Imagining You, Imagining Me

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Imagining You, Imagining Me ~

Imagining You, Imagining Me, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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If it isn't booze or cigarettes it's coffee or tea or McDonalds or Coca Cola, or something even more evil; when you think about it, our entire society is staggering forward through a drug-enduced stupor...

Anyway... here's a lovely old licit substances drug emporium down one of Paris' most charming side passages, the almost too perfect Cours du Commerce Saint-André just off Odéon.

I slipped into the oft-off-limits Cours de Rohan too yesterday, but that's another story.

The whole area is full of interesting street corners, graffiti, art and architecture, and a photographer's paradise to roam around. As I did and do on a regular basis.

The mosaïc shopfront decorator; now there's a dying profession. Today it's all neon illuminated nothingness - a sad loss but with photographic opportunities of its own if truth be told. You just have to know where, and how to look.

I'd love to be able to go back one or two or five hundred years to these same street corners to see what life in the streets was like then. Will someone one or two or five hundred years hence be saying the same thing about our days?

Did anyone wonder about us, hundreds of years in the future, wondering about them (wondering about us) so long long ago? We'll never know, but if anyone reads these words hundreds of years in the future, they will.

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.

Boissonerie Poissonerie

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Boissonerie Poissonerie ~

Boissonerie Poissonerie, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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Can you see what they've done here, the sneaks?! What used to be an honest-to-goodness fish shop has been slyly transformed into a boutique of distilled debauchery.

I'm surprised they were even allowed to do such a thing, as this facade is surely (or surely should be) on some list of protected fab store fronts somewhere.

And what have they done, some of you will be wondering? They've turned 'Poissonnerie' (fishmonger) into 'Boissonnerie' (umm, beermugger?) by adding a few carefully placed tiles to the 'P'. Clever. Naughty, but clever. I wonder what the drinks taste like - glass of kipper liquour, anyone?

Paris has a lot of ornate traditional storefronts, for butchers, bakers, public baths and even the odd horsemeat trader, although I'm yet to see a candlestick maker, but I live in hope. And as the traditional trade fade away they are being taken over by hotels and clothing boutiques but if we're lucky they keep the exterior, leading to a curious and not unpleasant mixture of old and new.

Which pretty much sums up Paris really. Old and new. Check out the Louvre or the Palais Royal or the Pompidou Centre for ample evidence of this... I rest my case.

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.

For The Record

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ For The Record ~

For The Record, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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If I had a CD for every time I spent 50FF in this store I'd have a 1000-strong collection... oh, I have.

Boulinier on the Boulevard Saint Michel is a dangerous place. Perfectly good CDs by the bucketful at perfectly reasonable prices is a terrible temptation for any music-loving soul, not to mention thousands of books and goodness knows what else.

Then again, I haven't bought any CDs for years now that you can spend €5 a month and have access to millions of songs with Deezer or Spotify. It's amazing what you can find, although not all the rarities or obscurities in existence, but it's not bad at all. And you get all the new stuff too of course, or most of it.

But there's something magic about flicking through racks and racks of CDs - or even LPs back in the day - in the hope of discovering the rare gem, and that's something we are poorer for, those of us who have given up on physical supports for this beautiful thing called music. There was something magic about a gatefold album and even a fat little CD booklet could be a thing of beauty. This is something of a loss which can't be replaced by a picture on a computer screen or holding a nasty little MP3 player in our hand.

Ahh, I'm getting nostalgic now, the pleasure, the art of flipping over an album and lovingly moving the diamond tip over to the start of the groove... one day I'll get my old record player going again and break out all my old thirty three and a thirds - does anyone remember those anymore?

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.

Towering Achievement

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Towering Achievement ~

Towering Achievement, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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Nice decor in this restaurant, you might be thinking. Almost like some sort of mediaeval tower or something they've got going on there. And that's because... they've got a mediaeval tower going on in there.

We're looking at one of the original defensive towers which were distributed along the length of the Philippe Auguste wall which protectively surrounded Paris a few centuries ago whilst the King was crusading around the Middle East.

This is one of several remnants you can find scattered throughout the city and you can actually more or less follow the route and discover the original size of Paris 900 odd years in the past or so. A little town which quickly and continually broke through its own boundaries, requiring successive walls to be built, culminating in a huge construction around what is now the péripherique, the scary Paris ringroad.

The inclining chap in the picture isn't practising his obsequious bow but is actually peering through a transparent trapdoor in the floor trying to work out what the hell I'm so interested in photographing. And although you can't see it here, the tower actually continues down into the basement.

The once-attached wall has heavily influenced the lay of the surrounding land and propety 'parcels', causing some nearby boutiques to have excedingly odd sharply angled walls not at all in keeping with the passing road outside. A nearby underground carpark also gives splendid views of the old foundations of the wall. What would Philippe Auguste have thought?

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.

Crazy Reflections

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Crazy Reflections ~

Crazy Reflections, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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This prix fous (crazy prices) banner expired two weeks ago but there it is still. A sign of the desperate measures stores are having to go to these days to make threads meet.

It's surprising these days how often you find boutiques going out of business, having fermeture définitive (closing down) sales and moving on to be replaced by another short-lived enterprise.

There's even a fairly brisk trade in ephemeral residencies in once established business premises. Things like one-off stock clearances and new housing estate offices spring up and disappear in the blink of an eye.

Here we're on the Boulevard Saint Michel, which is stuffed with cheap clothing boutiques highly susceptible to the vicissitudes of the market. Nice jackets though. Are we talking 'plum' here? Difficult to tell after this overexposed night shot has done its thing.

The sales usually start after Christmas but I reckon the authorities are turning a blind eye these days to stores which are struggling simple to avoid going under. Maybe the festive season will see people emptying their pockets in an attempt to forget the hard times we're living. Or not. In which case maybe this banner will still be there in January... 2014!

P.S. I'm in the pic - how cool isn't that?!

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.

Fairy Lights & Metro Nights

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Fairy Lights & Metro Nights ~

Fairy Lights & Metro Nights, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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OK, now that I'm two months behind because of my sick iPhone problem, we're going to have shots of Christmas lights in September if I respect the one-photo-a-day rule and get things (back) up to date.

Then again, rather cynically, that's not so far from the truth. Here we are in November and one of Paris' most famous bookstores, Gibert Jeune, is in full festive swing. I made a mistake - Diane Kruger is switching the Christmas light on on the Champs Elysées tonight, err, that would be the 21st November, 2012, if my sources are to be relied upon. One month before the day, give or take, so acceptable, I guess.

I wonder if they'll have the loopy hoopy things they had last year or go for another power-saving design. They have this dilemma, of making the 'most beautiful avenue in the world' just that whilst setting an energy respecting example for the rest of the nation. Oh well.

The metro sign seems to be echoing and certainly complementing Gibert Jeune's corporate yellow, and I can never remember if it's 'Jeune' (young) or 'Jaune' (yellow), but if that's the only thing I have to worry about I guess I'm doing pretty well.

You'll be noticing some fairly heavy processing here (that's me) but without the characteristic iPhone apps look you'll be used to and love so much, evidently. It's kind of refreshing getting away from Apple apps for a while, but this week might be the one I get my proper new phone and then it's back to fun and frolicks from the Apple iStore for all the family. I'm rambling. See you next shot.

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.

Pains, Trains & Automobiles

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Pains, Trains & Automobiles ~

Pains, Trains & Automobiles, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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Heading into town with a loaded iPhone - not mine, as you'll have gathered if you read my last post, but an iPhone nonetheless - feels pretty good, I have to say.

My RER - that's the big fast suburban Paris train to you folks - is on one of the safer lines, thank goodness. It's the C line, but the D is the one to avoid if you can. And the B can Be a Bugger if you're an unwitting tourist, and I speak from bitter experience...

Anyway. Here I am having done my back in where even blowing my nose is to be done with great delicacy, and all because I bent over to fix my three year-old's plastic multi-story birthday garage - jeez. You'd think I could have trapped a nerve doing something a bit more glamorous like windsurfing or something, wouldn't you? But no. So there you go.

My trip took place at night, so you'll have to suffer a whole bunch of murky Paris mush for a while until I get some more diurnal diatribes to direct your way.

We're looking at one of the fancy new RERs - that's the... oh, I just told you - which has already been delightfully decorated by some of our sly suburban chums. Is it an improvement? Well, it depends on the angle you're looking at it from I guess. And which side of the tracks you're on. I'm not going to have a tantrum about it; I've only got one back to do in. Later.

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.