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Post by htmb on Jun 28, 2016 13:15:50 GMT
Wandering under the new Les Halles canopy. Saint-Eustache I had vague thoughts of visiting the Alfred Kahn gardens today, but decided to just let the day unfold. While I was waiting at the bus stop a drunk, disgruntled, homeless-looking guy threw a large, partly full, can of something, hitting me in the lower legs. He walked off for a minute, returned, picked up the can, then forcefully tossed the it into the open doors of the store behind the bus stop before stomping off, just in time to avoid the two store employees who charged out after him. I boarded the #72 bus, which moved very slowly due to heavy traffic on rue de Rivoli. On the bus I had a seat with a family of five from Iceland. They were headed to the Eiffel Tower, which turned out to be closed because workers had joined the strike against labor reform and there wasn't enough staff on hand to open the tower to visitors. The bus wasn't too crowded until a guide got on leading a group of 30 English speaking people. So, now packed, the bus slogged it's way towards the Eiffel Tower. The very gracious driver had to hold steady at one of the stops when the woman first told her group to get off the bus, and then quickly changed her mind. By then about a third of the group was moving away from the bus. Meanwhile, I snapped a few photos.
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Post by htmb on Jun 28, 2016 13:54:17 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 28, 2016 14:16:07 GMT
Here's the Musée de Sèvres. Perhaps I'll have a report to make sometime this summer. Since I was just on a logistics mission, I had no plans to go inside. Instead I looked for the T2 tram line that was supposed to go right in front of the museum. And it does, but apparently the line in the direction I needed was out of service for this section of the track. Reading the signs, I finally figured out that I'd need to take a bus to the next tram stop. After waiting for several minutes, a "navette" finally showed up to pick up the gathering crowd and we were taken to what I think was the Gare de Saint-Cloud. I was thankful I'd been shown how to use the tram in past years, so getting to La Defénse by seemed easy enough once I got through the "construction zone." To give a little perspective, there's the Eiffel Tower off to the east. At La Défense I switched to métro line 1 and made a quick trip back into Paris. Now I know I won't be taking the T2 tram line when we go to the museum in a few weeks!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2016 15:47:16 GMT
Well, the closed section of the T2 tram reopens on July 16th.
Not being a tourist, I particularly like to see photos of the suburbs, because different things capture one's eye when you go where there are few or no "monuments" to see. However, I am quite familiar with Sèvres anyway because I have a friend who was assistant principal of the Lycée de Sèvres for 3 years so I drove across the Pont de Sèvres regularly. It is an insanely complicated suburb as far as I am concerned because it has steep hills and you often have to go up or down narrow alleys of stairs to get from one area to another. I nearly always rented a car to visit the Lycée because for some reason they built it on the very top of the hill, perhaps so that the students would stay muscular and healthy.
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Post by tod2 on Jun 28, 2016 16:03:56 GMT
Thanks for the photos which envoke memories of my visit some three years ago now? Not sure how long. I loved that T2 ride from La Defense all the way to Porte de Versailles and the connection with the T3. I'm sure you will love your visit. Do go through to the section that is selling Sevres cups and saucers - the prices are definitely mind blowing.
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Post by fumobici on Jun 28, 2016 21:02:13 GMT
Nice additions to this. Let's see, lovely little tour of that nice area South of the river between Luxembourg and Pantheon, glad you got a nice guided visit to the wonderful Richard-Lenoir Sunday market, it's one of the best for buying food, Les Halles appears to be coming along although it still looks like a construction zone in the St. Eustache photo, La Tour et environs look to have been in a strange bluish cloud, and Sèvres makes an appearance too!
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Post by tod2 on Jun 29, 2016 12:43:04 GMT
Looking through your photos once again I am intrigued by so many scenes. I especially love the one of the little boy pushing his boat out in the Luxembourg gardens! Lots and lots of other scenes - I notice you captured the fabulous ice-cream place on Rue de Seine called Grom. I don't know if I really like the new look of Les Halles canopy... Keep them coming - I am enjoying them so much.
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Post by htmb on Jun 29, 2016 13:10:44 GMT
Thank you very much! Fumobici, you probably realize the "strange, bluish cloud" in the Eiffel Tower photos is the tint of the bus window glass. I've been trying to ride the bus more, but have also caught the métro many different times. I'm obviously doing lots of walking, too. Today I took two different walking excursions. One was for running errands, and the other was to see areas both old and new to me. Between the two, I've walked eight miles. The weather is very nice, and it was great to be outside in the sunshine and light breeze.
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Post by mossie on Jun 29, 2016 15:28:55 GMT
Please don't remind me of the walking, i am struggling at present. And I went mad yesterday and booked up another visit.
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Post by tod2 on Jun 29, 2016 16:57:52 GMT
I love you when you're mad Mossie! Please come in early September.
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Post by htmb on Jun 29, 2016 19:00:17 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 13:45:38 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 30, 2016 14:02:03 GMT
Sorry about my patchy comments. I'm not keeping up very well with anything. I do love the pictures of the neighborhood with the pastel facades -- the cat picture is wonderful! Also, there is something about that building portrait just after the park photos that I love.
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 14:48:34 GMT
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 15:46:48 GMT
I like the Musée Marmottan Monet because it's small, but contains a nice permanent collection by artists such as Pissarro, Sisley, Renoir, Morisot, and, obviously, Monet. They typically host a special exhibit, though this one, with the exception of a few paintings, wasn't all that exciting to me. I had forgotten photos weren't allowed in the museum, but snapped this Chagall before I realized I'd need to put the camera away. The museum has recently been renovated and the large-sized Monets are on display on the lowest level of the museum. It's a much more appropriate space and viewers have lots of room to take in the lovely works. I probably could have spent more time, but ended up leaving the museum after an hour because I wanted to explore some of the landscape a bit more. The last time I was here I walked to the Eiffel Tower rather than taking the Métro. It was a nice walk, but not as close as you might think.
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 16:34:47 GMT
If some of what comes next looks a bit familiar, Kerouac reported on the area in his petite-ceinture thread HERE.
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 16:47:28 GMT
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Post by mossie on Jun 30, 2016 18:41:46 GMT
I love the little cat graffiti, but your real life moggie looks startled. Don't see any gardeners beavering away.
My next little trip is going to be 15-19 Sept, if I feel as I do no most of it will be spent collapsed in cafes or on park benches, but I will survive.
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Post by mossie on Jun 30, 2016 18:49:23 GMT
As a PS to the above, I will have spent the previous Sunday at the big autumn air display at Duxford. Taking a part in the launch of a book called Meteor Boys, as I had spent some 4 years screaming in the back of various models, the author interviewed me and I gave him some of my photos. I shall be curios to see what, if anything, he includes. I have had photos and quotes published in two or three books on the Mosquito in the past. Difficult to believe I really did those things some 60 years ago.
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Post by onlyMark on Jun 30, 2016 19:04:45 GMT
Difficult to believe I really did those things some 60 years ago. You were quite accomplished at the age of six then.
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 19:47:28 GMT
Wonderful, Mossie!
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Post by htmb on Jun 30, 2016 19:48:42 GMT
I left the gardeners out of the pictures, trying to give them a respectful distance.
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Post by htmb on Jul 1, 2016 17:55:53 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2016 18:03:31 GMT
Spectacular!
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Post by htmb on Jul 1, 2016 18:04:23 GMT
Thank you. I am very pleased.
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Post by fumobici on Jul 1, 2016 22:55:21 GMT
Excellent set of close up nature photos!
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Post by tod2 on Jul 3, 2016 8:31:28 GMT
Just fantastic Htmb! I love the frog looking at you! I'm so glad to hear the musee Marmottan has had a shift around with it's Monet paintings. We did not spend long there and were horrified at the ticket price of 8euros each. Yesterday I was looking around Paris on my computer and had made a note of that restaurant La Gare in the old train station. I think I'll try and take my husband there for lunch in the outdoor area.
Did you notice that the white and grey kitty has the beautiful green turquoise eyes matching the paintwork? Lovely photo. Like all of them!
I was intrigued by your photograph of a statue of a man (hair looking like King Louis XIV). I googled it and found that it is a statue of Jean de la Fontaine, who wrote the French Masterpieces 'The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine'. Two hundred and thirty nine fables in 12 books. The statue is Fontaine looking down on "The Fox and The Crow" or more correctly Le Corbeau et le Renard. In the fable a crow has found a piece of cheese and retired to a branch to eat it. A fox, wanting it for himself, flatters the crow, calling it beautiful and wondering whether its voice is as sweet to match. When it lets out a caw, the cheese falls and is devoured by the fox. It was sculptured in bronze by the Portugese Charles Correia (1930-1988)in Mapelli Italy.
Across the road I spotted the Marionnettes de Ranelagh - another fun place for young children happy to watch and laugh at the antics of a 'Punch 'n Judy' show.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2016 12:44:31 GMT
I find the frog closeup even more spectacular because of all of the details of the water plants around it, which would have been worthy of a photo even without the frog.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 3, 2016 13:00:32 GMT
Htmb - That beautiful Bumble Bee you captured on the 'Pink' flowers may not be solely Parisian! It may be a little confused thinking it is in the Godeanu Forest, Romania !! I wish I could identify it properly. I was very taken with the magnificent blue wings.
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Post by bjd on Jul 3, 2016 14:24:10 GMT
Just got back home this afternoon and am having a look at this thread. Too many lovely photos to comment on, but I'm pleased that the weather improved enough for you to walk around so much.
Looking at many of your photos makes me want to go to Paris again, even though I don't actually feel like going in general.
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