PDA

Paris, as everyone knows, is the city of love. In every corner, a romantic surprise awaits those observant enough to notice. And by "a romantic surprise" I don't mean sighting the Eiffel Tower through medieval buildings, or people-watching at a quaint café that has its own resident accordionist, or sharing a decadent, aphrodisiac-rich dessert at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. No, by "a romantic surprise," I mean PDA (public displays of affection), in which amorous Parisians surprise you with the intensity of their romantic urges.

Exhibit A: The Classic Mid-Afternoon Park Bench Make-out Session. We saw this during many a walk with Panda at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont. Most of the time we were too bashful to document the phenomenom. But thanks to the powers of a telephoto lens, we can share our slightly sketchy (but mostly anthropological) voyeurism with you!

Exibit B: The Steamy Lip-lock with Handsy Embrace in a Very Crowded Public Place. We saw these two while making our way down the Champs-Elysées during Nature Capitale. (Bonus: The reason we took this picture had nothing to do with the PDA people and everything to do with the guy carrying a cat on his shoulders, just behind them.) The street-side hook-up is less common than the park bench version, but it makes up for its lower frequency with higher visibility. We're not saying people don't have a right to greet each other with kisses - after all, "bises" are an important part of French culture - it's just that when things go beyond cheek-kisses, we start noticing. (Also noticed during our walk down the Champs-Elysées: a mother suspending her young daughter over a drain while the daughter urinated. This took place right across the street from Ladurée.)

Of course, the PDA depicted above is tame compared with what Maggie saw under a tree in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont a week before we left. Even if we had taken pictures of what those people were doing, we wouldn't post them - this is a family blog!