Paris: Lights, Love and Dog Sh*t

Paris has been referred to as many things over the ages; The city of light, love, art, romance, dreams and many other high-minded ideals that a city should strive to become.  However the one thing that not many people will tell you is that it is also the city of dog shit.  Seriously.

Now I haven't been here long, and granted, I'm not wandering around the upper crust places, but there is unusual amounts of shit on the street.  Now when I say 'unusual' I mean it in the sense that a mid-western farmer might while commenting on the volume of wind during tornado season.  There is a LOT of shit.

Back in Canada I supposed I had unconsciously become accustomed to not having to watch where I walked all that closely, and this is coming from a man who lived in the most narcotic saturated, needle infested part of the country for five years. 

In Vancouver's Downtown East Side, where I lived quite happily for over five years, there is a wee drug problem, and where there are drugs used needles on the street are soon to follow.  However, in Vancouver there are also people who wander the streets cleaning up these needles (yet i never saw one of them clean up any crap).  Yet there isn't a poo-epidemic there, canine or otherwise (and for those of you who've ben to the downtown east side, you know it isn't the sweetest smelling some days).

Yet here I am, in arguably one of the world's most metropolitan cities and I must keep an ever vigilant eye earthward, which is quite difficult when even the most mundane buildings here drip of character and history.

So my advice to you, potential Paris visitor, is this;  Stay on your toes while admiring the millions of sights to see and always take your shoes off when entering someone's home, because even the most eagle-eyed park stroller will eventually slip up.