All Going Swimmingly

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ All Going Swimmingly ~

All Going Swimmingly, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Hey! Fancy a swim? Well that's great, because you can actually swim ' in' the Seine (despite it being illegal), as it were, without even getting wet. Errm... in a manner of speaking.

I didn't have particularly high hopes in terms of Paris street photography when I set out in the strangest of moods on a searingly chilly Tuesday afternoon.

Night fell. As is its wont.

I walked from Bibliotèque François Mitterand past Austerlitz towards Saint Michel and the Latin Quarter. As is mine.

I thought I must swim in the Josephine Baker pool one of these months, moored on the banks of the river as it is, having replaced the sunken Piscine Deligny, and hopefully a bit more trustworthy, although its predecessor did stay afloat for a darned long time before ironically drowning in its own mooring space.

But this isn't about all that, this is about the fact that a casual glance to the right as I was trolling by revealed an unusual sight. A young Asian was painting the pool. No, I don't mean that the pool was being painted, I mean an artist was creating a pleasingly impressionistic representation of serene swimmers swimming of a January evening, albeit a brass monkey's one.

Quite made me all misty-eyed imagining my lost (French) youth of about 16 years ago when I lived on a barge in the erstwhile valley of the impressionists out at Vesinet le Pecq. But I digress.

The two likely lads in the picture above didn't like the fact that I was taking a picture of what I was taking a picture of. About one second after I took this shot they started wagging fingers at me and gesticulating 'No, no!' as if I were stealing their very souls.

I'm not quite sure what their problem was. Could it be people's modesty they're angsting over? Because as you can see above, you'd be hard-pressed to identify anyone apart from the two jokers and the dabbing dude, but there you go.

Anyway, swim on and, if this isn't a contradiction in terms, wrap up warm!

And why not...

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

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

Bum Unrap

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Bum Unrap ~

Bum Unrap, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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OK, I readily admit that this has very little to do with Paris, or anything else for that matter, but there you go.

However, it was taken in Paris, in the 11th or 12th I believe, and is fairly representative of the bizarreness lurking in the most seemingly innocuous shop windows.

It's enough to break a healthy red bloodied young middle-aged chap like myself out into a sweat, if I didn't know better...

It's all in good fun, of course, 'fun' being the operative, and decidedly un-froggy word. But a stroll down any of the Asian sweatshop infested streets around these parts will reveal a mind-boggling assault on the dignity of the English language.

Somehow, somewhere, at sometime, for example, someone decided that suffixing any, and I mean ANY random word with an apostrophe s ('s) instantly renders it irresistibly 'English', and therefore 'cool'.

Go figure. But that'll be for another post.

In the meantime let's content ourselves with your average guy's wet dream courtesy of 'Fun Kiwi II' (yes, that's really what they've called their shop) whilst waiting for something resembling the real thing. This is Paris!

And why not...

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

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

Numbers Up

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Numbers Up ~

Numbers Up, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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As someone with a borderline obsession with blue Paris wall plaques, here I'm 'bien servi' (well served), as the French would say.

Not only do we have a classic Parisian street name with its arrondissement, but a legendary 'Gas à tous les étages' plaque and a most curious street house number, or rather numbers.

It took me a while to work out what was going on when I first started to see such weird things. I mean, how can a house be number 147, 138 and 142 all at the same time?

I think I've got it now, and the answer is both intriguing and embarrassingly simple. Have you got it?

And why not...

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

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

Year of the Undead

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Year of the Undead ~

Year of the Undead, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Talking about Parisian Sunday afternoon possibilities, which I was if you've been paying attention, dawdling through the dead is another very real option.

While everyone else here is probably watching dancing dragons and other oriental liveliness, it being the Chinese new year here in the city, there's a real temptation to run in the opposite direction and seek the tranquility of a place with practically no life at all, in one of the capital's many cemeteries, catering to all tastes.

Personally, I never tire of visiting these peaceful places (give or take the odd screaming couple on a moped I came across in Père Lachaise last week where this was taken). And I always discover something new, like this dandy chap above, who doesn't look at all disconcerted by the trifling fact that he's dead. Good for him.

By the way, and I have a feeling I've mentioned this before, so forgive me, but there's a curious story that the Chinese in Paris never die, hence the relentless increase in the Chinese population here.

This is apparently both true and apocryphal. The story goes that deaths are rarely declared so that old papers can be admirably recycled with a conscientiousness that any ecologist should admire. Where do these official documents end up? Well, slightly doctored in the possession of one of the countless illegal Chinese immigrants working in behind the scenes and underground basements and overhead attics to support the ultra-cheap textile and Asian fast-food joints populating every corner, hence creating a brand new 'legal' French Chinese citizen in the slant of an eye.

And as for where the dead bodies go... didn't I just answer that question..?

And why not...

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

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

Welcome To My Local

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Welcome To My Local ~

Welcome To My Local, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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When it comes to Sunday or even Saturday afternoon activities, there's not much nicer than sitting sipping in a Parisian café or brasserie somewhere. Thiswhere happened to be at Nation over in the east of the city, but it could have been anywhere.

In fact I've got a bit lackadaisical about it and hit the terraces far too little these days. Actually, much as the outside areas are 'the place to be (seen', I much prefer little nook and crannies tucked away inside where you can gaze out discretely on all the hustling and bustling from a corner of calm and plan your latest opus on good old paper, without a bit or a byte in sight, remember those days?

We're still spoilt here in Paris, despite reports that there are only half the number of cafés there used to be, and of course many of them have very specific styles which don't have much to do with the Paris of yesteryear, but variety is a good thing, right?

In any case, I still haven't succeeded in my quest to find a 'local' which I can truly make my own, which is maybe symptomatic of my state; believing that any café in Paris is 'my local', in the way a true local never would... Given the choice, however, I think I'll keep it that way.

And why not...

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

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

Box Hedge Beatitude

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Box Hedge Beatitude ~

Box Hedge Beatitude, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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What's this? Oh, just another utterly charming view into one of those hidden Paris courtyards you spy from time to time...

In keeping with my current tendency of not telling you everything until you've made a bit effort all on your own, where do you reckon this is?

I'll give you a clue: you can get into this stalwart Parisian landmark for free (during opening hours) and gaze out onto this view through the subtly variegated panes to your heart's desire whilst admiring some of the most mindnumbingly boring beautifully preserved royal-backside supporting antique furniture and about a million old portraits of people you don't know and have no intention of knowing.

The more I go to this place, the more I realise that the Musée du Moyen Age (musée Cluny) was like Space Mountain at EuroDisney in comparison.

Be that as it may, the oddly moving moment occasionally creeps up and nudges you, as it did above. Elegance manifests itself when you're least expecting it. So I've taught myself to expect it constantly, and that way I end up spotting it more. See if it works for you.

And why not...

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

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

Forbidden Fruit

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Forbidden Fruit ~

Forbidden Fruit, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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On watching certain channels here in France, such as BFM TV, a French business and news station, you'd think we were all desperately desperately single and suffering.

If we're not being subjected to a terribly earnest demoiselle from Meetic bemoaning the difficulty of finding her other half through the usual channels (work, parties, bars, soirées...), it's an eDarling babe biddiing us sign up and hook up through 'quality introductions'.

Not forgetting the weather spot, which is bookended and supposedly 'brought to us by' another bunch of would-be match makers, Attractive World, this time for 'demanding singles' if you please.

But here in the Paris metro at this beginning of 2012 we have something a little different. Gleeden (.com) to be exact.

Gleeden suggests you taste some forbidden fruit, and will help you do so if you like. It's the site for 'extra-marital relationships'. If you wanna cheat on your husband or wife, here's the place you can risk your life.

What I want to know is, what would happen if both people in a married couple signed up to Gleeden, were attracted by the profile of their other half, and arranged to meet up. Has Hollywood covered that one yet?

It seems like pretty dodgy territory to me though. Imagine trying to say as much about yourself as possible, without saying so much that your wife or husband will recognise you if they happen to be reading. But then again, they shouldn't be reading at all, should they? What would that mean? That they were planning on being unfaithful? Disgraceful.

And why not...

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

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