Face The Facts

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Face The Facts ~

Face The Facts, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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For some reason I'm feeling remarkably positive at the moment. Far from feeling like just another cog in the wheel, it's almost as though a veil has been lifted and the sun is shining through. Wow, that's incredibly corny, and not worthy of the poet I pretend to be, but nevermind. It's all extemporaneous over here on Paris & I folks, but I suppose I didn't need to tell you guys that anyway.

Maybe it's because the weather has picked up, much as I sneer at discussing the weather; maybe it's coz I've got myself a dog, making a 40 year dream come true at last. Or maybe it's just that the medication's working at last.

Whatever the reason, I'm enjoying it while I can. No doubt doom and gloom will descend upon this little corner of the interweb before too long. Hopefully with its dark humour still intact, of course. I'd never want to lose that, however 'happy' I was feeling: quelle horreur !

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By the way, you know this whole Facebook changeover thing that's going on at the moment? You know: they fuck up all our lovingly created page layouts, and we can't do jack about it? Yeah, that one. Well, I just looked at one of my pages' imposed new layout (it happens today, and it's happened, get over it...), and guess what I saw?

Every single track I've been listening to on Deezer over the last few days was there in all their glory for all and sundry to see and scoff at. 'Was' being the operative, so don't go scurrying...

Now. Now I don't mind telling people about music I like. In fact, don't get me started! But. But do I really, really want people to know about everything, and like what, how many times, in what order and at what time of the day or, more typically, night? No, I don't think I do. Jeez.

You might not consider that a particularly significant or serious event, but the principle is very scary. Imagine going to work tomorrow and your boss saying - "I see you were listening to the Anti Nowhere League until 5 in the morning - you must be on form today..." or whatever. Imagine your colleague sidling up to you at the coffee machine barely containing their mirth and uttering the spine chilling, blood curdling words: “Barry Manilow and Billy Joel, eh? Very nice…” Think of the potential damage to your career, not to mention the hurt your family would have to endure if it ever got out. And of course, it would get out. You can rely on the internet for that.

Moral of the story: we're all part of the system, whether we like it or not. Possibly our only defence is information, in the form of staying informed. Ironically, using the internet for that is a little like biting the hand that feeds. Someone, somewhere, will know that you were looking for ways to post anonymously, for example. And just possibly might be wondering why. Welcome to the machine. Got over it?

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Moving Shots, Right On Time

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Moving Shots, Right On Time ~

Moving Shots, Right On Time, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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We're in the splendid Hôtel de Ville of Paris, at a Robert Doisneau exhibition. He's shown us, well, posthumously, what Les Halles looked like before it became Les Hall-less (he-he, I kill myself sometimes) back in the early 70s. It got kicked out to Rungis, in the southern suburbs, where all those dodgy metro fruit seller guys probably get their stuff - I hope they do anyway, the splendid pavillions were pulled down and almost all destroyed and, according to some, the place lost its soul. Zola would definitely have agreed.

Of course the amazing and highly relevant fact is... that right now, literally under our very 21st century noses, it's being ripped up again. The famous trou (hole) of Les Halles is back with a vengeance, and I strongly recommend you go take a look and grab some shots for posterity.

Who knows, maybe in 50 years it'll be once more in the process of being transformed into some sort of 5th Element-style shopping centre with taxis zapping between a hundred high rise, high-tech 'fly-by' stores and there'll be an exhibition of your work gracing the walls of the city's most impressive municipal building...

This roving reporter wouldn't say no to a street photography exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville but I'm not taking many shots of the developments as they occur I'm afraid. One of the downsides of trying to cover all of a large city like Paris is that you risk not actually covering any of it in any real depth. I have to live with that and just do my best to not be too superficial if I can help it.

In the meantime, whilst awaiting my first Paris city council-sponsored expo, which happens generally, and rather unfortunately, after your death, which is a bit of a pest, I shoot. And write. And move on. Shoot-write-move on. That's the discipline. As opposed to eating, shooting and leaving, which is, of course what asocial pandas do... Listen, I'd better move on too now, actually, judging by the size of the hole I'm digging here... ;~S

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Up The Catholics

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Up The Catholics ~

       

Untitled, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

Notre-Dame de Paris has quite a few secrets to reveal to those who care to wade through the waves of tourists and delve a little deeper beneath the anti-patina of the newly sandblasted facade.

I tried a curiosities tour of Ile de la Cité last year with my Paris If You Please Meet Up group last year, and I came up with a list of at least 50 things to talk about in two hours - it wasn't easy to fit them all in! And Notre-Dame accounted for a few.

For example, did you know that the two towers of the cathedral are actually... no, I'll let you suffer now if you're the suffering sort! There's always the comments section if you Need To Know about The Two Towers. And you'll have to prove you've read The Fellowship of the Ring first...

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Anyway. I will tell you about this one, very briefly, coz I've already written about it at length elsewhere, like herewhere.

On the right you have 'The Synagogue', a woman with her eyes covered by a serpent, dropping holy tablets, crown fallen and staff broken. Subtle? Not really.

On the left (of the main door to Notre-Dame, no less) is The Smarmily Smug Church, head aloft, all her accoutrements in tact, and what have you. 'The church kicked the synagogue's butt' is basically the message screaming out from the central portal from one of the world's most famous religious edifices. You've gotta love it.

What's more surprising is that this blatent snub / rub their noses in it is still in place today. A bit like some of the old colonial shop signs, this harks back to other, less tolerant times, and some would want to see it removed or modified, but there's no news yet.

I, for one, don't want anything modified in the slightest. I'm a reactionary in that sense; I don't want any of my precious Paris quirks to be lost in the name of anything. And the way history goes and comes around, it's probably just a coincidence we're living in times where this is the current status quo between the religions, or what's left of them.

Makes me think of the various revolutions and counter revolutions, where they would scratch out the 'St' from street names, only to restore it a few years later along with the latest version of the monarchy. Many of the friezes you find around the city bear similar modifications more or less subtle or obvious for us to enjoy.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Here, There & Everywhere

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Here, There & Everywhere ~

Here, There & Everywhere, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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If I was hoping for a Googe search for 'Paris graffiti everywhere' to help me get to the bottom of these ubiquitous posters, painted 'slogans' and tear-off notices, I had to think again.

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How many internet folks have, at some time, said that graffiti in Paris is 'everywhere', I wonder. Hmm. Me included, I'm sure.

So that didn't help. But what you do often see in Paris is these anonymous, intriguing and occasionally thought provoking messages scattered around the place, and I'm not talking just about this 'Everywhere' phenomenon above. But this one is big right now. Someone must be working hard at being 'everywhere' in pure anonymity. You might, like me, wonder why.

When I put my stuff up in the streets of Paris, well, I've almost stopped putting my name, but I give clues nevertheless. I'd find it hard to produce something creative without the possibility for interested parties to track me down if they felt so inclined.

My 'tag' is 'infini^2' (infini carré / infinity squared) and when I put 'Paris infinity' into Google, I, at least, found my abstract art construction video on the first page. Weird. Anonymity, that is. What can it all be about? It's almost annoying not knowing. And, in the end, that might be the entire point. Bloody artists.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Windchills of My Mind

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Windchills of My Mind ~

Windchills of My Mind, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Just love these characterful little buildings you find scattered around some of the more dilapidated areas of the city along disused railway tracks usually.

Because that's what they would seem to be: observation posts from another, possibly more romantic era. A time where the ultimate anorak's dream job would be sitting up high in one of these oddly-shaped little cabins on the edge of his beloved railway tracks watching trains go by all day long. A veritable Herbert's Heaven, if ever there was one.

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The problem is, the more I mock train spotters, the more I have this uneasy feeling I'm turning into one. Yikes. Let me do a quick calculation, based on train photos I've taken and published of one sort or another, to see how much of my life I actually spend skulking around train stations and railway lines.

Hmmm...


Oh.


That wasn't a good idea.

The next post will have Absolutely. Nothing. To. Do. With. Railways.

Probably. Hang on, let me check. No, tomorrow's pic has absolutely nothing to do with railways. Nor does the next. Nor the next. Nor the... oh shoot. Metros. I see the month of March, and my 9th collection of Paris Photo Chronicles, out on a metro. A couple of them in fact, in one of the city's most remarkable station platforms.

Oh well. It could be worse I suppose. I could have written an article about all the carriage numbers I've collected over the last three months. Imagine how pathetic that would be - hah!

Besides, it's confidential.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Walking The Thin Line

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Walking The Thin Line ~

Walking The Thin Line, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Now, I'm not one for giving pointless weather forecasts - there are about 150, mainly pointless, TV channels I can watch for that if I feel the urge. BUT, I can't resist saying that it's been lovely and warm for the last few days here in Ile de France, and the next few are supposed to be glorious too, so hopefully I'll be able to get out and start running down by the Orge river again.

I'm not the only one who loves Paris but who has been forced to move out in order to have a bit more space (I adore broom cupboards and that, but...). I've still got my five-zone train pass though, and head in several days a week, especially when I'm working on a BIG Paris photo project like I am now!

The first map shows you how far I actually am from the city. It looks a loonnngggg way out, and kind of is, but I'm right next to a direct line to Saint-Michel on line C qui craint moins que certaines (which is less scary than some).

Saint-Michel station, right in the middle of Paris, equals Notre-Dame, Ile de la Cité, Shakespeare and Company, Quartier Latin, Marais, Saint-Germain des Prés, Jardin de Luxembourg, etc. etc. in about 40 minutes, so you could say I don't feel too out of things. I'm near Arpajon, by the way, extreme bottom left in the map, and Paris is the circle top right.

The second map shows you where I run when I'm not running around Paris. I have no idea why I think you might be interested in this info but that's what's on my mind, as Sab Jnr. is being sick by my side, so I'm off-loading!

There's something magical about running through a wood or along a beautiful river knowing that in two hours I'll be taking pictures or having a leisurely English lesson with a young musician or sitting in a café tapping out the next of my daily thought-splurges.

And when I run in Paris, even after all these years, I still look up at the Eiffel Tower - yes, that old pile of scrap iron and rivets - with a smile on my face and say, hey!, I'm running past the Eiffel Tower, this snotty little kid from Norff London, innit mate. How about that!

The funny thing about living near Arpajon is, and excuse me for repeating myself, when I first arrived in France nearly 20 years ago, I had no money or job (hey, what's changed?) and camped out in the grounds of a youth hostel whilst trying to find work for a non-French speaking bum, and staying in... Arpajon! I've come full circle, you could say. Happy sunbasking, if you're lucky enough to be doing so.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Pensez Pink

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Pensez Pink ~

Think Pink, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Are you allowed to be different in Paris? And are the French really as fashion chic and clothes snobby as we always think?

Sometimes, very rarely, you see a Parisian punk, a French one, and it's hilarious. I mean, so unusual, that they do get looks.

Which slams it home to me that in London about 50% of the people walking down Oxford Street have ripped tartan trousers, chains and safety pins dripping from every orifice, and razor sharp pink Mohicans the size of theLondon Eye threatening to take your eye out at ten paces.

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Paris seems terribly tame in comparison. Even a leather jacket on the tube gets looks. About the only people who get away with it are the homeless, and they can get away with anything. See my recent pic of the Scottish punk for proof of this. Desperately searching for an identity in a world that's moving on without them. Or perhaps trying to hold on to one. Or forge one.

To be honest, the underground SDF community has a lot more solidarity and mutual camaraderie and commradeship than there is in my own life. I have to give them that.

In terms of cars, even if you do have a red Ferrari in the garage, the last thing to do is drive through the middle of Paris with the roof down (can you do that with Ferraris - oops) and the stereo blasting. One doesn't show; one doesn't flash. One is subtle and one fits in. Conforms to a great extent.

Little aberrations from the above norms are generally looked upon as harmless idiosyncrasies, and not taken seriously. Unless you want to get the MD's job, in which case your shocking pink Fiat 500 probably ain't gonna cut it. There are limits.

As for me, I was never a punk, but I was a sort of hybrid hippy/rocker, with long blond hair down to my waist, five earrings and a couple of jackets which would definitely got me some disapproving stares in dear old Paris if I'd been here at the time. Those days are gone, alas, and the most daring I get these days is almost shaving my head occasionally in an attempt to be vaguely cool before there's vaguely nothing to shave. Funny how what goes down must come up, don't you think? And if you do, think pink.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Bones Dem Bones Dem, Dry...

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Bones Dem Bones Dem, Dry... ~

Bones Dem Bones Dem, Dry..., originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Hey, don't blame me, I'm just the undernote taker. It's Paris that writes the script, and as Hugh Laurie, aka Dr. House, says, the script writer is amazing.

This pic reminds me, cruelly, of another Paris place I have, shamefully, yet to visit. I've heard rumours of a medical faculty with a museum all of their very own, and if there's one place you're gonna imbibe of morbid medical monstrocities, it's gonna be there. But this is for later.

In the mean time, we are, surprise surprise, at that little triangle of all humanity, just in front of the Saint-Michel fountain, where a myriad minions meet every day and some crazy shit goes down and you've gotta see it to believe it.

Highly recommended, as the guide books might say, but probably wouldn't because it's just a little too left of centre to be considered a tourist attraction for anyone but a hard-bitten street photographer. As a lot of my readers are precisely that, though, I thought I'd throw it out there.

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One wonders, one does, what effect a guy with a 'Free Tibet' placard in one hand and a skeleton in the other could have on the outcome of a steely stand-off involving one of the world's greatest powers with unconcealed ambitions on their home turf.

I mean, who's going to head out there forthwith to fight shoulder to saffron shoulder with the peace-loving Buddhist monks over sovereignty of a place which can probably continue pretty much as is, even if the Chinese hold the power, at least for a while. It's tricky, I know, and I don't want to belittle the situation, so, not really understanding what's going on, whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should keep one's big mouth shut, and I'll do just that henceforth on the topic.

What I can say, though, is that active passive action, so to speak, does work. Sending letters to political prisoners is a case in point. Many ex-political prisoners have said that letters kept their hopes alive. And even when they don't receive them, the pressure it places on the prison, showing that gone is not forgotten, can have a real effect.

So, where was I? Haven't a clue. So anyway, here's another typical day at the Saint-Michel fountain in the middle of one of the world's most Important Places To Be, and Be Seen, and I hope to see you here one day soon too, while you still have some flesh on your bones. Have a good one ;~Sab

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Pont Louis-Philippe: His Story

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Pont Louis-Philippe: His Story ~

Pont Louis-Philippe: His Story, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Nothing profound, nor frivolous to offer you today folks. Just this magical view of the Eiffel Tower's rotating beacon and Notre-Dame de Paris snuck in there on the left, taken from the Pont Louis-Philippe, which was opened in 1862.

This latter (the man, not the bridge) was the last French king, known as Roi des Français (King of the French) as opposed to the pre-revolutionary Roi de France epithet. He had a post-revolutionary Queenie too, Marie-Amélie de Bourbon-Sicile, who is very rarely talked about. Perhaps that's because she wasn't a 'real' queen, just as he wasn't really a 'proper' king any more in the autocratic sense of old. Or Perhaps it's because of the monarchly mouthful of her name, which doesn't exactly slip off the tongue.

The 19th century was a bizarre and complicated one in French history, and if you understand what happened in this 100 years you can probably consider yourself extremely well versed! It started as a Consulat before rapidly turning into an Empire in 1805 - bonjour Napoléon! This was messily overturned in 1814, or was it 15, with a Restauration, a return to Empire and another Restauration (told you it was messy).

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This lasted until 1830, with a king or two of sorts (Louis XVIII then Charles X) floating around being kingly. Then came our bridge hero, Louis-Philippe, who himself got kicked out in 1848 in favour of, wait for it... the 2nd Republic, no less. Don't worry, you didn't blink and miss the first, that was earlier, before the Consulate!

You want more? There's more. The Second Republic only lasted four years (quand-même!, before Napoléon's ) nephew, I think it was, became... Emperor Napoléon III. Do you follow? What do you mean what happened to Napoléon II? This time I think you really did blink!

Of course the Second Empire didn't make it to the end of the century either, and in 1870 Napoleon gets his but kicked and the <Republique Version 3.0 is established, which did finally see the 100 years out and itself lasted until the Second World War.

Phew! So, what stared as an intended one-line throw-away post turned into... a mini trip down the history highway. We can now consider that we know more than 99% of the planet about French 19th century embrouillements. Hope it was worth it!

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Behold 'Les Nouvelles Halles'

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Behold 'Les Nouvelles Halles' ~

Untitled, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Things just ain't been the same since they pulled down Les Halles, those magnificent cast iron pavillions, the subject of a hundred photographic essays not dissimilar to this one.

Not that I remember them of course - they were destroyed way back in the early seventies - I was under ten at the time - but luckily Robert Doisneau was there for me to record the event, including the enormous hole, not dissimilar to the one we can look down on and marvel over right here right now. History's repeating itself folks, as it always does.

So, just seen the Doisneau exhibition at l'Hôtel de Ville, where he documents the sad passing of this edifice out to remote Rungis, on the edge of the known world (Ile de France). A great exhibition from a promising young street photographer, and a sobering reminder of how the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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The gent above is somewhat in the same tradition, but not exactly. He's one of the ubiquitous shady fruit vendors who set up stall on wobbly cardboard boxes and crates outside any given railway station until told to move on by the authorities.

You might have wondered where they procure their goods, and if they're any good, as it were. Their deals are normally good and the produce doesn't look too dodgy for an impulse purchase just a few steps from chez soi but where does it come from, this stuff? These guys don't generally look like they've just trundled in their bundles of bananas and betteraves from a cute little holistic farming practices family enterprise on the outskirts of town. You'd better have all your injections up to date, you'd be obliged to think, before buying goods from this dubious source. And yet...

And yet, the answer's blindingly obvious, in fact. There ain't 1,001 fresh fruit wholesellers in this town. They've got mates at Rungis. It's as simple as that. The underground economy ain't going nowhere, it's alive and thriving outside a hundred metro and RER stations near you. And last thing in the day, when you've forgotten to hit the supermarket or simply don't have the energy, it's often the obvious solution for not going home empty handed. Welcome to Les Nouvelles Halles.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

15, La Seine, Paris, France

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ 15, La Seine, Paris, France ~

15, La Seine, Paris, France, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Wandering along the Seine, you may well come across these curious abodes. Even yesterday at Saint Michel I looked over the edge of the bridge and there were two or three of them. Nice arched doorway, cute and typically Parisian blue ceramic house number, and... no door. Just this concreted-up ex-entrance, and of course it makes you wonder where that used to lead. Into the bowels of the city, presumably.

It's quite an intriguing prospect, the idea of living, literally, on the banks of the Seine. OK, you'd have a lot of passers-by, and possibly some drunken louts and dodgy characters, and the odd degenerate watering your window sill but if you laid it out nicely, with a sweet little flower bed out front, maybe, and some cheery decorations in the window I'm sure people would respect your residence.

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Number 15, The Seine, Paris, France. Not bad as an address, I'd say. What could beat that? Oh, maybe, The Eiffel Tower, Paris. That would be more than cool. I envy M. Eiffel sometimes, with that little room he had way up at the top, can you imagine living there? I've done the boat on the Seine thing - that was cool but over-spidered, as I mentioned recently.

A place I do fancy living, amongst many others, is in on of those apartments up over Shakespeare and Company, but the ones on the edge of Rue Saint-Julien le Pauvre, overlooking that cute little Square René Viviani, and that cute little village church just over the river with that hunchback guy looking after it. Where would I like to live in Paris? I think I'd better stop there. And what about you? What would your dream Parisian pad be, forsooth?

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.