Pont Neuf zaniness...

just for fun!

Begun in 1578 and completed in 1607, the "new bridge" is the oldest bridge across the Seine in Paris. :D

mascaron is truly whimsical, while the second a bit alarming/frightening.

How much fun it must have been to be one of the sculptures/stone masons!

of them decorating the bridge. One has to admire the artistry of the people who did the work.

Did I read that Ken Follett is writing again? "The pillars of the Seine"?

(actually there is a distant bell ringing that he has come out with another huge book)

I confess I've never read anything by Ken Follett. I don't read as much fiction as I used to. At the moment I'm reading, in a cool annotated facsimile edition, Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", which, I suppose, some people might consider to be a work of heretical fiction. :evilgrin:

I didn't get around to giving you my impressions of Russia, but the three words you used quite aptly describe it, namely, bleak, bleak, bleak. In a way, it's not as grim as I remember its being the last time I was there, but still, the drabness is quite dispiriting. A few days there is not enough time to form any kind of clear idea of what it's really like though, and we were pretty well insulated from ordinary daily life.

Here's a picture I took just before leaving Moscow. The man put a coin into the hands of the monkey after I took the shot. Other people had done the same, so it must be a way of bringing luck.He looked like he was in need of some.....