Paris is Dirty...

Okay so I know I'm sounding a bit pessimistic with this title and the last post... but Paris just seems especially dirty lately. I think one of the main contributing factors is the heating in the metro. The metro is always hot, but now that the weather is getting colder and people are starting to layer more on I think it has become even hotter, stuffier and smellier. The urine smell that's always lingering in the stations has seemed especially strong the past few days as well. I've also been finding it frustrating to always have to look down when I'm walking so that I don't accidentally step in a giant pile of dog poo that someone has so kindly neglected to pick up. And to top it all off, I was sitting in the fancy Starbucks near Opera with my friend last night (this place has chandeliers) and I saw a mouse run across the floor... The funny thing was it didn't even surprise me. I find it interesting that Paris has this reputation as a romantic, glamorous, classy city yet it is so dirty in some ways. Sometimes I find that these contrasts give the city more character, but at the moment it's getting colder, darker and drearier outside and it's becoming more difficult to view these aspects as charming.