Tentative d'épuisement

Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien, an essay by Georges Perec, is a fascinating miniature of everyday life in Paris in the 1970s. Written over the course of several days in the Place Saint-Sulpice, it lists the minutiae of daily life-- people passing by, cars, buses, tour groups, dogs, pigeons, clouds, etc.

I found a hyperlinked version of the text online-- it is more of a poetic journey that spirals around the text than an "annotation". Sometimes the hyperlinks are a little off-- when Perec describes "deux aubergines toniques", the link takes us to a picture of an eggplant -- what is that supposed to mean? Was an eggplant-and-tonic the hip drink among the literary set of the Faubourg Saint-Germain in the early-mid Seventies? Did two extraordinarily fresh and energetic eggplants hop down from a grocer's stall in the nearby Marché Saint-Germain and stroll over to visit the Delacroix paintings in the Eglise Saint-Sulpice, tant qu'on est à Paris, profitons-en!

Mystery solved: The ladies who give the parking tickets in France were referred to as "aubergines" because of the burgundy color of their uniforms. Oh. Also, there were? are? "pervenches" with the same duties-- so-called because of the bright violet blue coats and hats they wear/wore.