(resent because it didn't seem to get thru 1st go) Thanks Frank. Although I must say that it probably scores zero on originality- there was practically a swarm of shutterbugs eagerly waiting their turn at the spot I took the shot. Another interesting thing is I took the shot handheld at 1/4! So that's what the Canon folk are raving about. Here's hoping the Pentax band go the Konica Minolta way..
Cotty and Frank, very unfortunately, no I didn't meet Audrey Tautou, but that would have been nice. I did, however, climb up the stairs toward the Sacre Coeur (them French are madly in love with their stairs) that Nino Quincompoix (sp!) went up when Amelie sent him on that little adventure. I also did get to see the cafe they filmed at. You know.. just passing by, that sorta thing. Nothing at all to do with the fact I saw the film 6 times :-). What did you guys think of He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not? Yes and as promised, there was a story. The Eiffel T on NY Eve was chaos. I noticed this other girl also using a 20D, and in asking help me take a picture of me with the Eiffel T in the background, we started chatting, and turns out she and her husband (newlyweds) were from Cairns. Instant rapport. Anyway, we weren't sure what would happen at midnight so we just decided to stick around for a bit. Suddenly, right next to us (this was on the side of the Ecole Militaire, in the first or second gardens from the tower) This Asian guy started shouting 'Hey! Hey!' and it turned out someone had snatched something of his. The next thing you know the whole place was swarming with hundreds (very literally) of black youths running about in different directions, and if they weren't grabbing things off people, they were diverting attention from people who had things grabbed. Anyway, the Asian guy tried to get what he lost back, and the next thing you know, he was on the ground being beaten up by a whole group of black youths. Noone helped because there were so many of them and everyone seemed to prefer keeping a low profile. In the madness my two new friends and I stayed with our backs as close to the fence as possible and sometime inbetween, one kid tried to grab my friend's Manfrotto tripod with the 20D on it! Luckily she had her leg sorta wrapped around the tripod so the guy gave up after a while. Another girl had her purse snatched and was crying for the thief to give it back but he just brushed her aside as if she wasn't there. Next thing you know, some sort of police presence shows up about 15 minutes later and they start running along in single file, to some people's relief. However, just after they pass by, following them from the back was a younger group of black youths than the earlier gangs, and it seemed as if they were somehow associated with the older gang's operation. The three of us decided not to stick around to find out what was going to happen next and we left to usher in the New Year elsewhere. Good thing we didn't linger too. The next day I met another guy from Sydney (Aussies everywhere) in the queue into Notre Dame, and he filled me in on what I missed. It turns out just after midnight, a riot broke out and the riot police used pepper spray to tackle the mobs. This guy somehow found himself smack in the middle of the riot with his eyes burning, and only by luck did he avoid being rounded up. So that's pretty much the story. Other than that incident (which was, I suppose, good in the sense that it made me paranoid about the safety of my belongings), the Paris trip was great. I got to do most of the touristy things that you can do in 4 days, Notre Dame, the Sacre Coeur, Jardin du Luxembourg, Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge, the Eiffel Tower, Champs E'lysees, the Arc du Triomphe, and a few others. My main regret was keeping the Louvre til last. I expected it to close at about 7, so on my last day, after a lot of walking and sightseeing, I rushed down and got there at 6.30pm. Turns out most of it was already closed, so I didn't get to see the Mona Lisa (bummer) other than her clones in the giftshop. Also, like a prize idiot I booked my flight for 7.45am. So I more or less had to be at the airport at 5.45am, which meant I had to leave by 4.45am- the RER didn't start til 5.30am. Which left me with a EUR50 cab ride which did hurt my pocket. Anyway there you have it- an update. I'm now in Singapore for slightly more than a week before I return to Brisbane, and lucky I got back when I did. I took very ill yesterday and visited the doctor straight from the airport. Can't talk, can't swallow and can't seem to coordinate my movement either (I tried to type this yesterday but for some bizarre reason I couldn't figure out how to reply to an email message.). Time for meds. Cheers & Happy New Year to all, Ryan ----- Original Message ----- From: "frank theriault" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <pentax-discuss@pdml.net> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 9:53 PM Subject: Re: PESO: Paris > On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 22:04:31 +0100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=3002800&size=lg > > > > Just a quick one before my 2 minutes at the Inet cafe runs out.. Paris on > > NY Eve 2004! There's a story to come but must log off.. > > > > Cheers, > > Ryan > > > > > > Nice shot, Ryan!! > > Hmmm... Paris on New Year's Eve. Now ~that~ sounds like a party! <g> > > Didja have fun? > > cheers, > frank > > > -- > "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson > >
