![\"..\/paris\/obiective%20turistice\/moulin%20rouge_me%20with%20mask.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/moulin-rouge_me-with-mask.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAfter 4 canceled vacations\nthis year, I decided to simply escape to one of the very few destinations where\nyou can get freely, without having to have a test done, without quarantine,\nwithout God knows what other measures. Only wearing a mask. PARIS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s shocking\u2026 I swear!\nI went through very contradictory feelings during all the 3 days and a few\nhours that I spent there. On the one hand, I wanted to shout joyfully because I\nwas walking through a famous city without waves of tourists; on the other hand,\nI was frightened by the lack of tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a reference for comparison,\nafter the many visits I made to Paris as a tourist. So I quickly notice the\ndifferences between now and\u2026 the past. On top of that, the last time I was here\nwas on New Year’s Eve, so only 9 months ago. And the time before that, in the\nsummer of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, now, to\nenter France is no longer like a piece of\u2026 cheese, even if it’s Camembert.\nThere is a document that you fill in while still in the plane, with all the\ninformation about you, where you can be found, who can find you quickly, things\nlike these\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the city, I come\nacross a world with masks<\/strong>. Both\ninside and also in the streets. Everyone, but absolutely everyone has a mask that they wear by the book.\nI haven’t even seen anyone with a mask on his chin or on his arm. Well, there\nare some fines involved…<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the subway, I hear\nrepeatedly that, if they catch you without a mask or wearing it incorrectly,\nyou have to take 135 euros out of your pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unaccustomed to wear the\nmask for so many hours, I pay to get rid of it. No, I don’t pay fines, but I\nstop from time to time at one of the terraces, to drink something. A mouthful\nof air costs\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was sure I would see\nan explosion of masks for sale on every street corner. I thought that people\nwho usually sell Eiffel Tower key chains, bottles of water or umbrellas, will\nnow have dozens of mask models on their rug. No way! No “black market”\nmasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, I saw some in a\nfew stores. In supermarkets and small souvenir shops or in neighborhood shops,\nbut also in the shops of some designers. Or even in the Disney store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also came across some\nChinese merchandise, but I’m already the Queen\nof Made in China masks<\/strong> J, so I said “no,\nthanks”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, since I’m still in\nthe “merchandise” chapter, you should know that I haven’t seen\nanything cheaper in Paris. No pandemic offer. Prices froze to the level I knew.\nFrom magnets to whatever you may want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At any entrance, whether\nit is a shop, a tourist attraction, a post office or a restaurant, there is disinfectant<\/strong>. Moreover, there are shops\nwhere one of the employees greets you at the entrance and gives you the\ndisinfectant himself. (If he had given me a small palm massage, I would have\nbought the whole store J)<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is also\ndisinfectant in public transportation stops. And at the entrance of the parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I walked (quite a lot),\nI disinfected my hands very often\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the hotel I stayed\nin took security measures. Upon arrival, in addition to shower gel and shampoo,\nI also received a bottle of disinfectant. And on the door of my room a\ncardboard informs me that I can enter without fear, because they cleaned and\ndisinfected the room “according to the hygiene rules in force, related to COVID-19”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you are in this COVID\nsoup, you can take 20 euros out of your pocket and, in a pharmacy on your way,\nyou can do a fast test to see if you have antibodies, so that you can fully\nenjoy the holidays. Or not\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t take the test.\nWho knows what they may discover??<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the entrance to the\nsubway, the wave of masked passengers comes towards me. Without exception,\neveryone wears a mask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m ready too. Even with\ngloves! But I avoid touching the door, the chair, the bars, so I don’t use\nthem. I would be the only one doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hustle and bustle of\ntourists is missing from the subway. Their joy is missing too. And the shopping\nbags are missing\u2026 It’s so weird! I am in the middle of some French workers,\nsilent, full of worries, who go to work. No group of Chinese tourists, no noisy\nAmericans, no Russians who brag about what they bought, piling between them all\nthe bags with the new acquisitions. Not even an accordionist (a Romanian one\u2026)\nwho plays his instrument inside the subway to make some honest money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thieves? Not even one!\nWell, they have lost the “object” of their work: \u201cthe tourist”\nis missing. So it is in vain that we are constantly warned to pay attention to\ngoods because it is possible to have some pickpockets in the subway. Stop the\nmessage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I take out the subway\nmap to look at a route. Oops, they understood I am not a local. Is it me or\nthey really look at me like I am some strange creature? It doesn’t matter. It only\nmatters that I am again in my most desired situation: that of TOURIST! Yey!!! Let\nme make the most of it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like 9 months ago, I\narrived in Paris at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, in the fall of\n2020, you don’t have to wait on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es to take a “clean”\npicture of the Arc de Triomphe. You can do as many as you want, quietly, in the\nmiddle of the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, where is the usual\ncrowd?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time I came on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, whether it was in the morning or in the evening, I couldn’t help but notice the effects of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are fewer, a lot fewer people on the boulevard. And people are in a hurry, they look preoccupied, they are not people in a holiday mood\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n No queue at the Disney store<\/strong>! What?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I went in and found 2-3\nfamilies with children. And I think that, if I looked more at the products, I could\nhave found some offers left over from Easter J.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The famous Ladur\u00e9e<\/strong> (with the famous macaroons)\nwhere, during recent years, I have never managed to take a seat for a snobbish\nbreakfast, is now deserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026but I didn’t go in\ntoday either, choosing a frugal breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You, dear pigeon,\nhaven’t you heard of social distancing??<\/p>\n\n\n\n Okay, so be it, we can share\nbreakfast, then go away, because I’ve heard of bird flu too\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pandemic can also be\nseen on the corner, at Louis Vuitton<\/strong>.\nIf you’ve ever been here, you couldn’t miss the shocking long queue, 90% of it\nbeing Asians who were patiently waiting to go in, to buy whatever their heart\ndesired (as they could afford it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This street corner that\nhas always caught the attention of passers-by is now depressed. This is their\npeak time (as I have seen even worse).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is what it\nlooked like in better times:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since I’m on the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, let\u2019s go up the Arc de Triomphe, I told myself. That was never among the priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could sing in this\ntunnel, considering I’m the only one crossing it\u2026 Or I could go sledding!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the access\npassage to the Arch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m like a snail climbing this snail-like ladder\u2026 Wearing a mask, this is\na horror-climb!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily no one catches me from behind, so that I feel bad that I have to\nstop from time to time to catch my breath…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I feel the need to take\noff the mask as soon as I get outside, up on the Arch, to take two mouthfuls of\ncold air\u2026 “Mask on, please!” – I hear immediately. Ooops, he caught\nme. He is the place supervisor who, for the time being, only supervises me and\ntwo other Spanish tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are 284 steps, the man tells me, after I befriend him. I counted 274, but I cannot guarantee for the accuracy of my figure, in all that dizziness of climbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I photograph the city\nfrom all sides, but I can’t help but photograph the place on the Arch where,\nnormally, it is full of tourists taking pictures of themselves and staring at\nParis from above. Now \u2013 no one is here\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n A terrible wind starts\nblowing, man\u2026 And it’s not just here, I can feel it down too, under the Arch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I walked aimlessly, for tens of kilometers, going through places that were familiar to me, but also getting lost on unknown streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Centre Pompidou for Modern and Contemporary Art<\/strong> seems to be taking advantage of this period to “heal” its wounds. Gone are the tourists who used to sit here, on the asphalt, talking, eating a sandwich or watching a street show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n H\u00f4tel de Ville<\/strong> in the heart of the city, always a place full of ideas like an ice rink \u2013 during winter \u2013 or a sand volleyball court \u2013 in summer, now mourns its loneliness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hear the trotting of\nhorses and I get startled. It’s the mounted police, but only the horses can be\nheard on the boulevard, as if the cars have evaporated for the time being. But\nI can see the long string of bicycles for rent. Or rather, for parking\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Seine<\/strong> also imposed the social distancing\nfor the couples in love\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wait! Is it right what I\nsee??? An Asian woman takes pictures at the end of the Ile de la Cit\u00e9<\/strong>! She’s the first (and the last) Asian I see these\ndays in Paris. The rest are a few Spanish tourists, a couple who speak the\nlanguage of Arabela and Rumburak and some French people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first day is over.\nThe evening comes with a delicious beef steak, on the rich style, and with an image\nof the Eiffel Tower perfect for a postcard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I take advantage of a\nsunny day and go to a place where, every time, I walk a lot: to Montmartre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once out of the subway,\nI go to the Wall of Love<\/strong>, the wall\non which there are over 1,500 declarations of love in all languages \u200b\u200b(in\ntotal, here are 311 “I love you”, written in 280 languages!). Let me\nsee: can you find it in your language?…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had to wait for a while last summer, so I could take a picture without people there. Now, the place is deserted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Two homeless people seem\nbothered by me, the only being disturbing their peace in the wall area. I take\npictures and let them enjoy the emptiness here\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I eat an omelet with\nham, some delicious French baguette and then I take it to the Sacr\u00e9 Coeur<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wouldn’t have climbed\nthe stairs up the hill, no way. I went to the funicular, although, in the first\ninstance, I thought it was closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that I had the\nwhole cabin just for me was sensational! It was as if I was on a private visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What amused me was the\nannouncement that drew my attention to the existence of thieves. They said I\nshould be careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t know how to\ndescribe the feeling I have, once I reach the stairs of the Sacr\u00e9 Coeur. It is\nas if, during Ceausescu’s time, they brought meat in the “Alimentara”\nmarket and the whole planet fled there! J<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or that France and China\nare playing a match in the World Cup Final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are so few people\nand so much peace here!!! A delight!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember summers when\nI could barely take a picture without a lot of people behind me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Note: pictures like\nthis are not good at all, as they remind you of times when you were much\nyounger and slimmer\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now there are no\ntourists, no singers, no photos. I’m not even beginning to talk about beggars!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve been here so many\ntimes, but only now, when I’m not trying to cut a path among the people, when\nI’m not waiting in line to enter the church, I have time to see some details:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The streets leading to\nthe famous square with painters (during the recent years full of terraces too)\nare almost deserted. I don’t even know if the few people I meet are locals,\nFrench people who take advantage of the lack of tourists or lost travelers, just\nlike me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I enter the first\nsouvenir shop I see open, after a long series of shops that are closed. There\nis no one in it. Neither is the sales person, who appears from across the\nstreet, a sign that I am something unexpected for him\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I buy a 10 Euros\nsouvenir. He cannot give me the change for 20, because\u2026 he has no cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I ask him if any tourists\ncome during this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He puts his hand up\nmaking the sign of “zero” with his fingers and he strengthens this\nwith words, pressed: ZE-RO!<\/p>\n\n\n\n He tells me that it is\nterrible and that he is more tired now, when he does nothing, than during the\nperiods when tourists were all over the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, no Chinese can be\nseen anywhere \u2013 he continues, and no other tourist either, for that matter.\nExcept for me, of course… But I am absolutely negligible for his needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While filming the empty square, a painter greets me and he asks me if I want him to draw my portrait. Then another one… A few steps further, yet another asks the same. Oh, what a sad picture, really!<\/p>\n\n\n\n These people put their little creations on some pedestals, hoping that today will be a better day than the many bad days they’ve had so far. And they literally clings to each and every person who seems foreign to the place, to offer a portrait.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPARIS DURING THE PANDEMIC<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCHAMPS-\u00c9LYS\u00c9ES DURING THE PANDEMIC<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nARCH OF TRIUMPH DURING THE PANDEMIC<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\nWALKING THROUGH PARIS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMONTMARTRE DURING THE PANDEMIC<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
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