Movement

Today's theme day is "Movement" among the CityDailyPhoto community. I did not really have anything in mind, so I thought of using this shot that I took last weekend on the Quais (the river banks). It would have served the purpose better if the bike had been a little blurry of course ;-), but you get the idea! Check what movements the world has to offer on the CDP portal.

Another classic view

Yesterday evening, I had a business party on the left bank and I took the Pont Notre Dame to go to it. It was around 8 pm, the sun was almost set and the light absolutely stunning. Even though I must have posted this view a zillion times already I couldn't help but pulling the trigger one more time ;-)

Front de Seine

I had dinner in the 15th arrondissement yesterday evening and I passed by the Pont Mirabeau. I stopped 2 minutes to take this photo. A nice mix between the old and the new!

Watching the sun go down on the Seine...

How romantic? Do I really need a larger caption? I did not think so! Just one precision though, in the photo the sun is just right of Le Grand Palais.

From Paris with love

Yesterday took place the last PDP picnic and despite the threatening weather (it poured in the morning!) we managed pretty well. The thing is that I started the PDP picnic series in 2006 because of Jeff (with the blue jacket on the left) - I did not know him at that time - and ever since I always organized them around his Paris visits (I'm working on a PDP book at the moment and I'll have the occasion to disclose more info about these picnics). This year again we had a wonderful time, I met great new people (people who follow PDP, but never comment) and reconnected with older ones. It almost did not rain...  ;-) BTW, what do you think about the true Frenchman with the beret?! ;-)

Playing with fire on the Quais...

It's an amazing show that I witnessed yesterday from the Ile Saint Louis: a bunch of artists were literally playing with fire in front of a crowd. It was beautiful, much more than what this photo suggests. I searched on the web and did not find anything about them though. PDP picnic - still scheduled for Sunday, but I still have very little visibility about the weather, so I don't know about the location yet. Stay tuned.

Giant piece of art

This is Bibliothèque nationale de France - the French National library, I already posted about several times. I took it from the left right bank where you can see the giant piece of art on one of the facades (the big upside down female head). I have been totally unable to find any additional info about it... have a great weekend everyone, wherever you are in this world (BTW, if you happen to pass by San Jose on Tuesday...)

Boat trip

There is nothing more romantic than crossing Paris on a boat on the Seine. Like these Japonese tourists that waved at me just after I took this photo!

Crèpes by the Seine

Here is a very Parisian winter scene... I've taken it two days ago by the Quai along the Musée d'Orsay. I stopped because of the Crèpes bike that I thought was cool (I did not buy one though!). That's all! 

The big one?

When I say "the big one" I don't mean an earthquake, of course, but... a big flood! For look on the right side of  photo; the Seine goes all the way to the wall, whereas there is normally a walking area down there... This year the overflowing of the Seine has started much earlier than usual and I was reading before my departure that they ("the flooding authorities") worry about the "floods of the century" (the last one took place in 1910). The damages would be terrible...

Going upstream...

Yesterday I went to a new shopping mall in the 15th arrondissement and on the way back I walked along the quai (embankment)  for a while. I was absolutely amazed to see how strong the current is on the Seine at the moment and how hard it is for a péniche (flat boat that runs on the Seine) to go upstream. Of course it's hard to realize on a photo, but you can see how deep the tip of the boat is in the water. Have a great Sunday everyone, I'm about to leave for Denver. I will still comment from there of course!

Stunning sunset

This one is fresh from my camera roll (well SD card...). I took it around 7:30 pm on the Pont de la Concorde and I did not resist because the color was so amazing. The horses in the background belong to the Pont Alexandre III, but I'm sure you already knew that;-) Have a great and sunny weekend everyone.

There's not place like home...

I know, I've posted this point of view a dozen times already, but that is all I have handy right now! And since I'm not in good enough shape to go out yet, you'll have to live with that ;-)

Manhattan upon Seine!

OK, maybe there are not enough skyscrapers to compete with Manhattan, but that's close enough ;-) This area is called, Le front de Seine, it's located in the 15th arrondissement and it was not always like this... This part of Paris was very industrious (the 15th was known to be a worker area), but from the 50's onwards  factories started closing or moving to the suburbs. Since Paris needed offices and housing, the government thought of  building towers, like in many "modern" cities. The work started in 1967, but due to the many complaints (it was too "modern"), it was never totally completed and stopped in 74. Now they are renovating some areas, and especially a big shopping mall called Beaugrenelle, that should (re)open very soon. More (in French) here. 

Photo exhibit

Can you see the photos in the background of this shot? There are part of a really cool exhibit by Reza, a very famous Iranian/French photographer who went all over the world and took the picture of people who grow coffee around the world. The cool thing about this exhibit is that it takes place on the Quais des Tuileries, opposite to the Musée d'Orsay, where people can walk (well not in this kind of weather!). You can also enjoy it if you take a boat trip on the Seine, like on this Vedettes de Paris, that I grabbed in this scene! 

Never seen before...

After 8 years of posting a daily photo on PDP I feel like I've shown almost everything in Paris (as if that were possible!). For once, however, I'm sure I never took a photo from this angle, simply because it was nearly impossible... Why? Well because this is the Pont Alexandre III from the Seine level, a piece of embankment that was almost unreachable a few weeks ago because of the many cars that would run alongside. Like I told you about a month ago, this part of the left bank is now closed to traffic and is being turned into a giant pedestrian walk, which is why I could now take this photo. Needless to say, car drivers are not too happy about this!

Bye bye Paris!

Ooops I'm late posting... I forgot to activate the scheduling tool and my photo did not publish automatically. Anyway, I left Paris yesterday afternoon but I won't leave you without a daily shot of your favorite city of course ;-) To celebrate here is a typical view: sunset on the Alexandre III bridge. I will be more imaginative tomorrow, but for now I just need to sleep!

Almost surreal!

Did I take this photo at night or during the day? Hard to tell isn't it? Well, yes, I took it in broad day light when the sun was shining, only the light was so intense that it increased the contrasts and produced this "full moon reflection effect". I took it at Place de la Concorde, by the Seine (obviously!) where the have a large docking area for boats (imagine living on a boat at Place de la Concorde!). I had a walk there last Sunday hoping to take a few shots (I'm soon going away on vacation so I need to "feed the beast" in advance if I want to make sure there will be a photo a day on PDP while I'm gone!), but all I kept is this one.

Kicking cars out of the city...

Things change... In the 70's, automobiles were very popular in France: the demand was strong, the French car industry was booming and the equipment rate was skyrocketing! This boom led to the need for more  roads... Problem: where do you build roads in a city like Paris that was built several hundred years ago when cars did not exist?! Well... One of the answers was... along the Seine! That's how the Voies sur berges (river bank throughway) were born. Nowadays things are different and cars are much less desirable ! That's why the Paris Mayor decided to... permanently close a stretch of more than two kilometers of the Voies sur berges from the Musée d'Orsay and the Pont de l'Alma, and turn them into gardens and passers by area.

Paris Marathon 2013

It was the Paris Marathon yesterday (Sunday) in Paris and it was also a fantastic day for running (sunny and cold). Like every year, I went by the river banks to take a few photos of runners and selected this one, first because you can see the nice weather and also because you can see this "typical Frenchman with a béret" on the right! Just FYI, the first woman was the Ethiopian Boru Tadese (2 hours 21 min!) and the first man was the Kenyan Peter Some (2 hours 5 minutes). Not bad!