Pleased with a few of the shots.
It’s weird though. I go someplace like Helsinki and I soak up all of this incremental detail about the place. I go to Paris and the info feels like these colossal blocky shapes muscling for attention. I think that’s why I found the cigarette sellers so interesting.
Paris is a catalogue of Stuff You Must See. It’s big, and obvious and busy. It is also, undeniably, the most beautiful city I’ve ever been in. The reason it’s still standing is because it’s so beautiful: a certain Nazi general forbade the place to be bombed for that reason. It is so beautiful, in fact, that I’m loathe to see too much when I’m not feeling 100%. It’d feel a wasteful sentiment if I didn’t know I’d be back. This trip was a last-minute ill-planned rush in the wake of ten days of bad sleep and a seratonin dropout. What I will get, I think, is one sterling day in Paris. Enough to hammer in a good sense of how the city is laid out, how the transport works and how to get around. If I’ve got the cash and the wiles I’m definitely getting R here. It’s the kind of place you need to enthuse over with someone else, I think.
So what I present here is a small gallery of shots I think look good. Or could have looked better but hopefully provide a sense of being there. The full gallery is over here.
So this is where I had breakfast.
The canal’s quite beautiful. I stayed at the place on the right. Best hostel I’ve ever been in.
This is possibly my favourite shot of the day. I just love the contrast between this massive stone construction, the tiny old guy reading, and the expression on the dog’s face. That’s the Sacre Couer behind them, by the way.
And here’s some architectural stuff I dug from the Basilique. What I loved most about the place was how, even looking at it in real life, it seemed to have been painted from shades rather than built:
There were signs all over requesting no photos be taken inside. Which was a shame. It was breathtaking in there. Given it was the solstice, and given how key the Basilique was to a scene in Fateless, I took a friend’s advice and out a request out there for the coming year.
The view from the steps at the front was spectacular:
Met Christophe later in the day. We checked a few places out. Saw a Latin band, a Middle Eastern pop DJ, and passed this girl band playing just off the street:
They were pretty good.
Failed to get into the showtunes thing at the Louvre, like I said. So we pretty much called it a night. The grounds of the Louvre, though, wow. Massive, broad, low fountain-lakes. Chairs arranged around them. People sitting in the dusk talking or singing, surrounded by Grecian statuary. Definitely one of my ideas of beauty. The opposite end of the spectrum I usually deal with. Christophe paradoxically comes across as a cloistered soul, but is incredibly well-traveled and has a deep knowledge of Australian wildlife. He actually got dual French/Oz citizenship a few years back as a skilled migrant.
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Cam,
if you like the architecture of the Basilic…you would most definitly like Leuven… it’s so much smaller, but even I’m still suprised everytime I take the time to look up to the amasing buildings here…although I admit I forget it’s beauty from time to time!
keep up the nice writing…love reading your blogs!
x Sandra