No Alcohol on the Pont des Arts
Originally uploaded by malias.
One of the great pleasures of living in Paris is the tradition of picnicing in lovely surrondings whether it be the Parc de Vincennes or the Canal St Martin or, my personal favourite spot The Pont des Arts.
I organised a picnic recently on a fine spring evening on this delightful old bridge. No sooner had we placed our baguettes on the passerelle, unwrapped the Camembert and uncorked a couple of bottles of Bordeaux than we were approached by two uniformed policeman (see photo of them harrassing some other tourists). "Parlez vous français?" they enquired solemnly. When they discovered that we could indeed muster up a few coherent sentences in their gallic tongue they proceeded to inform us that alcohol is now banned on the Pont des Arts.
That's outrageous! We protested. A French picnic without wine is like having a Ferrari that only goes up to third gear. It's just not the same! After our protests we became rather violent, we threw one of the policeman in the river and tied up the other one against the fence.
Ok, the last bit's not true but nevertherless I cannot see any harm in enjoying a little wine with a picnic. If someone is acting drunk and disorderly that's another story and there are laws that deal with that but a sip of vin rouge? S'il vous plait! So Please Mr Policeman give us back our wine.
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4 comments:
How come my parties never end up with French policemen tied to railings?
The no-alcohol on the Pont des Arts is indeed, not just like a Ferrari that goes only up to third gear, but like the Eiffel Tower that only extends up to the second floor, like the Seine without water, and like the Louvre without a Mona Lisa (be it the original or the naked version). I can think of quite a number of other analogies (the first from the top of my mind is "Rue St. Denis without its hookers"), but let me leave it with a note of grave disappointment with the French law-enforcers. However, for the sake of a cheer-up, you have indeed reminded me of a lot of kinky things that may be possible with a cop uniform and a good set of handcuffs. Cheers! - M.
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