The Whimsical and the Bizarre

Walking the streets of Paris, one sooner or later encounters something is whimsical or just plain bizarre, Here are a few such encounters . . . First there were the bears. They were everywhere. The cafes were filled with them. . We were told that they were invited in during the pandemic to keep people from getting too close to one another. But they stayed, hanging out every where from drugstores to tanning booths.

And some had obviously imbided a little too much of Parisian life.

Commercial establishments provided some unsuccessful, although fascinating, examples of less than successful cultural blending

But sometimes the cultural fusions have real charm

Then there are those wonderful moments, when there is something marvelous appears

Sometimes the strange can be dark. Victor Hugo's bedroom with a table arranged to remind visitors that seances were once held in this space. Julien Aurouze & Co, exterminators, founded in 1872, celebrates its efforts to keep Paris rodent free, by exhibiting samples of the rats it disposed of in the 1920s. And then there are images so disturbing that they should not be viewed without a trigger warning View if you dare.