This 'n' that

Very late night. Woke feeling off. Very late start.

Set out with sunglasses; returned with umbrella. Chilly wind all day.

The buildings to either side of that piece of Notre Dame at the corner are like a frame, picture constantly changing. The big tour gaggle heading toward Ile St. Louis in the morning. The slim, slight girl in black carrying the huge artist's portfolio. The young man pushing the stroller. The lone man stopping still, looking up, as the bells ring and ring at 17:30. The teenaged girls, all in brightly-colored tights, gossiping and giggling. The bride, gathering her full ivory skirts, passing with her groom (she'll always remember this day, and now, so will I). Constantly, constantly, they flit in and out of my view, my life, all their stories only guessed at.

The unidentified--thing on the wide wooden sill/counter in the kitchen: ah, a petal from one of the red geraniums in the window box just to the right.

The way the policemen stand, four or five of them, in the narrow street talking sometimes, until several motorcycles roar in from the left--presumably a shift change. And the row of twenty or so of the black cycles parked perpendicular to the curb opposite (not massive Harley-Davidson type machines, just average, functional ones). Behind them a wall, a railing, a little triangular courtyard with two magnolia trees and a third one I can't identify, though its leaves look a lot like sweet gum.

No. Cholesterol. Tests. Allowed.

Tomorrow another day of demonstrations against the retirement system reforms has been called.

Bought my first carnet of the trip and took the Métro to Madeleine today without even thinking of the terror alert.

Barack Obama a confirmé, vendredi 1^er octobre, la démission du secrétaire général de la Maison Blanche, Rahm Emanuel, l'un des plus puissants conseillers de la présidence, qui veut se porter candidat à la mairie de Chicago. So Le Monde tells me.