clever lines that spark fiery discussion

So I might be a little bitter towards Sciences Po for making my life, well, academically difficult, but I do love this grand école.  Students are engaged here.  Case in point: the Sciences Po bathroom graffiti.  Instead of inviting phone numbers and sexual visuals [don't get me wrong, I do love these], this is what you'll find on the inside of the toilet stalls:

"Les enfants croient au Père Noël, les adultes votent"

"Children believe in Santa Claus, adults vote"

How powerful is that?  Yeah, it is a little - or a lot - pessimistic, and I do prefer positive thoughts, but wow, point taken.

Here's another:

"Please leave the State in the toilet in which you found it"

Okay, this one is also pessimistic.  But these clever lines spark fiery discussion.  Abstention rates in France are very high - half of the population didn't vote at the last regional elections.  But the action taken away from the polls hasn't disappeared.  It still exists, in the bathrooms, during strikes, on blank ballots.  Bathroom trips have never been so inspiring.

tweets and melodies of oiseaux

Yesterday, on my routine monthly run I discovered the answer to a riddle that has perplexed me since spring started showing its head in Paris.  My apartment is typical Parisian - an awkward instance of "taking advantage of space" in which my bedroom doubles as a dining room and my kitchen has no natural lighting and is the size of an elongated closet.  My bathroom sits opposite the kitchen, across the tiny entrée, and goes about its ventilation through two dusty vents that give out onto some vestibule of fresh air that I have yet to place geographically.  

Well, since spring started teasing us, my bathroom experience has been quite harmonious as tweets and melodies of oiseaux float past the dust and land in my ears.  You don't really see that many birds in Paris -- excluding pigeons, colliding with whom is a personal daily fear -- and so I've been wondering why they have all seemed to cluster behind my bathroom.

{rescued from here}

My run gave me the answer.  On my signature 3 minute 'post-run cool-down walk' I ventured to les arènes de Lutèce, the remains of a Roman gladiatorial amphitheater, located right behind my dwelling.  Well well well - to my surprise and satisfaction, this arena also houses la Maison des oiseaux." Open on Saturdays from 13h30 to 17h30, this house of birds aims to promote the preservation of biodiversity.  And, unknowingly, it shines musical loveliness into my salle de bain - props to all the birdies.  I look forward to meeting them all next samedi.

chirp chirp!