Morning Walk for Haircut Paris August 21, 2006

I needed a haircut, and bad. On a walk some weeks ago I had passed a couple of real barbershops offering haircuts at a third the price of the chop factory I had used early after arriving here. So on the way into work today, I took a long walk up the rue Saint-Denis for a haircut. Before actually arriving on rue Saint-Denis I passed the cloaked Tour Saint-Jacques and got some pictures, posted below. My route then led me through the shared courtyard of the Église Saint-Merri and Centre Georges Pompidou, called the Place Igor Stravinsky, with its fanciful statuary pool. The pool and the juxtaposition of two such different buildings are further examples of the French penchant for public whimsy and ironic or absurdist contrast. See below. Then past the Porte St-Denis with its triumphal arch, oddly narrow in profile, a couple of blocks of sleaze shops and bored prostitutes, and into a neighborhood of Turkish and then African people and shops. My Turkish barber gave me a skillful cut, and to my eyes took 10 years off too, plus directions to the Château d’Eau metro station. This and a wonderful morning walk for 7 euro plus tip.