Bird enjoying the summer breeze and the view of Notre Dame…

One morning
Waking up… opening up the curtains… and being struck by colours.

Proche du Pont Neuf, le 13 Janvier 2009.

Frozen Canal

May your end of the year festivities shine in your memories Joy and happiness!

Who is a woman who can be every woman?
Only Nathalie Tetrel - …La Petite Ciguë…

I have a new roomate at home
He’s green and sings a lot
When I’m not around he walks around
When I’m there he’s more discrete
But then I go to bed and I hear him sing
Once I opened a box and he jumped in it
But I didn’t have the heart to throw him out the window
If he likes it here
He might as well stay
There is space enough for us both here.

I saw them first, then I got close, sat there… and started to get into the music, into the passion.

I was in a perfect spot that evening - on the banks of the river Seine, just next to the Eiffel Tower, just in front of this marvelous display of fireworks… the sky lighting and banging in a rainbow of colours from red to blue and ending in gold…

For a moment I shot and shot and loved every single ones of my images. Then I stopped, I just sat there, and let the magic hit me, let the immensity of the sky swallow me whole and the sounds fill my head.

Just to be there, sharing in with the rest of the crowd, just be there, all alone.

Models: Philippe and Nathalie… Always hard to keep the camera steady with these two

Model: Christophe

Night has come, the lights are on…

… zooming in on the lights …

Rainbow during the day

Déception
Désillusion
Avec le café du matin
Au lieu du p’tit sucre habituel

Déception
Désillusion
Comme s’il n’était pas assez amer
Comme si le monde n’était pas assez sévère

Tout ce que je voulais était d’y croire un peu

Il n’y a rien de plus beau dans la vie
Que les liens qui se tissent entre les êtres
Un départ, une absence, même la mort
Cela ne les efface pas
Lorsque des amis chers se retrouvent
Les yeux se reconnaissent
Les âmes s’emplissent de joie
Les mots coulent des lèvres
Les liens qui existent entre les êtres
C’est notre plus beau cadeau

(Thanks to my model, Damien)

This is what I am seeing right now from my window… I love living on the 6th floor. Who cares if there is no elevator

Showing the beauty of the world to a child.

View of Notre Dame from the Seine River.

What it is like living in Paris, everyday.

One last look at my “home town” before I fly back to my cruise ship tomorrow! Bye bye Paris…

After taking a long blog holiday, due to several reasons (mostly wanting to get away from the computer for a while) here is one little image that symbolises, for me, what we all love in our family. A most genuine of smile while the little girl runs towards her dad, full speed, fully trusting that he will hold her safely.

The operation “Paris Plage” this year is attractive especially because of its water spraying in some areas! With the heat wave it is quite a relief.

But other people prefer just any fontain in order to freshen up. Here kids are playing in the Hotel de Ville fountain…

And to finish, the lovely colors of the sunset. These will be the last pictures of Paris I will be posting for quite a while, I hope you enjoy them!

The countryside outside of Paris: small, beautiful, quiet towns with rivers and trees… it felt wonderful to be out of the big city.

What I like about this image is that the contrast is making the landscape look almost black and white.

Night vision of the Seine and Notre Dame de Paris…

Contrebass player in front of the Beaubourg museum (also known as the Centre Pompidou) - it’s always something to see a music instrument bigger than its player! The drums were also quite intersting, looking like flying saucers…

Two high-school friends where getting married this Saturday, Olivier and Astrid. May the bubbles of their love never pop!

The cuttest baby girl of the evening

Yesterday was the “Fete de la Musique” - “Music Day” - in Paris in every street corner and cafe here is what you could see:

In the streets by Hotel de Ville…

In a cafe bar near Republique…

Each street had a different sound and walking across them you could travel musically as well as physically…

Ducks and their reflections on the lake.

All of them what to sleep in the letter “C” of the “Parc Floral” sign… Note that the letters “F” and “O” are already occupied!

Looking through the archades at the side of the castle…

The old Vincennes Castle, on a cloudless sky.

Yesterday evening I went to see what is probably the best modern dance show that I have ever seen. It was “Rough Cut” by the famous choreographer Pina Baush. I was lucky enough to have an invitation to the general rehearsal dance - some where not as lucky as you can see on this picture! (however you’ll be happy to hear someone ended up giving him his seat)

The danse was amazing, beautiful, full of life, joy, love, and humour. To be seen absolutely!

The entrance to the famous Louvre museum.

View from the Louvre’s entrance.

My favourite little monster, on the 5th of June, at home…

Red Roses in white box.

Live Jazz music - a moment of life, movement and emotions.

An unlikely juxtaposition

Friends by the Seine, Friday night, around a pique-nique.

The view.

City greenery.

A doctor’s waiting room…

The secret of happiness can sometimes be… a very pretty pair of shoes that make you feel like you are walking on a cloud.

Tulips viewed from my 5th floor window.

Pink flowers which fell on Paris’ streets.

I am not often impressed by street art but this one could have been in a museum or a gallery: it’s more than just a tag. There’s the collage of newspapers, the strange round figures with white eyes - and the materials surrounding the piece add to it like the best of frames.

Speeding inside a tunnel…

Alongside other scooters around the Arc de Triomphe

Les quais de la Seine - always a beautiful spot along the river!

Karine is watching the sun setting near Notre Dame de Paris, from the banks of the Seine on the other side.

My cousin, Karine, author of Dessein, les quais de la Seine.
I like the way her hair is being brushed on her face - it makes her look very mysterious, very parisian.

A mother and a child having a wonderful time together on this lovely spring evening.

My two favourite photos of people on the Republique statue:

People, the statue, the sky.

Fraternité = Brotherhood.

Seing the French group “Louise Attaque” on stage was a great moment for me!

Republique crowded with people.

My Place de la Republique - on a day of protest that, I am happy to say, has not turned sour. This time the protest was against the new laws aiming at making immigration to France more difficult.

It is hard to be in France at the moment and not react on the huge movement that is taking place against the CPE - contract of first employment. To sum things up, it is a new form of contract for employers that allows them to fire their employees as they wish during the 2-year period the contract lasts (now reduced by Chirac to 1 year) - this without having to justify why. The whole country has been holding regular strikes for months to stop this from happening, the biggest of which took place last Tuesday.

As a temp worker of course, I am in a state of employment that is even more precarious than if I had been employed through a CPE contract, which makes me not all that inclined to go out in the street to protest the new law. I think the law is not a great idea, just a way for the government to make it look like they are doing something to reduce unemployment. I think the new law will do nothing good to the country, however I don’t think this is that big of a deal since it already exists, in other forms. Of course this law has just become a symbol - people are not just protesting that law but the current government and all it represents.

Though I am against this new law, I must also say I am firmly against the fact that universities have been closed over the matter for two months - stopping students who want to study to do so - that all politicians and groups are trying to use the movement to their own ends, and that once more, trains, undergrounds, and lots more are immobilized, making the whole country hostage. This is a really bad habbit of this country: Striking is not just stopping work and putting your own employer in a difficult position, it is stopping other people from working and moving and putting the whole country in a difficult position. I think that goes against the idea of a democracy. Your own freedom to strike should not stop your neighboor’s freedom to go to work.

This is another reason why these movements make me angry sometimes: the fact that some people take this opportunity to become violent, break everything, steal and hurt others. Tuesday night I got back home to Republique as late as possible as I had heard that the demonstrations had gone especially violent near my home. Indeed, when I got back, I saw that every single shop window had been broken. Needless to say many people got injured and robbed. All this simply makes the whole movement look bad and undermines their message, which is a real shame.

I hadn’t been on Place de la Nation for quite a while and I had forgotten how grateful the statue was in it, compared to the one on Place de la Republique.

Couple kissing on the steps of the Sacre Coeur.

When I came out of the church and saw this couple, I immediately thought of Robert Doisneau - one of my favourite photographers, an inspiration always. Here is to you Monsieur Doisneau!

This taxi driver was very proud to pose next to his cab near Montmartre, and show off his very parisian tie.

Montmatre - La Boheme…

This building in the middle of the very famous shopping street Rue de Rivoli was extremely strangely decorated: a huge face, signs, plastic bottles and even what looked like a monkey on a cross…

Someone drew a smiley face on this lampost by the Canal St. Martin - and the light only seems warmer now.

In a tree of a little street corner in Paris, a sculpure of a tiny woman is balancing in the night…

A quiet, sunny Sunday afternoon in front of the Hotel de Ville.

A lovely tiny little bird in the park next to the townhouse of the 3rd district of Paris. Today was a lovely day, it felt like spring was finally coming…

This alleyway belongs to a closed clothes market close by to where I live. (try to say “closed clothes market close” very fast several times in a row!) Personnally I would NEVER venture inside even if I could see the coat of my dreams in there! It looks way to scary and dangerous.

I still feel like black and white…
This is very close by from where I live. A very interesting structure in the middle of Paris!

I feel like black and white lately…
I think this building is at the same time very ugly and very impressive. The elephant in a rectangle is very representative of what it is like to live in a huge city like Paris.

A lot of colours in the gray city

These people had Bolivian flags - I am unsure what they were celebrating but the music was very beautiful.

Rainy, gray day in Paris - but with lots of beautiful things to make up for it!

It looks like the castle of the fairytale… but it’s in the middle of Paris, and countains not a princess but the national archives!

Walking more or less randomly in the streets I ended up in this really nice area…

The sculpted woman seems to be the queen (la reine) refered to on the stone building!

The reason we went to La Villette was in fact to see this salon of organic and natural products… here are some of the delicious things we got to see and taste

Nat & Flo at the salon…

There is this huge “map” of Paris made from satelite photographs on the floor of La Cite des Sciences at La Villette - a huge science and discovery museum just outside of Paris’ walls. It is quite something to be looking at just how huge this city really is… and to recognize all the places you know all the way from the sky! For instance on this photo the green parc is “Les Buttes Chaumonts” which I have taken several pictures of…

That was something to be right next to one of these! The noise, the dust everywhere… it felt like war was upon us!

The procession… not always appreciative of all the people lighting firecrackers after firecrackers as it went by!

And here comes, out of the cloud of dust, the very expected dragon… Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

Lots of pigeons trying to cope with the cold, and a lady at her window.

This little alleyway is a shortcut from my street to the Place de Republique, and I take it every morning to get to the underground. It countains various shops such as a shoe-repair and key maker, a chinese restaurant, a cafe, an estate agency, a school for languages… and it is open during the week and on Saturdays until about 8pm. The rest of the time I need to take the long way around to get home!

My very own Place de la Republique (well it feels like this now that I live here!)

As you can see from people’s dress - it is horribly cold these days… in fact I am ill! Hopefully I’ll be better after the week-end…

Sorry for not posting any photos in the last two weeks. I’m going to try and make up for it now that I have internet access at home!

Last week: A very peaceful walk by this canal in the evening. The Seine is much further from where I live!

View from my kitchen window, yesterday 11: 36 AM.
Yesterday was the first time I was seing my new flat during daytime! I love it, It is even nicer with daylight and I am starting to get organized.

The Arc de Triomphe by night.

Olga and little Mila are back from their holidays! I love the contrast between Mila’s face and Olga’s face

The Sacré Coeur, seen from la Place du Tertre by night.

Place du Tertre by night

Yesterday night - going up the stairs to see my favourite spot in Paris.

I am ashamed to say I don’t have any 2006 pictures yet! It’s been a bit rough starting work again right after the new year, on Monday the 2nd of January. Did not get much time to get my camera out!

But here are some photos of the end of 2005.

This is the view from my brother’s appartment, on the Friday 30th of December. We had quite some snow this day!

My brother and I went to visit a friend in the area of Montparnasse in Paris in the afternoon of Saturday, 31st of December. A lovely area with very nice cafes as you can see here…

… and some original places too!

And what did we do at my brother’s friends’ place?

An adventure game of course

Roses, stone, and snow.

This is my favourite grave, the one that belongs to the composer Chopin. The statue is so beautiful and there is always a fresh rose in its arms.

An old tomb stone.

The famous parisian cementery, Le Pere Lachaise, in which I decided to take a little walk yesterday in the quiet, cold afternoon.

The sky was just clearing when I took this picture.

“Place du Tertre” is a square full of painters selling their work or drawing your portrait for you. I think it’s the first time I came for a strol there on a snow day, but I see that they where well organized!

Though Montmatre is a very lively area, the street just behind the church of the Sacre Coeur was very quiet when I came by it. With the snow, the stone street and walls, it looks out of time’s bonds.

Though you cannot see it on the previous picture, there was a lot of snow today. Here is the view from the top of the hill on which the Sacre Coeur is built.

Here is a close up of what is probably my favorite building in Paris!

Paris also has some original gadget stores! This one is near one of the Chatelet underground exit, by “Les Halles.” I like the joke in its name.

I’ve had the best Christmas eve in many years, with an role playing adventure game on the theme of Harry Potter with my brother and a friend of his… A few dice, a map, and off you go to another world! We had a lot of fun…

The weather was really lovely yesterday, not as cold as the rest of december. I hope it’s going to stay this way during my whole week of holidays!

Translation: Beware of words.

Ice Skating in front of the “Hotel de Ville.”

Notre Dame de Noel

Lights from the cars and on the boat….

Here is the view from my office window, on the 20th floor of a huge building in the area “La Defense” in Paris, where I am working as of Monday. The sun sets very early now!

And here is a statue at the bottom of the tower I am working in - it looks surreal when you look at it with all the little office windows lit around it.

Yesterday (Sunday) I went to the Salon du vin, a great place to taste many different French wines - but it is not recommended to try ALL of them! (the picture shows the first floor, which was half as big as the second floor)

Here you can see the close up of one of the stands, where my brother bought a couple of bottles

Snow started to fall yesterday afternoon in Paris (and it was also snowing a lot in the morning!)

Going to Clichy yesterday morning (just on the outskirt of Paris) I passed by this beautiful statue in the middle of a park.

I like the bits of the Parisian metro which are overground

I love coming out of most metro stations. You see the sky as you go up the stairs, and in this case, a little piece of the opera house appearing in front of you.

Christmas illuminations in front of one of the biggest Parisian stores.

The light was hitting just one side of this square fountain…

A teddy bear and a chocolate brioche = a big smile from Mila!

This is one of the angles of the big underground shopping center “Forum des Halles” - the structure is very modern but all around it we have our old style cafés.

This is in front of the St. Lasare train station, just to make sure that people get to their trains on time….

I’m back to Paris now! The Seine is not quite the Brighton sea but it’s still nice to stroll next to it

My last day in Paris. The sun came out. At last!

I’ve never seen Paris so grey and polluted but thankfully we have the nice colours of the automn leaves to liven up things.

Two Pigeons by the fountain on La Place de L’Hotel de Ville.

This doll was in an old doll repair shop window - it looks out of a horror movie!

This is the cafe-theatre where my brother, Philippe, was doing his one-man-show until this week. Very neat little place!