dubya

Bush was in town for the last few days doing his farewell tour of Europe. There were police everywhere. Parts of the 1st, 8th and the 16th were completely closed off. On Saturday, I was walking on what I thought was a very quiet street along Assembly Nationale when I realized the 20 police minivans on the opposite side of the street from me were each filled with about 8 or so policemen fulled armed in full gear, just sitting quietly in the vans watching me walk up the street, ready to be called away at any moment. Now, this area is always guarded by Republican Guards but this was clearly for another reason. Not a cool feeling to suddenly realize there are hundreds of loaded guns just a few feet away from you and the owners are bored so all eyes are on you. Needless to say I couldn't snap a happy pic of this event so you'll have to imagine.

Here is the closest photo I could get of the scene. The street I was walking up was on the left in the photo right where the green bus is turning.