder smell of tear gas) of a riot in Belleville that we ran across trying to get Thai food on a Sunday night (because very little else is open in Paris then, and Tom had a friend in town we were trying to get dinner with. I feel bad for her--she showed up before we did and seemed rather bewildered). The riot, which had started as a peaceful protest, was a demonstration against the lack of police presence in the Asian community, and the blind eye turned to minor theft and rape. The protest turned bad after, ironically, a Chinese woman's purse was snatched, and the police sheltered the thief in the station.
A lingerie store with a cute name ('i' makes an 'ee' sound in French):
An old spinning wheel at an antiques fair that made me think of Sleeping Beauty:
A bookstore in the 13th. I liked the lettering, which was all filled with little books on shelves:
A window of Chinese Barbie-esque dolls in the 13th:
A 'formule' is like a combo meal and 'assiette' just means 'platter'. However, abbreviate it like this and it's sure to make any anglophone snicker--especially given those cheek-shaped pieces of 'steack':
This came out blurrier than I hoped, but it's a cocky French dude with a hipster beard, standing in front of an ad featuring--yup--a cocky French dude with a hipster beard:
A tour guide on an IES trip to Montmartre. In other words, a real-life Ms. Frizzle:
Picturesque street in Montmartre:
A cool, don't litter campaign in the RER that uses poetry to talk about the sad fate of debris left on the metro (including gum, discarded newspapers, and in this case, a beer can)
View out of the window of a brasserie, showing the pretty blue water 'carafe' and glasses at an abandoned table, and an old man smoking a pipe on the terrasse outside:

Snapshots on-the-go (taken with my mobile)

The Monday after Pentecost is a holiday in France. Apparently, the way to celebrate it is to bus in boy and girl scouts from all over the country and host a parade. Troops walked bearing flags of their departments (counties) divided by vans equipped with loudspeakers that were blasting a Catholic prayer call as the hoardes of scouts chanted responses in unison. I had heard that the French scouts were heavily religious, but the effect was creepily cult-like:
More scouts, this time with the Invalides dome in the background:
Racist, anti-arab sticker campaign resisting North African cultural influence and associating it with drug-dealing:
A cute little alleyway right on the Boulevard Périphérique at Porte d'Ivry, that contrasted oddly with the surrounding huge, Amerian-esque apartment high rises :
The side of a primary school in Alésia:
Odd art in the 14th:
This cool mural in the 13th brightens up an otherwise industrial, slummy set of residences:
This poster was all over the Metro for a while. It made me laugh, because thanks to some bad Photoshopping it looks like the guy in the back in lifting up some other guy's shirt. And who knows where his hand is going...

Bottom line: men may like to think otherwise, but sports are totally homoerotic.
McDonalds in Chinatown, just a few tram stops away from us. We come to the grocery stores on this street on occasion to find odd produce and decipher labels on strange sauces. We've made some pretty delicious stirfrys/curries/noodle soups/pad thai so far.
Ah, le Métro:
Pretty cool graffiti near Luxembourg:
A fun fooderie I came across in the 6th. Apparently Jews are doing "sushis" and "beggels" now...
Grate in front of the American Church in Paris, which is near the Seine in the ritzy 7th arrondissement. I have been making a weekly pilgrimage here to check the community message boards for housing announcements:
Scary "don't climb me" spikes on a nearby drain pipe:
This was in the window of a designer bridal store. It's basically a corset with sleeves, made with gauze and some blingin' strings of cubic zirconia. I couldn't decide if it was a really slutty piece of bridal attire, or a really formal lingerie item:
Tiles in Charles de Gaulle Étoile metro station, line 2:

Evian's creepy rollerskating baby advertising campaign is made even more badass by the graffiti:
Close up of a tile in the tea house/hammam of the Grande Mosquée, where classy tourists flock for Moroccan mint tea and flaky middle eastern pastries in the sunny, bird filled courtyard:

You know you're in France when young women bring their backpack accordions to university:
And last, a view of rooftops in the 13e arrondissement from my classroom at Paris III:
(...there's a lot to be seen in a city, if you just take the time to look...)