Paris labors!

It's probably not comparable to the 12 labors or Hercules, but it's close LOL! Because it's August and because Paris is closed (except for tourists of course...) there is - almost - not a single street in which you won't find work! The most symbolic place is undoubtedly La Place Vendôme, in which the Ritz is being totally redone (this has been going on for several years now), but also the famous Colonne Vendôme (behind the scaffolding in this photo) and another building that I did not manage to include in this photo. In short, if you want to see the Place Vendôme at its best, you should not visit it at the moment!

Soon, the new Les Halles !

Those of you who came to Paris surely remember Les Halles, this large area in the very center of Paris that novel writer Emile Zola once called "the belly of Paris" (it used to be the wholesale market of Paris). Well, in the 70's they closed it and replaced it with a huge shopping mall that is now closed again and is in the process of being replaced by a brand new project still including a shopping area of course, but also a huge garden covered by a canopy. Well, that is precisely this canopy that I managed to catch on "film" from a restaurant. Not the most glamorous photo I posted, but interesting! Have a look at the final project here. 

Brownfield land

After my Barbecue yesterday, I passed by this "Brownfield land" (I just learned about this term!)  - that is an abandoned industrial facilities waiting to be reused - in Montreuil, a close suburb of Paris. Until recently this was apparently a Romani camp, but now I have not been able to find out what it's going to be (nor what it used to be!). You can easily imagine how it could be turned into lofts or a covered market or garden. Anyway, in the meantime it makes a cool photo ;-)

What's left of Les Halles

I know it's not the best view of Paris I've ever posted here, but it's an interesting one! Why? Because it shows what currently remains of Les Halles area ( Les Halles, used to be the central market of Paris from  1135 till the early 70's, when they transferred it to Rungis, in the suburbs). Since the 70's it has been turned into a huge underground mall with a big pedestrian area on top. Recently they decided to redo the whole place. Those who have been to Paris may have recognized Saint Eustache church on the right, the Bourse du commerce in the very back and... a piece of the Ecoute sculpture, by Henri de Miller. I can't wait till this goes back to "normal".

Co-working in Paris

Last evening I went to a book launch (the French version of a book by American author Nancy Duarte, dedicated to the art of presenting, published in France by Diateino, a publishing house I'm proud to support). The book sure looks interesting, but the place where the event took place was also worth the look. It's called Soleilles Cowork and, as you can deduct from its name, it's a place you can rent by the hour to work or organize a meeting in one of their stunning meeting rooms where I took this photo... I know what you're thinking: "working in a place like this cannot be really work!" And yet, it is...

Crossing lines...

I had a very interesting business meeting yesterday and during a break I took this photo (of course, I'm not sure the presence of these two garbage trucks add anything to it, but I had no choice ;-)). Technically it's not Paris, but Issy-les-Moulineaux, a very close suburb that used to be pretty poor and is now a booming area, thanks to the installation of many many companies like Microsoft, Cisco, Orange...

Fire!

No this is not a fire set by demonstrators, but flames coming out of a "tool" (I don't know what it's called!) that workers use to stick horizontal street signs to the pavement. I just thought it would make a funny photo.  FYI, the Paris street signs are fully monitored through a very sophisticated computerized system so that it's really well maintained

Paris on ice?

I'll be honest, I don't know exactly what this is, but when I came back home today on my scooter, I was freezing so much that I immediately thought of ice "cubes" when I saw this. "This", precisely belongs to a tarpaulin that hides a facade while they're working on it in l'Avenue de l'Opéra. The weather is getting colder and colder and it is very likely we will have snow tomorrow (like most of Northern Europe - and the UK in particular!) apparently . I'll save some time to take photos for you ;-) BTW. Someone had the idea of creating a birthday page on Facebook (no, not for PDP yet...) for the author of this blog...

Christmas Tree

Even if the financial crisis has made it difficult, Père Noël included, the city of Paris has saved some money for the Christmas decorations. Hence this "Christmas tree", that I photographed at Les Halles tonight. This is probably the last year Parisians will enjoy decorations there as the whole area is going to change; the work will strat in 2010 and end in 2016 - and cost about 760 million euros!). If you're interested in the place, have a look at Projetleshalles.fr, it is made by two people who live there and who want to show us through their lens the progression of the work. Excellent idea (disclaimer, I know one of them!).

Work!

I'm in Strasbourg today, the largest city in the east of France. It's a city known for its white wine, its Sauerkraut (it has a strong influence from Germany), its European parliament and... its Christmas markets. That is to say markets that are only open in December and sell Christmas related goods (well that was in the old times, now they sell a bit of everything, made in China!). But that is not the reason why I'm there today, it's for work! So I won't see much of all this... To remain in context, I took this photo tonight (in Paris, not Strasbourg!) It's a view from my office onto other offices ;-)

Back to school!

August 26, the holiday season is almost over, people have started coming back to work, there goes my tranquility at the office! Traffic has gotten worse too... But it's probably nothing compared to next Monday ;) Anyway the press conference season will also start soon, so here is one photo I took at the occasion of the launch of new products. They rented a loft for the occasion and I thought the setting of the room would make a good photo - taken from above (I took it at the end of the conference, when they started clearing the room). It's not a black and white photo, although it may look like one...