Monday, July 21, 2008

Paris by night


A few days ago I received an email from a regular visitor to PDP (Paul, aka, Nikon101) with a link to a site that I did not know of. As you probably don't either, I thought I'd find the first opportunity I could, to mention it in one of my posts. I confess I had to go back to some of my previous photos to do so (and more precisely when I attended a party on top of the Tour Montparnasse last February). Anyway, ladies and gentlemen in a few seconds you'll be going "wow!" if you click here (and play extensively with your mouse and keyboard!). The week starts again for me and it's going to be a tough one...

64 comments:

  1. Eric, that link is so cool. It reminds me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Rear Window - without the broken leg. Thanks for sharing something so special.

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  2. How did anyone ever manage to get here? That site is consuming. What fun. The jet airplane near the sunset was amazing (although I'm surprised we couldn't see anyone looking out the porthole) not to mention the window on the top left. Woo woo.

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  3. Tall Gary, thanks, I missed the plane but not the bare naked lady.

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  4. There is a naked lady? uh.. oh.. don't go crashing their server now! ;)

    Great photo, Eric! As to Paul /Nikon 101, wouldn't it be cool if we could all sent him a post-card to thank him for that fabulous link?!! I can tell, some of us will be playing there for hours ;)

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  5. OMG!!! It's true!!! There really IS a bare naked lady!!!

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  6. Thanks, Eric, That was awesome!!!

    Your photo is beautiful. Cities by night are always lovely.

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  7. Eric this is a beautiful photo! It's also quite maddening in that I can't quite figure out which direction I'm looking! Since this was taken in the 14th, my guess is that the dark patches are part of the Montparnasse cemetery, the large boulevard at the bottom left is Edgar Quinet, and the street cutting across the darkness like a bridge over the Seine is rue Emile Richard. If this is right, I'm way too much of a Paris map geek for my own good.

    Thanks to both you and Paul for sharing that amazing Paris at night website! My favorite scenes in the high-rise are: guy shaving, and TV with drying rack.

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  8. MOM! Whoops, I turned my WOW upside down. Did somebody say bare naked lady? You're spoofing me, right? Or you're talking about the ET ET ET! Serieuxmently, this is darned tootin cool, Eric. Merci!

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  9. Holy mother of Dieu! There is a bare naked lady!

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  10. I don't want to say that I told you so, but I told you so! Jimmy Stewart & Grace Kelly star in REAR Window. Get it? REAR Window.

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  11. That is a blast! They don't seem to have much of Paris on Virtual Reality Magazine, and I love the little surprise close-ups your link allows. I like the folks waving back.

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  12. Pretty cool, but where's the naked guy?

    I've said it before, I'll say it again: your night shots are amazing, Eric.

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  13. Oooh, but if you go to the VRMag site linked above and put in something more specific, you get better results, such as the Eiffel Tower from a selection of vantage points.

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  14. Monsieur Eric,

    Merci beaucoup for the wonderful link. Paris, je t'aime.

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  15. That is breathetaking. I have to check this lnk in the morning,, otherwise I will be up all night. Far too much fun.

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  16. Ah, the lights of Paris! I, too, am a big fan of the view from Tour Montparnasse (because of the fabulous view and, as you said in the February post, because the view doesn't include Tour Montparnasse itself). I've only just begun to check out the link, but yes, what fun!!

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  17. Wow! I wonder if the Bush Administration knows about this? Much easier than tapping phones to invade your privacy!

    Wonderful Eric! How does this work?

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  18. Rear Window! Good one David. The overall analogy works well too.

    Thanks Nikon.

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  19. I'm already saying 'wow!' at this photo...WOW!!

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  20. Yes! my NYC roommate has let me use her computer, and what an unbelievable view todays photo brings us.. I used the mouse on one of the windows at the Novotel, (we used to layover there when it was the Nikko) Guess who popped up out of one of the windows, Sarkozy!!LOL.

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  21. Wow is right Eric! (I've just closed all my window blinds though no one in this house is presently naked). I guess having no window coverings is 'normal' for Parisians?? Or they don't expect someone hanging out on top of Tour Montparnasse? With a great camera?
    Well, this is indeed an incredible image and I do love the airplane. I am puzzled by the one to the right of a 'green' window that looks like someone in a 1950's Ozzie and Harriett show??

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  22. Louis la Vache ,your blog is great and I am inspired now to cook, but it is your sense of humor on PDP that makes me beg for more.

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  23. Definitely WOW! Your photo and the amazing link! It reminds me of the Eiffel Tower website, which has a 360 view from the top with embedded links of the famous sights of Paris.
    But I love night scenes like this. And the stories one can imagine from the embeds...

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  24. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Nikon. Like Babooshka, I'll have to save the real surfing for tomorrow. I'm just going to enjoy this photo tonight. Wow.

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  25. I love (and admire) the concept. I like the captured moments but I hate the invasion of privacy on that sort of work...
    Besides there is no nice looking naked guy!

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  26. I repeat what many have said, WOW!! This is an amazing shot, Eric. Thank you so much!! It is just gorgeous!

    The other site was very cool as well, but slightly voyeuristic. I don't know what I'd think if I was in one of those pictures!! (or what I would be doing sans clothes walking around my apartment!??)

    Anyway, I love your picture, Eric. It is just lovely!

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  27. I am not convinced that all of the pictures on the website are actual pictures from those windows. On the photographer's New York picture, two of the insets are exactly the same. Besides that, as someone pointed out, at least one inset photo appears to be from the 1950s. Is this perhaps more artistic than journalistic, so to speak?

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  28. Parisian Heart

    I think you are right. Have you seen the rest of his work? Unbelievable!
    Marvellous!

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  29. Stunning, Eric, just stunning. Just like you.

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  30. I agree with parisian heart.
    Anyways it looks like a pretty game with humour and daily scenes behind the curtains.
    Thank you for sharing Eric.

    And if you are still cannot find the bare naked lady.... you can locate it here!

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  31. I apologize. Locate her not it! ;))

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  32. Bright lights, big city! And Thanks to Katie the Paris map geek for putting names to streets and areas in Eric's photo. . .is she right?
    I remember facing my kitchen window in SF with its view across all the backyards of the block and the back windows of the houses around the block. Nearly every evening as I was cooking dinner, a couple across the yards would enter their apartment, go in their bedroom, change clothes, walk nude from the shower, etc. The sun glared off our windows at that time of day, but gave full view into their uncurtained ones. And don't even ask me about the neighbor across the street out front whose second floor kitchen was in plane view every morning when she cooked breakfast wearing only her underwear. Ah city life. 8^P
    -Kim
    Seattle Daily Photo

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  33. Lynn "Stunning, Eric, just stunning. Just like you." LOL. That'll be my "quote of the day"!

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  34. Gorgeous! I love the glow on the horizon—it reaches so high!

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  35. Merci, Eric! Any photo that excludes the affreux, horrible, really-bad-idea-to-build-it-in-the-first-place Tour Montparnasse is a good photo in my book, but this is indeed VERY cool!

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  36. I read,
    I clicked,
    I played and
    I said:

    "Wow!"

    Thank you Eric, this was fun!

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  37. I'm a day late, but regarding yesterday's comments about a Paris hangover: It's a Paris high. It lasts a while. The withdrawal comes after a number of weeks. Never a hangover. But always feeling distracted, distressed at the empty place discovered as it's fading away. Love? Paris. Meme chose.

    Now I'll look at today's PDP!

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  38. The link is a fun game, and a great artistic product using technical wizardry. I like it, almost as much as Michael's link to the Metro photo shoots (but not quite).

    Um, checking my photos from the top of Tour Montparnasse, the view on the Hyper-Photo site was not taken from Tour Montparnasse, which is not near the river. This must be from one of the high rise apartment buildings downstream from Tour Eiffel. Nonetheless, it's a great work of art. Checking carefully, the artist even placed the photos behind real windows of the individual buildings. Really well done.

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  39. Wait a minute . . . Jeff, you're right, and -- oh no!! -- it does show the hideous tower. Oh well, it's still pretty groovy.

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  40. No shape, no personality, no character, but at night with a little bling bling? Even Tour Montparnasse can look good.

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  41. Alexa...I understand that not long after Tour Montparnasse was built there was such criticism for its "affreuxedness" (as you mention), that future plans for skyscrapers in the center of the city were scrapped and probably scraped too (as fingernails on chalkboards). What's the old joke TM? The view from the top of Montparnasse is one of the most beautiful in all of Paris because it's the only place in the city that you can't see the Tour Montparnasse. :-)

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  42. When you look at the Montparnasse Tower, far from it, yes it is ugly, I agree with you but personally, I don't dislike it, when seen from the ground just beside it and needless to say that I too really enjoyed to be lastly at its top.
    Flash back to the 12th of February... So many PDP (good) memories between this day and now!! Reading again the comments, written in February, I am still intriguing by one of your comment Eric at this moment (about your mistaken title for the photo : you were so hard with yourself!). Far too much!!! ;) Or fishing compliments?? No, I don't think so.

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  43. The "joke" about not being able to see it when you are there originally was uttered about the Tour Eiffel, not Tour Montparnasse. So, someday?

    We have the IDS Building in Minneapolis, which is the classic architecture of the 1970s, with a silhouette similar to Tour Montparnasse. However, the IDS is blue glass and reflects the sky, clouds, and surrounding buildings. It's also right in the downtown center.

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  44. I could not find a good set of photos of the Tour Montparnasse, but this might be fun: compare

    http://www.ids-center.com/

    http://www.photographersdirect.com/stockimages/m/montparnasse_tower.asp

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  45. WOW is right, great photo Eric and wild link, too.

    Although,I have to agree that I, too, looked and looked and looked for the bare naked guy and, hmmm...., I ask myself: is the link photographer risking his French citizenship for lack of equality of the sexes?

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  46. Thank you for this Eric!!!!!!!!!!!

    That was a nice surprise! Reaaly breathtaking.. I can only say... WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  47. Jeff...some things just require time to get beautiful or accepted as beautiful. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the bee holder until it stings you in the eye. I think Benjamin Franklin said that.

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  48. Absolutely beautiful!! There is another site very similar all in brown and beige tones which I can't seem to find right now. When I do I'll post a link. The one I am speaking of moves on it's own and has music....anyone familiar with this??

    I love the different view of Paris and the Hemingway blog is great!!

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  49. Anonyme. "Reading again the comments, written in February, I am still intrigued by one of your comment Eric at this moment (about your mistaken title for the photo : you were so hard with yourself!). Far too much!!! ;) Or fishing compliments?? No, I don't think so."

    You're right I was not (not this time LOL!) But I was really ashamed to have mistaken.

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  50. uselaine
    That is seriously funny!

    Hey everyone...
    Eric is online...Fingers ready! New post coming soon!!!

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  51. Thank you Eric for answering and even correcting my typos!! Funny lapsus!!! ;)

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  52. A dreamy and golden shot, Eric. I hope the week won't be as tough as you anticipated.
    The link is glorious fun! I didn't see the naked lady, but as I was clicking away wildly this one guy kept popping up to stare into my monitor. He's dressed in black, alongside a road. Behind him is a car that may be getting fuel? I think he's a spy....

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  53. Wow!!! My heart is beating with such a wonderful shot. Oh to be in Paris again for just a moment...

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  54. Absolutely gorgeous. Stunning. I want to be in Paris RIGHT NOW!

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  55. A wonderful picture indeed.

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  56. Wow indeed!!! For you picture and the link. WOW!

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  57. awesome picture, im a student and id love to go there for a phd, i was on paris last year, and absolutely fell in love with the city... thnx for sharing, Paris la plus belle ville aux tout le monde ( have no idea if its good grammar... only speak little french)

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