Wednesday, June 08, 2011

La Grande Halle de la Villette


Last evening I went to La Cité de la musique to attend a concert conducted by Les Arts Florissants, a Baroque musical ensemble conducted by William Christie. It was... Baroque! On the way out I took this photo of La Grande Halle, a remain of a former slaughter house that was built between 1865 and 1867 and was still used until 1975. Beautiful.

32 comments:

  1. wonderful shot. it seems to like its repurposing, don't you think.

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  2. Cool. I have heard of that place (well, at the time it was a slaughter house).

    Isn't it spelled "Villette " with 2 L's ?

    Glad you had a good time.

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  3. This music reminds me of the old joke that goes something like "My phone is baroque, so please call Bach later." Ouch! I really shouldn't have, but I couldn't resist. Hey, this Hall really is Grand; another great capture. The fountain really adds to this event center. I'm sure you enjoyed yourself.

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  4. Lovely shot, Eric. I admire buildings like these that are restored and used for art and beauty rather than being demolished and forgotten forever!

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  5. Oh la la, the famous perspective! Repurposing these old buildings is a good thing—and I'll bet the musicians totally went for baroque and just "killed it" in that former slaughterhouse.

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  6. Les Arts Florissants is one of the most well known and respected early music groups in the world. Les Arts Florissants is Delightful. Les Arts Florissants is the creation of William Christie.

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  7. Is anyone else having a problem with the PDP site loading? It seems something has slowed it down; I have tried on 2 different computers and both are having problem.

    I have to sign on and just go away for awhile until it is loaded. Seems to have started possibly with the Picnic photo section was added.

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  8. It's lit up so beautifully. I'd love to see it at night.

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  9. Lucky you! Would have loved to go there and listen to this concert.

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  10. Two words: Classic Tenin !
    I love the park area around La Grande Halle...reminds me of Canada when I am in Paris:)

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  11. Ahh...what a way to start my morning..the PDP from the Tenin Perspective followed immediately by kayaking. This could get addictive. Beautiful shot. I just want to know, was the fountain when this building was a slaughterhouse? If so, that's Paris, beautifying even the most unlovely! If not, it is beautiful now!!

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  12. Christie, you made me laugh ! Kayaking must be a hard sport ... very effective for the body ! Lol. PDP for the brain and kayaking for the body! I too must think of my body :) Well following Eric's shoes in Paris could be as effective as addictive!

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  13. Parc de la Villette deserves a half-day walk for visitors. Great place. Clause Oldenberg sculpture of a six-meter tall bicycle emerging from or buried in the ground. And La Geode, of course. I also love the canal and the draw bridges, featured in a PDP photos that hangs on my office wall. Oh, yeah: I'm sure the concert was great, too!

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  14. (...hmmm, I've been counting reps at the health club in French lately...does that mean something?...quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit,neuf, dix, missed onze, douze...?)

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  15. We took the Canal St. Martin boat trip up to La Villette few years ago. It was very pleasant but leisurely, what with all those canal locks to negotiate.
    Old grannies with zimmer frames and the local snails were overtaking us, but a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon and you can make the return journey by Metro.

    Anonymous and others - I have no problem on my home PC which has high speed broadband. I did experience problems on my work PCs which have slower broadband. If you have slower broadband, you could try using Google Chrome as your browser, it worked for me.

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  16. Is anyone else having trouble with the PDP site recently? I can't open it correctly from home and am trying at work and same issue. It causes internet explorer to fail. If so, please fix- I miss it! [I noticed it ever since the picnic video was posted]. The message I get says "error on page".

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  17. Is anyone else having trouble with the PDP site recently? I can't open it correctly from home and am trying at work and same issue. It causes internet explorer to fail. If so, please fix- I miss it! [I noticed it ever since the picnic video was posted]. The message I get says "error on page".

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  18. Yes, Eric I can confirm the problem when downloading PDP with Internet Explorer. I also get an 'error' message. As I can't miss PDP, you know me, I found a solution with Mozilla Firefox navigator and then all problem disapeared, oddly...
    Same thing at home or at work and agree this is more or less since the picnic video. Hmm, I'd even say more precisely since the Facebook 'like' was set up on PDP...
    Please don't kill my Firefox connexion now ;) !!!! (kidding you but still TRUE!). Bises.

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  19. I also continue to have problems with the site, as I've been posting. I have high speed broadband on both home and work computers (not that I ever check in from work, of course!!!!)and I have the same problems on both machines. (I'm not at liberty to change the browser on my work computer). It started around the time of the picnic video and worsened when the facebook connection went in. Last night I decided to see how long it would take to load and I waited 5 minutes. Then, as soon as I clicked on the photo, the same problem with the error message and trying to load started all over again.

    SOS, Eric!!!!! You know I love PDP, but its become unusable. : (

    - Carrie

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  20. To those of you having problems with PDP, which browser are you using?

    I have no problems with either Firefox or Google Chrome, but difficulties with Internet Explorer. I don't think it's a problem of bandwidth.

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  21. Internet Explorer ...cks.

    Try cleaning your cache (delete history, cookies, etc.) and starting over again. Sometimes, that helps.

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  22. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I clean my cache all the time on both computers, so I don't think that's it. And, I hope its not the browser, but, I wonder why, if it were the browser, all of us having trouble would have suddenly started having trouble at the same time and only on this site. I'm no computer whiz, so maybe there's a reason. I do have IE on both machines, and I can change the browser on the one at home but, I wonder if anyone who is not having trouble is using IE?

    - Carrie

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  23. SOS, Eric!!!!! You know I love PDP, but its become unusable. : (

    5 minutes to load?! What!!! I'll remove the facebook Like button tomorrow. Let me know if it changes something.

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  24. I agree with the rest - I have super high speed internet and have tried at work and home. New problem never had before and only with this site. Started same time as rest - please please fix Eric.

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  25. I agree with the rest - I have super high speed internet and have tried at work and home. New problem never had before and only with this site. Started same time as rest - please please fix Eric.

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  26. I have removed the FB like button, I think this will fix the problem. Can you let me know? Merci.

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  27. PDP is racing super fast across my computer screen!
    No need for the FB like button...we do LIKE it :)

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  28. Glad to hear it was the Facebook link and not my computer that was causing trouble. I have followed your photos for a year now since returning home to Illinois USA after visiting Paris and northern France for the first time. I stopped checking you out for about a week or two, and tried today without any problems!!! Suzan

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  29. simply good work keep it up thanks for sharing it

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