One of the benefits of global warming and the death of Earth – which I am sure will be shortlived – is unseasonably warm weather. Seasonably warm weather may of course become unbearable (just look at the poor Aussies) but I can’t really complain about 65 degree days in the middle of February.

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The week before Christmas I was puttering around the apartment and decided I needed to go somewhere in Paris I hadn’t been before. I had heard from numerous sources that there were some precious streets near Parc Montsouris in the 14th that were worth checking out, so I hopped on the RER and rode down to Cité Universitaire armed with little more than my camera, my Paris Pratique, and the names of a few streets rumored to be notable.

I’m sure Parc Montsouris is as charming as I’m told, but it is winter and the trees are bare, so I’ll give it a more thorough appraisal at an appropriate time of year. That said, there are a couple of interesting attractions at the southern terminus of the park: the RER station house, and the Paris Meridian.

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Happy New Years, all my wonderful, phantom readers! So much to catch up on… In the coming days I will be offering up entries on just some of the following: Xmas at the Grands Magasins, modern architecture in the 14th arr., the OLPC (and why I want one), the iPhone (ditto), fast-food chains as public space, Wikipedia!, holiday meal run-down, submerged treasures of Egypt, some fun Paris web-finds, Zingaro equestrian acrobatics, Honfleur, Rouen, and the abundance of fine steak in Paris. Not a bad working list. Lift one for luck – I’ll git ‘er done.