Tour Montparnasse, Tree IDs and a Blind Driver

I had an assignment this week shooting on top of the Tour Montparnasse, the tallest building in France at about 700 feet (210 metres). The shoot was bizarre (don't ask) but it gave me the opportunity to shoot some images of Paris from above.


To see more images of Paris from above, CLICK HERE.

Paris has a lot of trees - approximately 95,000. They line most major boulevards and most public squares.


How does the city and their 108 lumberjacks keep track of them all? Starting in 2003, each tree had a Radio Frequency ID Tag (RFID) planted inside of it and the lumberjacks use graphic tablets to document the history and treatment of each one. Pretty impressive. If for some reason you're interested in learning more about this (not sure why you would be), CLICK HERE.
==========================================================================

I just loved this AFP story this week:

Blind Frenchman fined for drunk driving 22/08/2008

A blind Frenchman was given a month's suspended jail sentence and fined EUR 500 for driving while drunk and without a license.

NANCY-- A blind journalist was given a month's suspended jail sentence and fined EUR 500 by a French court Friday for driving while drunk and without a license.

The owner of the car, who was also drunk as he sat next to the blind man when he drove the vehicle, was given the same sentence and had his license suspended for five months by the court in the northeastern town of Nancy.

The pair was arrested on a country road in the early hours of July 25 by police who spotted their car zig-zagging suspiciously and moving at a very low speed.

The police were astounded when the 29-year-old driver informed them that he was blind. The police breathalysed the driver and his passenger, a 52-year-old photographer and found they had drunk twice the permitted level of alcohol.

"I really wanted to do it (drive the car)," the blind man told the court.

=========================================================================

I checked the statistics for my blog and found that at least one person in each of the following countries is reading my blog:

1 United States
2 France
3 Germany
4 United Kingdom
5 Israel
6 Italy
7 Australia
8 Argentina
9 Canada
10 Brazil
11 Serbia
12 Norway
13 Spain
14 Malaysia
15 Indonesia
16 Finland
17 Chile
18 Netherlands
19 Georgia
20 Moldova
21 Thailand
22 Austria
23 Iran
24 Vietnam
25 Hungary
26 India
27 Romania

This is particularly interesting because I don't know anyone in most of these countries.

Some photos of the week ...

Where I buy my veggies
Deep-fried spring roll filled with a banana chocolate hazelnut spread
Street artist