Saturday in Paris.

An autumn Saturday in Paris with world class rugby in the air. Welsh, Irish and English people in the streets. But two women not in a hurry wound their way through crowds in Beaubourg, les Halles, and St. Germain, roughly the distance of 12 Métro stops. At Beaubourg in the large space outside the Centre Pompidou modern art museum, crowds mingled, artists spread out their merchandise, defenders of causes collected supporters, and men on stilts caught the eye of passers-by. Four of these very tall figures were equipped as African mothers with babies attached and masked faces. Mostly, Parisians do not move out of your way. You move out of their way. Streets are narrow, but sidewalks are even narrower. The only folks who seem not to have a destination are the young teens flaunting their young bodies laden with electronics and metal. There were however plenty of sidewalk café sitters. Most tables were taken. Occasionally you could hear loud cheers as Fiji or Wales scored in Rugby. By the time we settled at a table in St. German the big screen was filled with ex-players making comments about games already won or lost and those to come. At "Horse Tavern" it seems beer was being consumed by the "tapped glass cylinder standing roughly one meter high". A table of young men was rapidly working their way through their second one. My table mate was trying to speak French to the Irish who were responding in something I couldn't make out, but most likely English. She was encouraging the Irish to beat Argentina so things would go well for the French. Returning to the 10th arrondisement by metro was a cramped affair. Saturday nights in Paris it seems most everyone is out and about. Rather recently it became exceedingly easy to rent a bike in Paris. So with trusty computer and credit card in hand you reserve your bike and later drop it off where ever you like. Whatever your means of transport you must be aggressive. Perhaps this is one reason Parisians so like to while away the hours in a café watching the crowds go by.