PARIS 2e

It*s almost time to start the voyage! In one day, as early in the early morning hours as it could be bossible, the adventure starts. No sleep, then a car ride to the airport at 4AM, a plane to Heathrow at 7AM, a limousine transfert to Southampton and departure of the Queen Mary II in the late afternoon, for a total of 5 days at sea, crossing the Atlantic and heading towards New York next Sunday.

the british master of form and volume

Finally I got myself a Flickr Pro account so that I could start putting my pics into a secure place, and I wouldn*t need to worry on filling up my blog*s memory space with tons of pictures.
So now I will have unlimited space for a lot more pics than I would have posted before.
Also, since the big adventure (see here for details) is coming up soon, I will really make good usage of this tool. And YOU, dear reader, will be able to discover more pictures in the upcoming weeks, and almost feel like you*re in my travelbag.

I almost forgot I took this picture some time ago without posting it here...

After all the Seagram Building isn*t that bad.
But I*ll see that myself in 2 weeks.

Who*s Jonathan Monk?
Who*s Ed Ruscha and his Crackers?

Enough be-arted for today?

Palais de Tokyo
Paris 16e

Anne-Laure
Champs Elysées

When the Jewish community got expelled from Paris around 1400 AD, they settled down in the Marais area ("Swamps"), which was at that time just outside the city boundaries.
The community came along way and established a great variety of shops in the streets of the "Pletzl", especially in Rue des Rosiers, where traditional butchers, jewish bakeries, falafel restaurants, sweetshops and other small businesses established themselves next to synagogues built by Hector Guimard and art deco facaded public baths.

But as time has it, values change to profit and your favorite "shop around the corner" has to turn into a high-end fashion boutique, to the great pity of the local residents and also to myself.
I just love that street and the somewhat vintage authenticity it reflects. The handful of surviving jewish shops have still a curiosity flair, and little old grey haired ladies sit behind a glass-topped counter with a massive old cash register, watching you closely behind their thick-framed huge glasses as you browse for the unknown.

I*ve witnessed the narrow medieval streets turn from a car drenched funnel into a semi-pedestrian area, which of course added to the climbing of the market value of the shops, and therefor to their closing and switching from your favorite bagelstore into a fashion boutique for anorexic girls.

A public bath house turned into a cappellini design furniture store, which of course I loved, because it was something quite exclusive. But the now closed design store might soon turn into an H&M store, which to my opinion doesn*t even fit into the current identity of this neighborhood, still in the search of finding itself a new identity, but keeping parts of its roots upright.

There is a lovely little falafel place (Chez Hanna) where I usually can be found on a saturday evening, dining with Delphine, munching the town*s best falafels with orgasmic delight. The street counts a big amount of other such places, but some of them might already have closed down. How long will it take for my favorite bakery and delikatessen store, Florence Finkelsztajn, to get turned into a mid-range fashion store? I swear their bagels are what gets you closest to heaven in taste, and their vatrouchka cheese cakes are absolutely worth any possible detour.

A protest group regularly stages demonstrations to save the street*s soul from the gentrification that is turning the community of Jewish shops into a touristlike environment.

The problems started when Paris's most famous Jewish restaurant and delicatessen, Jo Goldenberg*s, shut down. Until the late 1990*s it attracted government ministers, film stars and celebrities dining on caviar, herrings, goulash or its famous chopped liver. Goldenberg*s was symbolic of a neighbourhood where thousands of eastern European Jews arrived from the late 19th century, and which was the focus of Nazi round-ups during the occupation of Paris in the second world war. More than half of the local Jewish community would die in concentration camps.

Inside the Finkelsztajn Bakery

Goldenberg*s at it*s better days...

...and what it looks like today.

I swear this sign on Korcarz*s delikatesssen store reads "sushi bar"! What*s happening here?

...AKA as Pont Alexandre III, was built between 1896 and 1900. It was named after Tsar Alexander III who had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892. It was Alexander*s son Nicholas II who laid the foundation stone, and the bridge got finished on time for the Paris World*s Fair in 1900.
It is indeed one of the city*s wackiest bridges, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs (you know, those fat ugly children), nymphs and winged horses at either end and a whole menagerie of creepy sea-animals scaring you regularly when you pass it at night.
And the tourists love it. Possibly because of its kitschy colors and the hopelessly baroque-romanticism that surrounds its aura. Possibly also because it is one of the few bridges that looks different from the general pool of parisian bridges (stones and arches...).

The wonderfully kitschy lamposts. Note the oddly shaped little lightbulbs shaped like condoms.



The founding plate of the bridge.

Ok, this I found was quite interesting: since the bridge deals with water, the iconography of it is filled with representations of water-related objects and icons, such as shells and seacreatures, but you may also note that the very stone the bridge*s sides are made of, contains an impressive number of integrated shells in itself if you take a closer look.

The only sad thing is that this stonework is quite porous and the weather and the air pollution over the last century didn*t quite treat it as well as it should have, so the stones are starting to crumble, which also adds to the bridge*s romantic charms.

The stone is almost disintegrating in front of your eyes.



The fact that so many tourists lay hand on the stone adds also to the shinyness of its surface, and brings out the shells very well. Wonderful maritine aspects on the whole stonework, which is only present on the four cornersides of the bridge, since the rest of its structure is a metallic one.



Look at the impressive and sometimes grueling array of sea creatures present on the bronze sculptures, such as these fish, ready to bite your ass off.

Or these slimy frogs just underneath one fat putto*s legs...

My favorite one is this creepy crab... you know why?

Because some idiot put a lock on his legs. Excellent! Love the crabs! Let*s see if you can spot my friend crabby and its magic lock next time you make your way across Alexandre III...

We love to play among those steel sheets







The steel texture is a perfect background to pose for nonsensical photos







A look at the other parts of the Grand Palais and it*s beautiful cast iron monumental staircase, seen here from the other side

The now blocked gateway to the Palais de la Découverte

I love those archways





Waving to the masses



Picturing the tourists

Tourist

wannabe tourist