" I Slept Last Night In A Good Hotel . . . "

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While strolling in the Belleville area in the 20th section of Paris the other day with James, we found this well weathered sofa in the rue du Liban. I couldn't resist doing a couple of portraits of it. It looked rather lived in, actually, as though it's owner had just stepped across the street to get a cup of coffee, and would be back any minute to finish reading the paper.
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And I also couldn't resist asking James to do a portrait of me in that illustrious sofa, courageously facing its future life as an outcast on the streets of Paris . . . so this next photo was done by James, he very kindly sent me a copy recently. You can even see him reflected in the window; I guess this post will have to be a candidate for the next Weekend Reflections session.
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As mentioned in the below post, la Grenouille and I had the good fortune to go see the unbelievably good Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris the other day. This sign showed the way to the entrance.
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As we waited in line to get in to see the show, a gentleman was playing the clarinet outside, in the below zero temperature. The cold didn't seem to affect him though, his playing was a pleasure to hear. I couldn't help thinking of one of my favorite songs, which follows at the end here, where there is a line that goes : "He was playing real good for free..."
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The first line of the song is :
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"I slept last night in a good hotel, I went shopping today for jewels..."
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Very close to the Grand Palais stands one of the finer hotels in Paris, the Hotel de Crillon. Although it is extremely unlikely that I will ever sleep there, I liked the reflection of the holiday decoration lights in the black roof of the Mercedes parked in front. Taken by a simple passerby, who is out here in the street, playing this blog... for free. Guess I'll spend the night on my sofa, rue du Liban, instead. More my style anyway.
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