Back to Le Pont Levant

You may remember my two photos of le Pont Levant from last year (this one and this one). Well, I went back this year! And the scenery is still stunning there. The beautiful building you can see in the background used to be a warehouse where cereal was stored. It apparently burned in 1990 and the Paris town hall decided to rebuild it and turn it into a student residence, a  hotel and also left some room for cafés ans restaurant (it's a must visit place if you want to have a quiet dinner out by the water on a hot summer night...). I love it.

So hot!

It's La canicule (heat wave) in Paris (and in many places in France - and Europe - I hear that a lot of old people have started dying because of the heat in England). A canicule, is a long period of high temperatures during which  it does not get cold (enough) at night so that people's body has time to cool off. When it happens - rarely - old people die first. And younger ones take advantage of it to do things they would not normally do, like put their feet in public fountains, like in the photo that I took two days ago at the "new" Place de la République.  And of course, there is almost no air conditioning  in France !

Spring!

Here I am talking about spring again, but this time not about the season, about this water spring (OK, it's more a fountain than a spring ;-)) that I found this morning in the 11th arrondissement. I did my magic Tenin perspective again and voilà! Much ado about nothing, I know, but still the effect is cool ;-) Facts and figures: there are 498 fountains and 3 official springs in Paris, we're surely not at risk to die of thirst... Off to a little packing now, I have to catch a plane today, remember?

When nymphs enlighten Paris...

Silly me! Today I was meant to go to another opening, but when I handed out the invitation at the entrance, they politely said "but sir, it's tomorrow!". So on the way back I crossed the Seine and took this photo at the Pont Alexandre bridge. The golden torch belongs to one of the nymphs that you can see on both sides of the bridge (that is, if you are on a boat of course!). If you notice, the light was pretty "cold" last evening, which means autumn/fall is on its way! Grrrr. Time to move to the Southern hemisphere LOL!

Pont Levant (part deux !)

Do you remember the photo of Le Pont Levant de la rue de Crimée, that I posted before my vacation? Well, here is another - and much broader - view of it. I actually experimented it for real! How? By taking part in the cruise that Canauxrama (no, that is not paid advertising!) offers on the Canal Saint Martin. For once I posted two photos, so that you can see how it works: on this one it's up, on the one below, taken a few seconds before, it's still down. Very impressive and very beautiful (thanks to the lighting of the buildings I must say). I loved every minute of this cruise, even if there are a little too many locks for me!



PS : on a different note, Jeff (a real true visitor to PDP!) is trying to organize a little PDP gathering for Labor Day in Chicago, if you're around and would like to join him, do let me know and I'll put you in contact.

Back to Paris

After 5 days in Vence, near Nice in the South of France, I'm back to Paris and to its casual scenes! I took this photo on the Canal Saint Martin and thought it was a perfect "welcome back photo" even though it's not a super original photo; after all, this is not the first couple I caught in my lens is it?! And probably not the last one either... City of love, they say!

Docking in Paris

When you think of Paris, you don’t necessarily think of a harbor city, do you? And though it is! For even though the closest sea (la Manche/the English Channel) is at least 150 miles away, there no less than 19 ports within the Paris area for private yachts and goods delivery. Here is one of the rings that allow boats to dock; it’s located at the Bassin de la Villette where they have a little yachting area. You can rent a spot for about 2 500 € a year if you have a small boat and … if you find room ;-)

Pont levant de la rue de Crimée

Between le bassin de la Villette and le Canal de l'Ourcq (two water channels that end into the Seine) there is a stunning metal bridge called le Pont de Flandre or de la rue de Crimée that allows cars and pedestrians to go from one side of the channel to the other. So far, nothing extraordinary I agree, except that this bridge is a pont levant, meaning it can be lifted when a boat needs to go through. It's the last of the kind in Paris. Did I mention, the view from there is at dusk is breath taking?!

Two!

Today is August 1st and the theme day among the CityDailyPhoto community (which is temporary hosted on Facebook until the portal gets fixed) is numbers. I did not find any that I liked enough to post so you'll have to use your imagination... For yes, it takes two to be lovers by the Bassin de la Vilette where I took this photo! A pretty good number I think ;-) Happy 1st of August anyone, check  what number(s) the other CDP have come up with on Facebook if you're on it.

Stopping traffic on Canal Saint Martin

I already told you about the Canal Saint Martin, a 4.5 km (2.8 miles) running from the bassin de La Vilette in the North of Paris to the Seine (in the center of Paris). It was built by Napoleon to feed Paris with trinkable water. Part of it runs in the open air and part of it underground (more on Wikipedia, if you're interested). Nowadays, it's no longer used to bring water to Parisians, but to take them on a little cruise (I never did it, but I have to try!). Along the way there are several bridges and locks (9 in total) and traffic lights thant go with them. They make a cool photo, expecially when taken at dawn, when the water color is so beautiful.

Water Reflexion

It's a much more profane photo than yesterday, but it's still worth the look. I took it from Le Quai de la Loire, by the Bassin de la Vilette in the 19th arrondissement. The bank you can see in this photo is actually Le Quai de la Seine, where the MK2 movie theater (known for showing "intellectual movies") I already mentioned on this blog, is located. You may want to click in the photo to see all details.

The perfect walk...

No I did not take this photo in the middle of Le Bois de Boulogne or de Vincennes, but right behind the Bastille place (you can even see the open air metro station sign in the foreground) where boats owners can dock their yacht. This place is called Le port de l'Arsenal, I already mentioned it many times (like last summer), but I'm never tired of showing it! Not to forget that it's a fabulous place to have a walk - or even fish! BTW did you notice the beautiful light and the sun reflection? Well, that's the kind of weather we're enjoying in Paris at the moment. Amazing (I did not even turn on the heating yesterday!). Very unusual...