Paris: postcard shots and other clichés

There's a kind of inverted snobbery which I'm as guilty of as anyone, which says you shouldn't take the postcard pictures - why not buy the postcards if that's what you want? Yet there's a reason why those views are so well-known ('iconic' is another cliché too far, why do I beat myself up so?) 

It's a pleasure to capture Notre Dame from the river, where to all appearances she is solitary, uncluttered and serene,

or the arches of the other bridges receding  through those of the Pont Neuf.

The rotonde de la Villette  is less well known, but picture postcard handsome all the same, as are the gardens of the Palais Royal

There are other naff and outré things which are perhaps better avoided, but yet are difficult to resist, such as photographing cute urban bird life,

especially in conjunction with naked statuary

or one's own feet:

 Tom's and mine, weary and relaxing by the Palais Royal fountains. But then this does seem to me to encapsulate a happy memory, and Tom's Birkenstocks are downright cool.

We really would draw the line at selfie sticks though, which should be not only considered anti-social but also made universally illegal.

More anon.