thu 24 mar 2011 15:30:00 — rue saint séverin paris
walked around st michel area
[copied from notebook]
looking at hotels in this area: hotel st séverin, rue st séverin ... hotel 'cluny square', corner blvd st michel and st germain
circumnavigated interior of the séverin church, saw polish icon painting 'o pani' ... and some big glass. and one column of the church is twisty, pani couldn't remember why ...
later:
rue de la harpe, corner st séverin, now we're sitting outside across from eglise st séverin -- café st séverin. 2 x salade niçoise really big, a bottle of wine called chinon. way too much bob marley music.
later: corner of st germain / michel looking at faces of people coming going, while pani went to get a crepe with nutella & banana. thinking: why does paris make everyone look beautiful? the limping with cane, the dwarved and awkward old man looking surprised, the fat roma woman with unseasonal overcoat, the guy rushing along with a plug of tissue up one nostril to stop a nosebleed, they all look lovely to me in paris. (except on the metro that is.)
18.50 waiting outside used book shop while pani browses, books for 1 euro, 2 or 3 euros. something i don't see too often in streets of amsterdam: one north-african looking man walks up to another north-african looking man, and kisses him.
19.20 at fontaine st michel, waiting again ...
sounds of falling water and cars and motorcycles and scooters and busses. dusk. people waiting for each other, looking for each other, meeting and kissing. they have dinner appointments maybe. people being affectionate all around. pani likes the people here in this evening. and they read a lot. she says france sells more books than any other country in europe.