illegal kitsch or just illegal?
{ photos by redjade and ex-Pioneer } (c)
While ex-Pioneer and I were recently vacationing in Paris we visited the Eiffel Tower. On the way there we noticed a group of about ten young men, perhaps arab or south asian, selling toy Eiffel Towers of various sizes hooked together by wire.
After exploring the Eiffel Tower we walked back to the Metro and found them again. Being a connoisseur of kitsch I had to buy a mini-Tower. I asked one of the men for the 1€ replica and then asked if I could take his picture.
In a blink of an eye the ten men were running away from us down the street. Soon we witnessed Paris Police in a van on the scene as the men zig-zagged across the busy street to avoid capture. The police quickly gave up.
We sense from the situation that the men were either selling Parisian kitsch illegally or living illegally in France themselves, or both.
Apparently, this is a common scene in Paris.