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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 21:14:50 GMT
Rue Sainte Marthe has long been my favorite street representing crumbling old 'poor' Paris. While few people will regret the disappearance of the most decrepit areas of the city, there is a certain charm to the tattered old buildings. On rue Sainte Marthe, there is an effort to save them and to give them a whole new character with bright paint. It may be strange to say, but I found a certain kinship of this street, with bjd's brilliant post about Cartagena, Colombia. Nevertheless, some of the street is disappearing. Hurry up if you want to see it before it is gone.
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Post by imec on Feb 17, 2010 21:39:04 GMT
Wonderful k!! I would love to park myself at la sardine for a glass or two....
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 17, 2010 23:03:02 GMT
Oh yes ~~ I can see how you thought of the bright streets of Cartagena! I found the use of all the wooden store fronts very surprising somehow. Does that occur all over Paris, or only in certain pockets? You captured so much variety. Truly, you have photos that would fit perfectly in various Image Bank themes -- wrought iron, wood, old signage, color. I have a variation on my question on the rue Dénoyez thread. That is, do some of the closed-up buildings have active businesses at another time of the day/week? Thanks for this -- so enjoyable!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2010 23:07:26 GMT
I visited BOTH places on Sunday evening, because they are very close to each other! There is plenty of activity during the weekday when I am enslaved at my office with a chain around my ankle.
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Post by lola on Feb 18, 2010 5:28:36 GMT
Nice, Kerouac. Love those storefronts. The demolition one reminds me of an exhibition currently at the Pulitzer Museum in St. Louis. mattaclark.pulitzerarts.org/"Gordon Matta-Clark used neglected structures slated for demolition as his raw material. He carved out sections of buildings in order to reveal their hidden constructions, to provide new ways of perceiving space, and to create metaphors for the human condition."
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Post by lola on Feb 18, 2010 5:30:48 GMT
I don't know about the "human condition" part, but metaphor was never my strong point.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2010 6:03:02 GMT
I found the use of all the wooden store fronts very surprising somehow. Does that occur all over Paris, or only in certain pockets? The really old traditional store fronts were like that, with wooden panels to be removed from the windows. Then the horrible "rideau de fer" (rolling iron shutter) was invented and it was so much more convenient than manipulating panels that just about every small shop adopted it. Rue Sainte Marthe has the biggest concentration of the old panels that I have seen anywhere.
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Post by Kimby on Feb 18, 2010 6:28:16 GMT
The shops on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy, convert from closed-up boxes to stalls selling gems and jewelry. The closed-up stalls at night reminded us of treasure chests or jewelry boxes, even before we knew what was being sold there. Sorry to go off on a tangent...
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Post by bjd on Feb 18, 2010 8:08:23 GMT
Wow Kerouac, I didn't know this street at all (rue Dénoyez either, in fact). I'm surprised to see so much colour. But I think I would prefer to go see it when things are open.
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Post by bazfaz on Feb 18, 2010 9:38:09 GMT
Have you eaten at that restaurant whose menu board you have shown? Looks promising.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2010 10:12:02 GMT
No, I have never eaten at any of the restaurants there -- just about every place requires reservations with people spilling out into the street. I will try to take photos of a lively time at some time in the future when the weather is nice and when there are throngs of people (but that unfortunately makes it look much more touristy and less authentic).
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Post by bjd on Feb 18, 2010 10:23:38 GMT
"touristy"? How many foreign tourists know about this street? Or do you mean non-Parisians?
Speaking of S American restaurants, there is a neat place in rue Birague (street leading to the Place des Vosges from rue St Antoine). It's Chilean, and in the evening, you get an earful of S Americans all speaking loudly and who all seem to know each other.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2010 12:11:51 GMT
Bobo tourists from other parts of Paris! I have to admit that even on that empty evening, I was just one of at least 10 "tourists" taking photos of the street, and I live less than a kilometer from there.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 19, 2010 23:17:10 GMT
Bobo?
So the area, or at least the restaurants, is enjoying local success. I would imagine film makers might be sorry to lose what was a rich source of authentic sets.
I've just enjoyed the photos again. I'm in love with those wooden storefronts!
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 20, 2010 2:33:22 GMT
I thought it was strange that there were two South American restaurants in that street. How long is it?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2010 6:07:10 GMT
It's a pretty short street, and I think that there may even be more than two South American restaurants on it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2010 10:33:12 GMT
These are great K2. Somehow though,I have always imagined that Paris had/has many of these little tucked away gems.Perhaps,I have seen too many movies with depictions of small neighborhoods like these featured.Or is this even considered a neighborhood in the true sense of the word? Is there a residential section attached/associated with it? (The old Little Italy in NYC before it became so commercialized and trendy comes to mind,as it is such a small section,yet bustling with life in the cafes). I shudder to think that the movie people would descend on here too often....as they do here for "atmosphere". Thank you for this,I have so enjoyed it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2010 11:34:19 GMT
Film crews crawl over all of this part of Paris (including my neighborhood), but these streets are never used as romantic locations -- they are either dressed as a totally impoverished neighborhood some time in the 20th century -- any time between, say, 1930 and 1960 -- or else as a crime scene.
People still live in all of these buildings; I should probably walk into some of them with my camera, because the courtyards really do look like 1930.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2010 21:12:55 GMT
I passed through rue Sainte Marthe again today while waiting to see a strange Catalonian movie and saw a few things differently. Here is La Sardine when it is open (in winter). A few other places were open as well. Some places await renovation. I walked into one of the buildings and got thrown out by an irate Arab woman. "This is private property! You shouldn't be here!" I said "I'm sorry" and left quickly. Oh well, you have to take a few risks from time to time.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 20, 2010 21:14:21 GMT
I've enjoyed this read. The street doesn't look very 'poor' to me. I particularly like the painting advertising the restaurant Tierra del Fuego'...
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 20, 2010 23:53:30 GMT
This latest group of pictures really gives even more of an idea of the character of the street. I love that there are plain old businesses there like the unfancy wine shop, the plain old ironmonger, and the (religious?) low key bookstore.
I don't know what it is, but every time I look at this thread, I feel strongly that I've actually been on this street. (which is impossible)
Any idea what that pipe next to the banister is for?
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Post by fumobici on Feb 21, 2010 4:51:44 GMT
Lovely little photo essay. Certainly more interesting than the more conventionally touristy parts of Paris. Frankly those can get boring pretty quickly but the more authentic areas like this I almost never seem to tire of.
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Post by bjd on Feb 21, 2010 7:30:03 GMT
Bixa, bobo in French, particularly in Paris, is short for bourgeois-bohémien.
I think the pipe next to the staircase is a support for the ceiling, if I'm not wrong, since I can't see it all. You can see that there is a series of holes, so you can adjust the height according to what you are trying to hold up.
When Chirac was mayor of Paris, there was a major effort at renovation and clean-up, as well as getting rid of buildings that were in terrible condition. There were several effects -- one was that a lot of insalubrious housing disappeared (even though it may have been picturesque on the outside to photographers!), the other is that poor people pretty much got pushed out of the housing market and had to go live further and further away from the centre.
Places like that shown in the photograph of the stairs is probably still cheap (for Paris), but I imagine that in a few more years it will have been renovated and prices will increase accordingly.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2010 11:57:12 GMT
Yes, that is definitely a temporary support column to keep the whole place from collapsing. The front building on the street was being renovated, which is why the door was accessible -- it had actually been removed during the works. In the back there was an extraordinary courtyard that was actually an alley branching out on both sides to about six other buildings. It would have been worth its own photo report if I hadn't been run off the premises.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2010 18:16:02 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2010 18:19:54 GMT
This Arab woman was not veiled. She was actually very French in her reaction of "This is private property; you shouldn't be here!"
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Post by lagatta on Feb 21, 2010 21:41:36 GMT
Yes that is extremely French. And an awful lot of people of Arab origins (which in France means mostly North African, and some Lebanese and other Levantines) are utterly French; I'm thinking of some friends and associates. I am sorry K couldn't take those photos though.
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Post by fumobici on Feb 21, 2010 22:34:25 GMT
Are the French like Americans where all trespassing is essentially illegal by default or like Italy or the UK where- at least out of the cities- one can cross private property close to wherever and whenever one pleases?
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 22, 2010 3:00:32 GMT
Depends where you are I think.
I once went for a week long drive to Normandie and slept in a sleeping bag in the countryside. I never got bothered and in fact twice got invited in for a breakfast coffee and croissant.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2010 5:54:07 GMT
Are the French like Americans where all trespassing is essentially illegal by default or like Italy or the UK where- at least out of the cities- one can cross private property close to wherever and whenever one pleases? Out in the country, there is a right of passage across the edges of fields and such -- not right through the middle of the crops. This is indispensable in countries where hunting is a major activity.
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