It may says March on the calendar, and we’re a mere week away from official start of spring. However, the weather is anything but that. Between yesterday and today, the temperature plunged to sub-zero level, and in Paris, the snowfall easily measured a good few inches. Not as severe as the northern part of the country, where some places received over 60cm of snow!
As the buses were not running this morning and trying to take the métro would only complicate things for me – there’d be unnecessary distance to travel before changing line and the two lines, which are already normally among the busiest in Paris, would be completely crazy on a day like this when service was reduced and there were even more demand than usual. Besides, it was not a terribly long walk, and I got rewarded with pretty winter scenes to photograph.
Without further ado, snowy Paris in March over two-day period :) (Hover over images for caption)
Continue reading »
Am I having alternate good and bad week with this project? Sometimes I even ponder if I know what I’m doing anymore… Perhaps it was also my state of mind – I started the week with a terrible backache, which tapered off but got me more cautious about overdoing it, about going out in the cold. Booo.
* * *
21 Jan: Ok, this is cheating. This photo was actually taken on the snowy morning of 20 Jan, when F accompanied me to the Louvre and then to Montmartre. I stayed home most of the day to rest my aching back, and as a result, this project was far from my mind until the next morning. Ooops. As compensation, well, I give you F ;) (and he doesn’t even know that he’s going to be featured here!) I have no idea what he was doing either at this very moment – adjusting his neck-protector-against-the-cold thingy, I think.
Continue reading »
If week 2 has been a tough one, motivation-wise, week 3 of Project 365 was the opposite. Thanks to a couple of late visits to catch temporary exhibitions that were closing, I found myself allocating some extra time before hand to grab some night photos. I also discovered unlikely photography spot from the very building I work in (!!!) and of course, there was the snowy weekend to round it up prettily.
* * *
14 Jan: It was the final evening of Bohèmes at the Grand Palais. Really, you’d think with a Sésame+, Frédéric and I would have seen this a couple of months back. But no, we kept delaying it. Frédéric even went to see Hopper thrice in the mean time. Just before joining the queue, I hied myself over the Pont Alexandre III to see if I would get a decent photo of the Grand Palais by night. Not bad, right?
Continue reading »
Paris remained magical on Sunday morning. In fact, even more so in comparison to Saturday. Throughout the day, snow continued to fall all over the city (and other parts of the country), depositing layers of powdery ice over everything as well as everyone who ventured out from their cosy apartments.
Frédéric and I went out for an impromptu date morning, but first up, after seeing Carina’s blog post, he requested if we could stopped by at the Louvre before heading up to Montmartre, my destination pick. Of course! After we wrapped ourselves well, we were out the door.
Continue reading »
Oh they were bold alright. Very bold. Had I not witness it myself, I would have a harder time believing it.
Paris, for many, is an idyllic and nostalgic city. And romantic. And classic. And [fill in appropriate adjectives as you wish]. On a recent drizzly afternoon, Frédéric and I were out on a walking tour of Île de la Cité after which I decided we should extend our time out with a stroll towards the general direction of Place de la concorde. Despite the weather, he humoured me and went along my whimsical request.
From Pont Neuf, we took a scenic walk via Jardin de Tuileries and had just detoured onto Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor when we saw an old gypsy woman trying to persuade a couple that they have dropped a massive gold ring. As if watching an episode of a telenovela, we sat down at a bench nearby and I whispered to F that the couple had just been had when they accepted the ring. He was confused.
Continue reading »
It has been a good many years since I last ascended the Eiffel Tower. If I recall correctly, the last time I went up would be in 2004 with Beejay (his 21st birthday present; a trip to Europe from Andrew and I!) but Andrew assured me it would have been 2006 when he was visiting Paris with me and his then new wife. Either way, 6 years, 8 years, those were a lifetime away. Fast forward and what do you know – us three siblings visiting anew together, them with spouses and kid in tow!
Given the fame of the Iron Lady, to have each deck of the tower filled with visitors is nothing new. But the number of pushy “photographers” trying to jostle for a spot of their favourite views, that’s a whole new level of crazy. It mattered not to them that they were pushing aside a lady carrying a young child but luckily my niece is pretty much the zen-kind of little girl, so she just looked at them curiously then got back to surveying her surroundings.
Continue reading »
It feels a little odd, in the last few days, not to actively think of where I should go in search of my photo of the day. No more pondering if I’ve taken too many shots in a particular arrondissement and that I should venture further afield, nor worrying if the weather will turn against me and prevent a good yet brisk photowalk, and so forth. It is liberating. At the same time, I quite miss my daily “photo op forage”…
If you’re wondering what to expect the next time you drop by this page, well, I am still pondering the same question myself. Undoubtedly the major focus remains with Paris, perhaps not too different from the blogs of many expats in this city but hopefully there are still something new and fresh and interesting to you. Intermittently, I’ll talk about my travelling adventures, past and present, and finally share the many photos that I’ve taken but remissed in publishing so far.
I have a number of targetted projects for this year too, which shall not escape a mention in the blog, including (1) 36 views of Sacré Cœur/Montmartre, (2) museums of Paris, (3) cheese-a-week and (4) cultural metro stations. If there are anything in particular that pique your interest and want me to check them out, you can always let me know too!
This is a big year for me, with much on plan and I don’t yet know how much time I will have to devote to this blog. Fingers crossed, I’ll be able to work on it on a regular basis and you will not be left without entertainment for too long. I’ll be back this weekend with a couple of updates to start. Later.
Yet another long weekend in Paris (it’s a public holiday today in commemoration of Armistice Day) and coincidentally it’s a binary day today (of 11.11.11). I had every good intention of wanting to go out and grab a photo at 11.11am but the continuous drizzle through the day hasn’t been particularly helpful. And I slept badly last night too, so that’s my sleep-in plan ruined.
I took myself up to Montmartre for a little bit of wandering about when I came across this small art gallery not too far away from Abbesses. Nude still lives. I think it’s rather brave for someone to bare it all like this to be painted. Art classes aplenty has such programme. Once upon many moons ago when I was in my “I’d like to do random stuff” phase, I did consider modelling for an art class, when decided that will be too risqué, not to mention, very much out of my comfort zone.
Strolling Champs-Élysées is not something I do at a regular basis. Since moving here, I may have sauntered over perhaps for a total of 2-3 times? By contrast, I’ve been to Montmartre about once a month, despite it being on the opposite end of the city from me. Then again, Paris as a wonderful city for exploration, there are plenty of nooks and corners to discover that repeated trips to same places are sometimes not warranted.
Nonetheless, once back on Champs, it’s easy to remember why this is the City of Lights. Even past midnight and at wee hours in the morning, there are so much lives and activities here, vehicles zooming past, shop lights glowing (like this display at Peugeot), and the clickety-clack of high heels hitting the pavements. All things dynamic and go, go, go, yet everything’s also elegant at the same time. In the distant, at the right time, you’ll even see the sparkles from la Tour Eiffel. Suddenly, life is bright and shiny again. It’s magic :)
At the junction between rue de Haudriettes and rue des Archives sits a mural called La femme, lumière de l’homme. Painted by Combas in hommage of the great Cubic master, Picasso, who called Paris his home for many year, where he lived, painted and sculpted in Montmartre. In fact, not very far from where this spot itself – less than 5 minutes walk – is Musée Picasso, where thousands of his works (plus his private collection) make up the exhibition collection.
This photo above is but about 1/3 of the entire mural.The very top panel was a reminder of how Montmartre and Paris used to be, and the middle panel, the name of the painting reflected is at the tip of my tongue yet somehow I couldn’t just spew a name and get it right. It’ll come back to me some time. Meanwhile, spot the amusing tiled floor of this picture.
