La Tour Eiffel
I’m certain blogging would be a quicker process if I didn’t have the urge to cram every post with as many photos as possible, but since a picture speaks a thousand words and I’ve already got more than enough words for a lifetime I guess the photos are here to stay. Best buy another couple of hard drives then…
So I snuck off to French France this week sans children, sans husband…and not for work…but for PLAY! A good friend of mine moved there recently, and I took a twirl on the Eurostar to visit.
Rue du Faubourg St Honore
On which note, when did Eurostar stop announcing when you’re about to enter ‘the tunnel’? I guess it’s nothing special anymore, but it was so thrilling the very first time I went on the Eurostar back in 1995 and a bloke with a comedy French accent came over the tannoy ‘Ladies & Gentlemen…we are about to enter the Channel Tunnel’. Who can remember the day in 1990 when the French and English tunnelers finally ‘met’ in the middle – such excitement at the time. And now no one cares. Likewise, it used to be so exciting to feel the train massively pick up speed once on French soil (well tracks, but that doesn’t have the same ring to it)…such a contrast to the snail’s pace on the Brit side. But now it’s high speed all the way.
These little changes seem so small, but then it’s the little differences about being abroad which make the memories. The elegance of the underground station signs:
Trocadero metro station
The casual elegance of a simple breakfast presentation:
Le Petit Dejeuner
And then there was the depressingly familiar…Starbucks everywhere, complete with the regulation Starbucks furniture to be seen in every corner of the globe. I will admit I went in, in search of a clean loo. It was empty, the French clearly eschewing over-priced, under flavoured ‘coffee’ in favour of the real deal. Vive la France!
I didn’t ‘do’ a lot in my 24 hour visit, I doubt I covered more than a square mile if that. But how different life is now that I have photography as a hobby…no shopping, no tourist ‘must dos’, no galleries for me. I just went where my feet took me (slowly, I got blisters ouch) and snapped away. Looking through my 250 photos it’s so interesting to see that they easily fall in to a couple of categories; shapes, body parts and patterns!
First up ‘shapes’:
The Louvre Pyramid designed by I.M. Pei, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background
Louvre Pyramid
The Grand Louvre, reflected in the Louvre pyramid:
Grand Louvre, reflected
Hearts and triangles…I love this! I would never have noticed this had I not been hunting around for a good place for a shot; someone has stuck a sticker ON THE PYRAMID!!! Bet it was a teenager who will dine out on that story for years…
Hearts 'n' triangles
More triangles, toy sailboats ready for hire in the Jardin du Carrousel:
And circles of course…the Big Wheel in the Tuileries:
The Big Wheel - Tuileries
Rectangles too, and semi circles…
Palais de la Decouverte
And rectangles (with trumpets and hoofs hanging over)
Pont Alexandre III
Then there were bodyparts by the bucket. Let’s start with feet…
Dreamboat Gallic lovegod feet:
PINK men’s brogues..bonus self-portrait of me reflected:
Chanel bag toting label freak…wearing wellies in the rain:
Then hands
Statue - Jardin du Carrousel
…and again..
Statue - Jardin du Carousel
Ooooh CHEEKY hands here…
Statue - Jardin du Carousel
and a bit of everything here…a chap asked me to take a snap of him and his wife on this bridge. I obliged but immediately fell in love with his D700 (a very fancy camera) and wanted to toss my own in to the Seine…
Pont Alexandre III
And finally patterns…public electric bikes, stashed and used all over the city!
Ornate wall in the Jardin du Caurosel
Jardin du Carousel
Japanese tourists on the viewing platform for the Eiffel Tower – Le Palais du Chaillot:
Path through Le Jardin du Palais Royal:
Le Jardin du Palais Royal
Of course these are just a handful of the photos that I took and, as you can see, I didn’t do much while I was there…I walked, I snapped, I ate, I drank, I dehydrated, I got blisters on my feet, I spoke French so badly I was given a can of coke when I asked for a bottle of water, I walked miles to a toyshop to buy gifts for my children only to find it was shut…and then I came home. And spent hours sorting and processing photos to make this…a little postcard of my Paris trip to keep with me forever.
Pont du Alexandre III
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