I took this photo in Paris at a watch store, and I took it because the World Cup was happening at the time. The soccer World Cup, that is. And I was thinking that by putting all the flags of those countries near each other in the window, it makes me think that there’s harmony between those countries. But it also might be so that you can buy a watch for whichever team you’re rooting for or whichever team you think will win!

I watched a bit of the World Cup while I was in Paris. It was pretty cool. I also saw the crowds everywhere rooting for the teams. Some of them had some crazy hairdos!

I happened to get a watch at the store, but it was bright orange, without a country flag on it, but I think it’s still a cool watch.

I also didn’t realize that I would be taking a photo that showed a reflection on the glass. But it actually looks kind of cool.

It was exciting to be in a soccer-loving country while the World Cup was happening. We arrived in Paris just as the round of sixteen started, and we were disappointed that France lost in that round. But we kept up with the action as it unfolded, staying up to watch the final championship match between Germany and Brazil. Actually, you couldn’t miss the World Cup that summer; the games were on TVs in every bar, and in some cafés too. Crowds of fans often spilled out onto the sidewalks. And just like in The Kid’s photo, even the stores had (or exploited) World Cup fever.

This was a snapshot I took near the Pompidou Center — some kids playing a pickup game of soccer under a street mural of Salvador Dalí. In an age of video-gaming and cell phones, it was refreshing to see kids playing together outside, interrupting the throngs of tourists with a slice of real life. The game is so elemental — all it takes is an open area, a ball, and some imagination on where the goals would be.

This is the Notre Dame cathedral right near the center point of Paris. In my photo, we were waiting on line to see the inside of Notre Dame. It was actually one of the first days it rained during our trip, so we were pretty lucky until then.

It was a rainy day, so I kind of tinted the photo blue in my camera for two reasons. First, because it was kind of a dreary, saddish day, and second because it was kind of ironic because the sky wasn’t really blue that day. It was really more gray. But blue is a pretty strong color.

The line outside wasn’t so bad, and it was nice to go inside and finally get inside and out of the rain, and see more about the cathedral’s history.

The Kid had been messing around with the light and color settings with her camera a lot during the trip. At first I discouraged it, but when I saw her photo of Notre Dame, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. She totally got the idea the mood of a quiet, rainy day, by emphasizing the effect of using a cool tone like the color blue.

It made me think of other quiet moments during the trip, like waiting for the metro after one of our daily excursions, and taking the time to appreciate the beauty of the station itself as we passed the time. My photo is of the Cité metro station, which we happened to take after our visit to Notre Dame. This elegant station opened in 1910, and requires walking down several staircases to get to the platform. On our way down, I was immediately struck by sight of the silhouette of the man waiting for the train. Taking The Kid’s lead in letting color emphasize the mood of the photo, I opted for black and white to set the tone for mine.

This is a chess match, but on a cake! The chessboard top is made out of dark chocolate and white chocolate squares, and the chess pieces on it are also made of chocolate. It looks like team brown has won because the white king has been knocked over. I think it looks really delicious and delectable. I wanted to take the photo at this angle because I wanted to see all the layers. It’s one, two, three, four, five… A five layer cake (but really six, if you include the white and dark chocolate squares on top).

And I think it’s cool because the bakery has been around since 1682. There’s a ton of sweets and history in Paris. And this kind of made me think of both – the long history of the place (since it’s been there since 1682), and the sweet treats of Paris, since it’s a cake!

The Kid is onto something here. Paris does have quite a history, and its food is certainly a good reason to visit. The Kid’s photo is an Échiquier from the window display of Dalloyau, the storied baker of Paris, and is a twist on their iconic multi-layered Opéra Cake, supposedly inspired by the prima ballerina at the Palais Garnier opera house.

We weren’t able to taste this particular cake because the bakery was closed when we walked by. I can attest to the deliciousness of the macarons of Pierre Hermé, the modern artisanal éclairs at L’Éclair de Génie, the peach cakes of Des Gateaux et du Pain, and the Mont Blancs of Angelina. A reliable source also tells me that the next big thing to try is the Merveilleux at Aux Merveilleux de Fred, which managed to be closed each time we went there. However, the simple pleasure of eating (or rather, devouring) an ice cream crêpe at Crêperie Josselin is messy fun!

This is a picture looking through a hole in a bridge [Pont Saint-Michel], looking onto another bridge. I took this as we were walking to the Pompidou Museum, on the other side of the Seine.

The bridge in the background is the Pont Neuf, which is funny because “pont neuf” translates as “new bridge” but it’s really the oldest bridge in Paris over the Seine!

I took this photo because I really wanted a cool perspective though something, to another thing of the same kind. It’s pretty cool.

There’s an undeniable feeling of the importance of beauty and the arts around the older (and more touristic) parts of Paris. Even the bridges over the Seine are inspiring. We walked, biked, sailed, and rode the metro over and under two dozen of them on our trip. And each bridge is unique and inspiring, like the bridges that The Kid photographed in her photo.

Unfortunately the bridges of Paris are getting marred by tourists leaving “love locks” on them. So many have been placed on the Pont des Arts and on this one, the Pont de l’Archevêché, that they have not just blocked the view through the railings or balusters, but these bridges have started sagging under the excess weight of the padlocks! My photo shows a railing that fell off the bridge because of this very problem the locks cause.

Someone painted this message on the temporary panel to encourage the respect the beauty (and safety) of the bridge itself. A backlash against the locks has started in the city, and inspired the website “NoLoveLocks.com” to help discourage the practice. We also found out that the City of Paris has also asked people to stop too, suggesting instead to just take selfies and posting them online. I hope that they can persuade everyone to stop putting up the locks, and once again start appreciating the beauty of the bridges and their views that inspire art, love and romance.

I saw this on the street in Paris, and it just struck me. It was some tiles put together to make C-3P0, Chewbacca, and a little alien. It was kind of a coincidence since we had just watched the old Star Wars trilogy! It was on the second floor, above a cafe. I noticed it because who would expect to see something like that there?

It’s funny because Chewbacca is waving his hands in the air, and is acting really surprised, but C-3P0 is just like, “what’s happening?” It also is interesting because there aren’t any curves in the tiles, only straight lines. And it reminds me of Legos, because you can put them together like that, since Legos also have a lot of straight edges.

I’m glad The Kid noticed the tile art. It’s by the French street artist Invader, and I’ve been enjoying seeing his 8-bit style tile art in unexpected places all over Paris since my first visit in the mid-2000s. Like most street art or graffiti, these are not authorized works of art, but they’re certainly fun and creative. We made sure to look for more of his artwork, and in the process, noticed other artwork made of tiles and cobblestones all over the city.

My photo is of the Line 12 platform at the Concorde metro station, that connects to Line 8 (which we used a lot this past summer). When we first stopped at this station, I thought the tiled letters on the walls were just placed randomly, but I knew there had to be more to it than that. So I started thinking of it as solving a word find, and I started to notice some familiar words in French. But my French is pretty limited, and I couldn’t immediately figure out what it all meant.

Later, we discovered that it’s an artwork by Françoise Schein, spelling out the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the landmark document protecting civil liberties composed during the French Revolution in 1789. And since the station lies under the Place de la Concorde, an important site during the events of the Revolution, I felt this tile art work was a fitting and intellectual tribute to that period in French history.

This is a rhinoceros made out of Lego at Le Bon Marché toy department. I have never seen a rhinoceros made out of Lego before. Just think about it, it’s made out of 12,407 pieces! This was interesting because, A) I didn’t know there were so many grey bricks in the world, and B) I didn’t know you could make a rhino out of Lego, that big that is!

Also, in the background there are some Lego Friends sets that I want. I like them because like, one of them has a zip line, another is a cruise ship and windsurfer, which are cool. But I think seeing the rhino was more exciting!

Le Bon Marché’s toy section is hidden away on the top floor of the department store, and we all enjoyed looking around there. I wasn’t surprised that The Kid was drawn to the Legos, because she’s obsessed about them at home. But when I looked around, I was in awe over the collection of Schleich and Papo figurines, and in particular, a set of Musketeers. I happened to be reading the Alexandre Dumas novel for the first time, and immediately knew who each were supposed to be by his detailed descriptions (left to right: Aramis, Porthos, D’Artagnan, and Athos). The Papo figurines are so dramatic, I just couldn’t help setting them up on a counter, defending themselves from Cardinal Richelieu, Captain Rochefort and his guards.

When we went to the Eiffel Tower, I saw a cool sight. I looked up from the ground, through the middle, and the two levels. And you can kinda see the sky and glass walls they added. I also like the diamond and triangle architecture and the loops and special panels that look pretty cool. I was inspired by all the different shapes, and towers, and glass walls, and how you could look through one thing to look through the next. Pretty cool, and old too.

When it was built, I think people were afraid it would sway in the wind and fall down. But it was actually pretty nice and stable. But we didn’t go to the third level because my Mom had vertigo. But I wish I could go to the third level!

This was my third time visiting the Eiffel Tower, and even though it’s nearly 130 years old, there’s always something new to see. Sure, the new glass floors on the first landing were new, and a little weird to walk on at first, but after a few minutes standing near or on it, it’s not so shocking (but the view looking down is fascinating).

But something else we noticed this time is much older. As we started climbing the stairs towards the first landing, The Kid noticed that the steps were numbered. The first 50 steps are numbered individually, then they’re numbered every 10. Looking for the stenciled numbers on the steps made the trip up more fun. However, we found that when we reached the second landing, the last step on one of the staircases topped out at 668, and on another staircase, the top stair was labeled 669. We couldn’t find an explanation, but I’m happy to learn if anyone knows.

I took this photo in the Louvre Museum in Paris. And I think it’s pretty funny because Chiron the Centaur, who is from Greek mythology, and is pretty much the only calm centaur, has a little baby angel-thingy on its back. I’m reading the Percy Jackson books (by Rick Riordan) and that got me interested in mythology. I wasn’t surprised to see something like this because we were in the Greek and Roman art gallery, so I knew we’d run into one of the more famous people from the myths. Like, who trained Jason and Hercules? It’s Chiron! But he’s not training this angel-thingy, I kinda think that the little thingy is teasing Chiron, by pulling his hair and trying to ride him. But Chiron is saying, “Please! Get off!”

The Rick Riordan “Lightning Thief” books really opened The Kid’s eyes to classical mythology. So when we walked through this section of the Louvre, I could see that she was trying to identify the gods and heroes by their iconography, now that she knows a bit about it. The sculpture she photographed is described as being Eros with Old Centaur, so she’s pretty close, since Chiron is the only centaur she knows by name.

As I wandered around the other galleries, I noticed this sculpture, and had trouble placing which mythological character it was supposed to be, because it wasn’t as obvious. However, what was obvious about it, was that it looked like it was taking a selfie. So of course I snapped this photo, since it ironically looked like a contemporary sculpture. What I found out later is that it’s an 18th Century statue of Apollo vanquishing the Python, and he’s holding a sword, but the blade has been lost to time, so he is only holding it’s grip or handle. But it certainly looks like a “classical selfie” to me.

I took this photo because it’s really silly. My mom kissing my dad, though my dad looked kind of embarrassed. So, I just think it’s funny. I also chose the frame (around the photo) because it’s gemstones, and I just think it makes it very pretty. We were with my dad’s friends and, well, we were having dinner together. And when my mom kissed my dad, I took a photo at that exact time, by mistake, and it came out really silly!

It’s a cliché for an American to say that Paris inspires a lot of romance, but it’s not hard to be inspired when you’re there. In the tourist-friendly heart of the city (and even in the 20th Arrondissement where The Kid took her photo), you can’t help but notice how even some of the most ordinary buildings have some kind aesthetic detail that showcases the Parisian high ideals of art and beauty. Everywhere we went, we saw people being romantic, like this couple in a quiet courtyard in the Tullieries. And year after year, tourists continue to get all smoochy in the City of Light, even me and my wife.

I saw this in front of a toy store in Paris. It’s a toy of the Tour de France, with bikers racing around and around the Arc de Triomphe and I think Montmartre.
And in their last circle around the Arch, I thought it was cute that one of the bikers fell (in the background). It’s silly that one of the bikers is like “Oh no! It was the last stretch! Why did I have to fall down? I’m out of the race!”

We’d heard about Deyrolle, the famous Paris taxidermy shop from TV shows and books, but I don’t remember visiting it before this time. My wife thought it might be gruesome, but I knew it would be fun. In the store, animals, birds, and even bugs are restuffed and put on display as art objects. Some of the animals are staged to look lifelike, but others are posed in surreal situations that would never exist in nature. On the day I took this photo, the store was closed. The grates were down, but in their window they had one of their more striking pieces, a spotted wild cat, sitting up at attention. The store had labeled it as a leopard, but The Kid, who knows everything about wild cats, noticed that is was mislabeled, and was in fact, a cheetah. (Apparently the black fur on the back of the ears, and the stripes along the face are dead giveaways.) Funny how a city kid can get to know wildlife so well, from mostly reading Nat Geo books and watching “Wild Kratts.”

I love cheetahs and big cats, as you can see from my icon picture. When I saw this cheetah on the wall, I was very surprised how the people could do such good graffiti here. It looked like it was watching its prey, grazing. I wasn’t scared. How did the artist make it?

On a previous visit to Paris (before I had a kid), I noticed some 8-bit-looking tile art of video game characters pasted on the sides of buildings. On this trip, I wanted my daughter to spot them too. And although we did see a few of the old tile art pieces I saw a few years ago, now there’s even more playful street art popping up all over Paris in lots of unexpected places. This was one of several in a series of street signs that were stickered over by street artist Clet Abraham, this one being a stick-figure holding a heavy beam. But we also saw one of a stick-figure in a stockade, another cutting a log with a saw, and lots of others that made us laugh, as we walked though the city.