The bad kind of snow

 14°C, the sun is out, the jacket is off and the jumper is only on so I don't seem too German.

Sitting here one the île-de-St.-Louis on the banks of the Seine blinking in the sun, it's kind of hard to imagine that last week it was all covered in snow. Not much, just enough to slow the whole city down. After the obligatory snowball fight that really brought together all generations, the streets were almost empty.

Though the white dress looks great on Paris, the problem remains the same as with everything pure: it spoils very easily. So after one afternoon of strolling around the sugar-coated city and a night during which the absence of a howling siren for more than 15 minutes almost made you feel like something was wrong, the next morning came. Paris spoiled its dress and it spoiled it good. Streets, sidewalks, houses, even the sky, all the same colour. A dirty grey that got darker as the days went by. And still there was hardly anybody on the streets, which makes you wonder: Where the hell is everybody? They can't all just sit at home watching TV, playing cards ranting about gays and taxes.

The solution is actually quite simple: The metro.

It's an almost surreal feeling going down the stairs from the empty and quiet streets to the station and all of a sudden you are standing in a hectic and noisy sea of people, an underground society that reminds one of dwarfs in their mines. Seems there is no need to buy winter tires but somehow a lot of people decided it was inevitable to purchase full body Eskimo costumes so they wouldn't freeze to death on the way from the metro to work, which in Paris, by design, is never more than 500 meters away.

Well, now the whole spook is over. The streets are black again. You can tell the dark grey of the sidewalks apart from the light grey of the houses and the sky is actually blue. Even the Eskimo invasion is over and everyone’s clothing went back to normal: Tight jeans, striped shirts with a neckerchief and a beret framing the moustaches. I prefer it that way!

Greetings from the Arctic Circle