Saturday, July 21, 2007

The little shop around the corner...


... is closed. Well, so it seems. I found it rue du 4 septembre, a large street starting at the opera and I was really surprised to see such an old boutique in such a busy area. I'm sorry for the owner but it makes a cool photo ;) have a good weekend if you're not already on vacation. Time for me to take pictures of Paris Plage that just started...

20 comments:

  1. OK, I Googled it and found that it was formerly a restaurant or a brasserie, and before that ... just kidding. Actually I'm not kidding about the restaurant part; you can still see "Cheque Déjeuner" at the bottom of the left window.

    It does make a cool photograph and hopefuly, the former owner retired in the South of France or somewhere nice and is now enjoying a peaceful life.

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  2. By the way, speaking of Paris Plage, I have a request... last year we got a toe, if memory serves. Could we please get a different body part this year? :P

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  3. It's always sad to see businesses close. But I suppose that's life in the city!

    I wonder what will replace it?

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  4. I wonder what part Tomate is thinking of.
    We are all in suspense.

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  5. Some film trivia. The "shop around the corner" is the name of a wonderful but not well known 1930's (I think) movie with Jimmy Steward and Margaret Sullivan--the setting is a gift shop in Budapest at Christmastime. The story inspired Nora Effron's script for You've Got Mail, in which the children's book shop owned by Meg Ryan's character is called "The Shop Around the Corner." The emails in the 1990s mail were anonymous notes of affection in the earlier film.
    Just thought you might find this interesting!

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  6. This picture is kind of cool and think the Brasserie will not stay empty for long.

    As to Paris Plage, I do remember the picture you took last year and must admit that at first I was not too fond of it, but as I kept examining it, I began to like it more and more. I believe you were quite creative in what you did, and look forward to another surprise this time.

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  7. Perhaps this graffiti was placed on those windows in the Spring - and perhaps someone was humming the song, "I love Paris in the Springtime . . ."

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  8. Great photo; I like to see all aspects of the city. Do you think you can find some Chippendales for us at the Paris Plage?!

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  9. This shop is crying out for a new owner - and a splash of paint.
    Maybe a PDP Store selling paraphenalia like caps and T-shirts and laptop bags etc with a PDP logo on them??? Just a thought!!!

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  10. Eric, this is quite unusual to see such romantic graffiti for a change. Do you know if it was written on the outside or from the inside of the windows? If it was in the inside, wouldn't you like to know what was going on before the graffiti started?

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  11. I like this old boutique's atmosphere.

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  12. Michael is right, but I can't imagine the French writing - I love you - backwards AND in English.
    Therefore Eric must have written it just for us ??

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  13. LOL M.Benaut

    I hadn't thought of that.

    Maybe some "adventurous" tourists entered the building at night to check out the other monuments of Paris?

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  14. I am sure it is a streetperson's valentine to his significant other. It is a so sad yet lovely composition. I'd shed a tear if I had any left. I been watching the political football on TV about the totally ridiculous war in Iraq. I shouldn't watch the news cause the situation they feature on the situation room is too depressing.

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  15. Michael, I see that you have a broad smile on your face, Monsieur ! Tut-Tut.

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  16. Love this photograph Eric. I would buy a print of this if I had more wall space. I would buy this for my friends new business. I also would love to own a print of this beauty Love your work. Now, back to my own, I need to pick up some enlargements........

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  17. Such a pity, the facade must have looked great in its good times and now it makes a good photo indeed with the graffiti and the signs of decay.

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  18. One of the several books I am currently reading about Paris is Edmund White's wonderful morsel of a text The Flâneur. In fact, in an instance of truly succulent synchronicity, I happened to come across this passage within minutes of laying eyes on this photograph. If you’ll indulge me for a paragraph or two, I will quote from White’s book – which, by the way, I highly recommend as a Sunday morning snack or a nibble on the flight to the City of Lights:

    “[The flâneur] is not a foreign tourist tracing down the Major Sights and ticking them off a list of standard wonders. He (or she) is a Parisian in search of a private moment, not a lesson, and whereas wonders can lead to edification, they are not likely to give the viewer gooseflesh. No, it is the private Proustian touchstone – the madeleine, the tilting paving stone – that the flâneur is tracking down… The weathered threshold, the old tile…

    [The] flâneur is in search of experience, not knowledge. Most experience ends up interpreted as – and replaced by – knowledge, but for the flâneur the experience remains somehow pure, useless, raw. Practical Romans, who are only annoyed when archaeologists tear up he street yet again to unearth another ugly Etruscan temple, show no curiosity about their city’s past, which exists in all too great abundance. Parisians are the ones who wander their own city.”

    Perhaps PDP is (at times) a contemporary exercise in flâneurie, recorded in photos and crumbs of text for dissemination in cyberspace: and perhaps why we enjoy it so much is because we can vicariously follow a real Parisian on his real travels through the real city of Paris at the press of a button and the click of a mouse.

    In any case, it's a pleasure to see the less glamorous - though, in many ways, more romantic - aspects of Paris through the eyes - and the lens - of a scooter-riding photo-flâneur.

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  19. My birthday is September 4, and my parents kept on telling me that rue du 4 septembre had been named in my honor. I believed it for years! What a let down when I realized that it was not true... Worse than discovering that Santa Claus is not real - of course, my parents never let us believe in Santa Claus anyway.

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