Posts filed under 'Streets'
Peugot built this model, the 301 between 1932 and 1937. About 65.000 301 have been sold. The maximum speed was 100 km/h, 70 Mph.
The plate on this car shows a modern scheme with three letters. The original plates, at least before the 40s, had only one or two letters.
The last two numbers show the departement (french district) where the car is coming from. There are 96 districts in metropolitan France. These numbers give endless possibilities of games for the kids on the backseat.
April 30th, 2006
In the main courtyard of the Musée Carnavalet, you can’t miss this statue of Louis XIV, the sun king, dressed as a roman emperor and made by Coysevox. It’s an unusual place for this kind of statue. They never stand like that in the middle of the yard because the owner, at that time, didn’t want such a masterpiece to disturb attention of his visitors.
This Hôtel, in which the Paris’s history museum took place is a mix of different buildings from different times. Its construction ended in the last 19th century when Haussmann enlarged and restored it between 1871 and 1890 to store the historic collections of the City of Paris. Haussmann, who destroyed half of Paris to draw main streets we know todays, was aware of his action. He tried to collect historic pieces and incorporated them in this Hôtel Carnavalet.
You can find the arch of rue de Nazareth (15th century) coming from the Ile de la Cité, the staircase from the Hôtel de Luynes and its painted background en trompe l’oeil and this statue of Louis XIV, who wasn’t set up in this place but at the Hôtel de Ville since july, 14th 1689.
During the french revolution, in 1789, all the king’s statues were destroyed except this one, made of bronze, forgotten in a backyard.
In 1830, Haussmann fetched the statue in the Hôtel Carnavalet.
April 16th, 2006
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This library, known as the “Trés Grande Bibliothèque” (Very Large Library) was built in 1996 in an industrial area of Paris by the river Seine. Four towers, shaped to recall four opened books were designed to house the Bibliothè±µe Nationale de France collection of books and manuscripts.
More than 10 millions of books are store behind these glasses, protected from the light by wooden boards.
You can see in the glass reflection, on the left, the opposite tower (small side) and on the right the oppposite tower (long side of the rectangle).
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April 9th, 2006
Stairs take an important place in Paris buildings. These are in the Galerie Vivienne, a passage built in 1823. The neo-classical style is inspired by the roman antic. The glass roof is elegant, the wall decorated with paintings and sculptures and the ground is covered with mosaic.
Vidocq, an former convict prisoner who became chief of Police, lived in 1840 at number 13, on the other end of this passage.
March 26th, 2006
Spring is two month fast this year in Paris. Demonstrations usually grows in May, not in March.
The Boulevard Saint-Michel is the main street of the Quartier Latin de Paris, the students area in Paris. Since may 1968 it has been the favorite place for them to demonstrate. Just in front of the Sorbonne, the student met the police forces, both decided not to move.
If you turn this picture in black and white, it will remind you of 1968. Same place, same humming in the street, same odour of lacrymal gases, same people with a generation leap and same atmosphere.
March 19th, 2006
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In 1994 this metro station has been fully decorated by François Schuiten as a huge machine made of copper. The side plates are riveted together just like an large submarine diving beteath Paris. Portholes, on the wall are showcases for different models of machines.
Just beside this station there is the Arts et métiers museum, devoted to technics and science from the revolution period. The first cars, machines, planes and trains are shown in this museum.
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February 19th, 2006
The bridge (pont de Flandre) of Crimee street is an elevating bridge opening to let the river boats get through the channel.
February 16th, 2006
Behind the church of Madeleine, rue Vignon, there is a restaurant called “Le roi du pot au feu”. As you might know, the pot au feu is a typically, nation wide famous, beef stew.
The sign says roughly “Here, it’s for the bowl of beef and for the glass of wine”. The stickers on the door come from the tourist guides from all around the world.
Very frenchy, very good and tasty, maybe a bit expensive, quickly crowdy at noon, get there early.
January 29th, 2006
The shortest way if sometimes the harder, think about it when you will climb these stairs. To discover Montmartre, take a ride on the Funiculaire de Montmartre (climbing railway), have a look around and walk down the stairs. They have been build on the original pathway and are usually older than the streets.
Yous can easilly imagine the “Poulbots”, the children from Montmartre, playing and running down. Even Fran篩s Truffaut shoot them in Les quatre cents coups, a film made in 1958 from his own story, with Jean-Pierre Léaud, playing the character of Antoine Doinel.
January 15th, 2006
Located in the middle of the Saint Sulpice’s square, this fountain has been built in 1844 from the drawings of Visconti.
This monument is called “La fontaine des quatre points cardinaux” which means fountain of the four cardinal points (of the compass cards). It has four faces with four statues of bishops (Jacques Bénigne Bossuet on the north side, François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon on the east side, Jean Baptiste Massillon on the south and Valentin Esprit Flechier on the west side.
In french, “point”, sometimes means “not”. Nevetheless, none of these four bishops was cardinal.
This fountain is in front of Saint Sulpice’s church, which attracts now more and more people to see the gnomon described in Dan Brown’s DaVinci code.
Google map
January 8th, 2006
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