I hope you all had a Happy Halloween! I didn't expect much out of Halloween in France, because I know it's not much of a holiday over here and I hadn't seen any signs of it in shop windows. But my Halloween night turned out to be rather festive after all!
I spent the day in Chartres, which is an hour's train ride west of Paris, to re-photograph its lovely cathedral. It was wonderful, if a whole lot of work, but that's a story for another day.
My Halloween story begins when I headed back behind Chartres Cathedral to take my final night shots, as the last bit of blue faded from the sky. First, on my dark walk alongside the cathedral, I spotted a black cat! He didn't cross my path, but he stopped to look at me with his bright yellow eyes. Sadly I wasn't able to photograph him before he scampered off under the Gothic arches, but I walked on feeling satisfied that my Halloween didn't go unobserved.
Actually, what I saw was so much better than this photo, because the moon is too bright for my camera to capture it. But it was a huge, glorious, deep orange, crater-filled, harvest moon - like a big pumpkin! It couldn't get much more Halloween-y than that.
Finally, after I finally finished all my photography around 7pm, with my stomach growling angrily since I hadn't had time for lunch, I sat down for this nice dinner a couple blocks from the cathedral. French food has a reputation for being fancy, and it certainly can be, but this is a very typical casual French meal - omelette et frites. My omelette had ham and mushrooms and was delicious.
During dinner, I had another Halloween surprise - trick-or-treaters! Aren't they cute? And stylish? I only saw a few others besides these, but the restaurant was clearly prepared and gave them some kind of goodies.
And here are the parents, who saw me snapping pictures and posed for me. They were very fun.
Back in Paris around 10pm, I came across some 20-somethings heading out to parties in the Metro. This girl had her face painted green to go with the most excellent wig; unfortunately I didn't manage a photo.
Some mild-mannered zombies or vampires on the platform.