Vignettes From a Walk Along Paris' Right Bank

"... it is possible to love a place like it is a person... a place is never just its physical coordinates, for its location is often in the heart. Thus, it can be carried around forever, and passed on to one's children, with all its lingering memories and wistful fragrances."

                                                                              -- The Long Walk Home

Yup, I am quoting from my own book above, my second novel that is, where a character grapples with Partition. But that is also how I view places; a place is organic, it has pulse and rhythm and smell - much like a human being. And places speak for the people who come from them. For a California resident, a New Yorker is an alien and if you're in India, whether you are a Delhiite or a Mumbaikar can be a decoder for the entire You! 

Paris is one of my favourite places and because its Paris - that much feted City of Love - it is a world unto itself. So, any Parisian will tell you, whether you are from the Left Bank or the Right will speak volumes about you. The Right Bank is the traditional upper crust, where you find the big businesses and banks, along with the Louvre, Champs Elysses, Arc de Triomphe, Centre Pomipdou and others. Left Bank, on the southern side of the river Seine, meanwhile, is historically the boho hangout of legendary writers and artists - Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway - who lived in the more affordable part of the city. 

With that as a backdrop, let's walk the Right Bank, shall we?! 

                                                                                                 

Probably the most prestigious resident of the Right Bank, certainly for an artist: Musee du Louvre

I thought you couldn't snorkel in the Seine but clearly some folks can!

This is one American even the French like to flaunt: classic Pacino swigging cigar in place of George Washington.

The pavement vendors have interesting wares on offer - this is Paris, after all!

My daughter and I never, ever, miss any dog - this evoked a simultaneous sense of deja vu and wonder.  We see such sights in India all the time where the homeless often make their home with man's best friend. The pups, mother and master were catching some Easter sunshine.

Shop after shop of postcards, vintage posters, rare books on the Quai du Louvre, enough to make up for the professed lack of bohemia in the Right Bank!

I mean to do a post on the Left Bank as well; meanwhile, au revoir!