Some sunday afternoon, in the late summer, a band come to play in the kiosque (a shelter) of the Jardin du Luxembourg.
This one, AFREUBO, has a sixty wind instruments players with a effective conductor. During an hour you can forget the modern style of life to get back to the 19th century.

This scene doesn’t remind you some work by Auguste Renoir ?

The Chat noir (the black cat) was a cabaret, open in the late 19th century in Montmartre. If everyone knows the famous bill by Steinlen in 1896, you can now see the original sign in Musee Carnavalet, a parisian museum dedicated to Paris. (free entrance)

For the french readers, you can read all the story and sing a karaoke on this site : Le Chat noir

Here are the true colors of Paris, gold and dark blue.

The towers of Notre Dame are open late for visitors on summer. They close at 11 pm on saturdays and sundays during june, july and august.

So you don’t have any excuse to miss such a view.

Hopelessly waiting for the sun. And doing it the french way, in a café.

In the heart of Paris, in the Jardin des Plantes, the botanical garden, a small piece of ground was left unattended on purpose, just to show us that life and grass can still find their way in the middle of a city.
The result is a small field of alfalfa. Even the small animals found a new home and have now a life on their own. Only the cows are missing.

In the Louvre there is a courtyard dedicated to restoration of statues. Day after day, a few students and specialists clean and fix greek and roman works to be shown again. Public can follow this activity through the bars of the gates.

This statue seems ready to get out and to start a new life, as soon the keepers will free it.

By the way, Paris is not only a 26 years old heiress but the King of Troy in greek mythology.

Royal square dedicated to Louis XIII, this place bears the name of the french district, “les Vosges“, who became the first to pay the revolutionary and republican taxes. It’s the oldest square in Paris, early build by HenriIV from 1605 to 1612.

Victor Hugo used to live in Place des Vosges, n° 6.

The western side of the Ile de le Cité is mainly dedicated to justice. On the front, you can see the Tribunal de commerce, a court of trade specialized in business and companies rights. Behind, the court of justice, hold the criminal and civils cases.

In the middle, the tower of the conciergerie is famous because of the oldest clockwork still working on its side. This clock saw Marie Antoinette left this court on her last travel.

Do you know Escher, a dutch graphic artist of the 20th century ?
He used to paint stairs going nowhere, giving a feeling of impossible reality.

I’m sure ESCHER was inspired by the LEFUEL staircase in the Richelieu’s aisle of the Louvre.

Here is a secret.
If you ever come to Paris and visit the Louvre, there is an unknown entrance to the museum. Near the end of the Flore’s aisle, the one by the Seine, you can get in by the Porte des Lions.
It is a regular entrance, only closed on friday. Usually, there is no waiting line.

Inside, a modern stair gives you a direct access to the “grande galerie” and the italian painters.

The Ecole du Louvre, a famous art school, is located at the very end of this aisle.

As I walked by rue Desnouettes, near the south border of the city, I noticed an old courtyard with cobblestones pavement and ivy on the walls.
And there, in a small garden, this clockwork face, still for eternity.

On the right bank, just behind the Hôtel de ville, Saint Gervais’s church comes to light between the surrounding medieval buildings.
The church accomodates since 1653, a great dynasty of french musicians : the Couperin. The huge organ of Louis and François Couperin still remain inside. This family played on this instrument for nearly two hundred years.

Since 1986, the Hôtel de Donon hosts the Musée Cognacq-Jay. At the end of the 19th century, Ernest Cognacq and his wife Marie-Louise Jay build an empire with a general store, La Samaritaine. With this fortune they gathered a large collection of paintings and pieces of furniture from the century of lights.

The masterpiece is an autoportrait of Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704-1788) who worked primarily with pastels. You can imagine him climbing this stairs.

Musée du Quai Branly.
A hundred meters long slow slope pathway leeds to the entrance of the exhibit.
There was only two people early in the morning…

Dark sky and rainbows are common in Paris, in february or march. It means that spring will be back soon.
Here is one above the Invalides, the place where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried.

The name of the place, the “Bateau-Lavoir”, means the laundry-boat because it looked like boats of laundry women floating on the Seine.

It’s a buildings in Montmartre. A group of artists lived there at the beginning of the 20th century. After the WWI, they started to move mainly to Montparnasse.

Indisputably the most famous resident of the place was Pablo Picasso (1904-1909) where he lived with his dog Frika. He reputedly invented cubism there and painted one of his finest works Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.

Other well-known artists lived in the Bateau-Lavoir:
Max Jacob, Amedeo Modigliani, Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and Jean Cocteau.

The building were destroyed by a fire in 1970 and rebuild shortly after.

Pont Alexandre III is an arch bridge that spans the Seine, connecting the Champs-Élysées quarter and the Invalides and Eiffel Tower Quarter, regarded by many as one of the prettiest in Paris.

The bridge, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs, nymphs and winged horses at either end, was built between 1896 and 1900. It was named after Tsar Alexander III (father of Nicholas II) of Russia. It was Nicholas II who laid the foundation stone in October 1896. The style of the bridge reflects that of the Grand Palais, to which it leads on the right bank.

(wikipedia)

On the top of the Musee d’Orsay, there is a cafe behind this giant clockwork. Don’t forget Orsay was a railwail station before to become a museum.

After a drink you can get out, turn left and then discover the most famous painting of the 19th century. I mean the impressionist.
Van Gogh, Renoir, Manet, Cezanne, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley and at the end of the gallery, Degas and his unforgettable statue of a dancer of fourteen.

By the exit, there is another clockwork, same as the first one. You can see Paris through the glass of the face.

This new year starts on a classical view of the Moulin rouge, the most famous cabaret in the world.

Best wishes for 2007.

One of those rainy, misty, freezy night spending a few hours carrying the camera bag and this heavy tripod with frozen fingers. And then, as a surprise, a nice shot coming from the memory card.