With the days getting shorter, it’s getting more and more challenging for me to do after-work photowalk. Even tougher when I have tango class to attend this evening, so back to some place I don’t have far to go – Place de la Concorde – mere 5 minutes walk or so from yesterday’s view point.
Standing in front of the Jardin des Tuileries by the gate, a few options come to mind. I definitely could come back here a few more times for very different shots. For today though, you’re getting one of the fountains at Place de la Concorde (the south Maritime Fountain) with a backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. There were too much traffic though, of else I would have shot a more inclusive photo, instead of this weird half-way cut-off, oops.
In many ways, Paris is still locked in the past. Look at the skyline a hundred years ago, and look at it again today. There aren’t many differences to be found. Sure there may be a crane or two appearing near the periphery limit, but centrally, it has stayed true to how Baron Haussmann had intended the city to be. This picture could have easily been shot decades ago. (I was at the top of Centre Pompidou for this photo, in case you’re wondering.)
This is a good time to introduce you to Paris Avant, a site that posts pictures of Paris of today and yesteryear, side by side, every day. To date, over 1650 pairs of photos have been published. Truly amazing effort by Frédéric Botton. (And here I am, struggling to be up to date with my daily entry – how embarassing. I’m working on it, I’m working on it. I promise.)
I’m doing a lot of river crossing this weekend.
Today, instead of walking, I was on the métro (Line 6) and between the stops of Bir-Hakeim and Passy, for some reason, the driver decided to go slow when crossing River Seine by way of Pont de Bir-Hakeim. It afforded me a few precious seconds to quickly whipped out my camera and grab this shot. Unfortunately the threat of rain that I mentioned yesterday was making itself known, and the sky looked quite ominous, don’t you agree?
What you can’t see from this photo is that the bridge stands on one end of Île aux Cygnes, a narrow man-made island built in 1827 to protect the adjacent Port de Grenelle. Only one walkway can be found on this isle – the Allée des Cygnes. The walkway connects the bridge to a replica of Statue of Liberty at the other end of the isle. The statue, which faces west towards its sister in the Big Apple since 1937, is scaled at one-fourth of the one on Liberty Island.
Despite being a frequent visitors to Paris (and France) in the past, I have actually never been here before for La Fête Nationale. We don’t call it Bastille Day here and in fact it may even confuses the French – “c’est quoi, le Bastille Day?” So, my first celebration, and although I skipped the military parade in the morning, I was at Champ de Mars (with a few thousand others) to enjoy the fireworks in the evening.
My friends and I got there early to bag ourselves a sweet spot at the feet of the equestrian sculpture of Marechal Joffre, having a spot of picnic and chit chatting while enjoying a pretty decent free concert prior to the start of the fireworks. As the sky got darker, the Eiffel Tower started lighting up while I played with a few settings on my camera, capturing something like above, which I thought was really cool. The fireworks finally began just after 10pm, and for about 40 minutes, we were treated to a visual feast of bangs and sparkles, dancing to the songs of Broadway Musicals. Two words – über impressive!
(For additional photos, see here)
Visitors to Paris tend to stay within the central area of the city – let’s face it, there are so much to do one need not venture further out in any case – and as a result, perhaps the only tall buildings they would have noticed are Tour Montparnasse and those at La Défense (and you can spot them right from Champs-Élysées). Otherwise, Parisian architecture seems rarely topping the sixth or seventh storey in height, much less constructed with plenty of steels, metals and glasses.
Down by Port de Javel, standing on Pont du Garigliano, one may not recognise Paris if not for the Tour Eiffel which stands beyond the horizon of tall modern buildings. It is still quite pretty here, with less human traffic (at least that was the case when I was out there this evening) and the feeling that the dynamism of Paris is something that I would need a lot of time to fully understand. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to find time somehow to soak all the knowledge in.
Start of week 4 since the big move, and I still haven’t posted any photo of famous Parisian landmark, so this evening, after work, I took some time to traverse west of the city in order to grab a photo of the infamous La Tour Eiffel by night. It was a rather impromptu decision, so I don’t have my mini tripod with me to help steady the shot. This turned out reasonably well but the sparkly version, not so great.
I took the bus to cross the city and it makes sense – no métro changes plus I get to see the view above ground. The 7th arrondissement used to be sort of my “home” ground in Paris, and as we passed some of the more familiar streets, I started to feel all very nostalgic of the neighbourhood. I should try to come back more often, and find time to get to Champs-Elysées somehow. I may have been travelling in and out of the city (and now all moved here) but it has been a very long time since I was at the stylish thoroughfare. 2-3 years perhaps?
