Paris in the Spring (9)

“Wanderings with a Flâneur”

Paris, France. May-June 2018 (19 photos)

This is Part 10 of my France 2018 photo series, and also Part 27, the final part, of my Europe 2018 photo series.

If you’re wondering, the number of posts from each country I visited is a general indicator of the amount of time I spent in each country relative to the others. To that end, I should do one more post about Prague but time has gotten away from me for now. Let’s finish with a few more random sights from my wanders in Paris in the Spring.

Flâneur, from the french noun, means “stroller”, “lounger”, or “saunterer” and refers to the act of wandering with no purpose. The flâneur was, first of all, a literary type from 19th-century France, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. The word carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street. It was Walter Benjamin who made this figure the object of scholarly interest in the 20th century, as an emblematic archetype of urban, modern experience.

“Rolling, rolling, rolling…”

Or more accurately, panning, panning, panning.

“Trainspotting”

I took this one from the open air rooftop of Tour Montparnasse. The train tracks lead into Gare Montparnasse, the station I used to get to the Loire Valley.

“Life in a Parisian park”

“At the Trocadéro”

“Cafe de Flore”

One of Paris’ oldest coffeehouses that opened in the 1880’s and has since featured in movies and songs. In the early 2000s they produced their own CD. I still have that.

“The heart of the city”

Kind of appropriate for Medical School Street.

“Sail away with me”

In the Luxembourg Garden. Now this is old fashioned. For your money you get a wooden sailboat and a stick (to push the sailboat along). No motor. No remote control.

“To the memory of the 112 inhabitants of this house including 40 small children who were deported and died in German camps in 1942”

Memorials like this can be found all across Paris. My B&B host told me there used to be a book detailing the history of every building in Paris, including details such as these from the wars.

“Someone to watch over me”

“Above Paris”

From the Arc de Triomphe.

“Versailles”

Although the Palace of Versailles and its precinct are not in Paris, it is commonly thought of when visiting Paris. It is the most popular day trip for tourists to take out of Paris.

“Be our guest”

Wandering Montmartre before the tourist hordes arrive.

“Liberté, égalité, fraternité”

“The twilight zone”

“Nightfall on the Seine”

“Tour Eiffel. Encore une fois”

“The city of light”

This ends my Europe 2018 photo series, although I may return sporadically to this series with additional photos at a later date. I do seem to have a lot more photos I could post.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I’ll start with a new series of photos next month.

However, I actually need to take those photos first. And to do that, I will be flying back to the Northern Hemisphere next week. So no posts from me for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I’ll have at least a few interesting photos to show you when I return.

“Paris est toujours Paris”

And fortunately so. And if you’re wondering, no, I didn’t wear a beret at all during my time in Paris.

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This is Part 10 of my France 2018 photo series. This is Part 27 of my Europe 2018 photo series, including Czechia (The Czech Republic), The Netherlands, France, Italy, Austria, Greece and Germany.