Thursday, June 21, 2012

Inside a Parisian building


Here is a beautiful stairway I found in an apartment building located within the Passage Vivienne (the most beautiful covered passage in Paris in my eyes). In this area, most of the buildings were erected during the 18th-19th century. They may not be perfectly aligned nor regular by today's standards, but they are really majestuous, have large staircases, high ceilings, etc. in other words there is a lot of "wasted space" that people are reluctant to pay for, nowadays... No wonder, the price of a square meter in this area amounts on average to 10 000 € (8 487 € in Paris, globally) and very few French people can afford a place there. What's funny of course is to back to some of my old posts... In this one for instance, in 2006, I mentioned an average sq meter price of 6 000 € which sounded outrageous at the time!

23 comments:

  1. I love winding staircases! This is a great shot. You are right, Eric - the Passage Vivienne is the most beautiful in Paris. From a practical perspective, I would not want to live at the top unless there were also an elevator.

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  2. Lovely! Oh and there was I thinking I'd be first and get a gold finger award... I am soooooo last year...

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  3. I love it. It reminds me of a nautilus. Of course, after the first couple of floors, I'd probably be begging for l'ascenseur!

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  4. I love these type of shots. I know what you mean about perception of price rises. I expect people think that the 2006 price of a square meter of real estate is now reasonable. :)

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  5. I would love to see these wonderful old buildings. And, since I can't, at least I have you and your camera! Thanks!

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  6. Absolutely stunning! Love this!

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  7. So graceful. Like the inside of a nautilus shell.

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  8. Marvelous photo! Like Oakland Daily Photo, it reminds me of the inside of a shell, too.

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  9. So good to see you here, Duchess Lynn - you could never be "last year". In honor of the Summer Olympics in your home country, I dub thee bronze finger aujourd'hui (with Eric's permission, of course ;-D)

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  10. Wow -- That brings to mind the film "Vertigo" when looking at your photo -- but it's probably just me. I'm still working at the Old Mint exhibit about films made in San Francisco. Our star is Kim Novak from the famous Alfred Hitchcock film "Vertigo".

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  11. So beautiful, I wouldn't even mind not having an elevator.

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  12. I like that it's not perfectly round (or so it seems) unlike me... :-)

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  13. lovely shot but just became a little dizzy after watching it continuously for seconds!!

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  14. I love the photo, but I love your word "majestuous" even more!

    It's been exactly one year since I visited Paris. On our ride to Paris from CDG, we could see the acts setting up for La Fete de la Musique. After getting set up in our apt., we headed to the Place des Vosges where we saw so many great performances. A sweet memory!

    Happy Summer Solstice everyone!

    Jennifer
    (parisforme)

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  15. Merci beaucoup,Eric, for starting my morning out so majestuous! Gorgeous pic and I think it's calender material:) As for the crazy real estate prices, until we have another French Revolution WORLDWIDE, I don't think we're going to put a stop to this rampant greed.....

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  16. Eric, that's a great shot, I love those sort of perspectives.

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  17. The first time I visited Paris in the nineties, the house prices didn't seem particularly high, much lower than London. Now they are just astronomical. Must be wealthy foreigners moving in, oil rich Arabs, Russian oligarchs, Chinese industrialists, Bankers and rich Greeks getting their money out of the country. :-)

    Incidentally, do you know which is France's 6th largest city?
    Bordeaux? Nantes? Strasbourg?
    Nope. According to an article I read recently it's - London!
    The French consulate estimates between 300,000 and 400,000 French citizens now live there. They even have their own member of the French parliament.

    What with the proposed 75% tax rate for the rich, even more are expected to hop over the Channel to give Monsieur Hollande the slip!

    Great photo, it reminds me of a snail for some reason.

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  18. @Drummond. Yes I heard that a couple of days ago, just after David Cameron pissed off the French Government by saying he would unroll the red carpet to greet all the French companies and rich Frenchmen willing to settle down in Britain! How do we say.... ? "Perfide Albion" I think LOL!

    Seriously, in fact I heard a lot of young French people go to England for "they are given a chance" - That is what I heard.

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  19. What a dizzyfying—and beautiful—shot! I sure wish I could have bought some Paris real estate when I was there in the '60s. (Though what it would have cost then would have seemed like a fortune at the time—everything's relative, n'est-ce pas?)

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  20. @Alexa "everything's relative, n'est-ce pas?" True. I don't think anyaone ever thought once in their life "oh I'm going to buy an apartment now, because it's really cheap!"

    Mind you in 1997 I bought an apartment in Les Batignolles area for 1 500 € per sq. meter! The place needed to be renovated, but still...

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  21. This is one of my favorite pictures on the PDP ever!! I love it!

    And, GULP! Wow, how expensive. I think I wouldn't want to buy there, I'll just "rent" my little piece of real estate at a cafe with my outrageously priced cup of coffee. :)

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  22. Great shot! And this reminds me of "l'esprit de l'escalier" for some reason ;)

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