A Culture Vulture's Guilty Secret, Paris

Our last night in Paris...a very rainy night. We were at a loose end, so we went to see Downton Abbey at a cinema on the Champs-Élysées. We have to support our local Dorset film producers and screenwriters.

No, we didn't eat at nearby McDonalds after the movie. We got thoroughly soaked when walking back to the hotel. We changed our clothes and went round the corner to eat at a Chinese/Asian noodle-sushi-dumpling fast food diner. Delicious! A great night out, but I kept recalling a poem by Jacques Prévert -

"Il est terrible
le petit bruit de l'oeuf dur cassé sur un comptoir d'étain
il est terrible ce bruit
quand il remue dans la mémoire de l'homme qui a faim
elle est terrible aussi la tête de l'homme
la tête de l'homme qui a faim..."

- and two images, a detail from a painting in the El Greco exhibition (I heard someone remark, "Isn't that a Big Mac, bottom right?"), and a sadly typical scene on the Champs-Élysées (even more disturbing to see someone in that position in the pouring rain)

Also noted:

Electric scooters: France introduces new rules, BBC