France: Paris: Les rues de Paris

Here's a selection of photos I took of (mostly) random buildings, that I thought were particularly beautiful or typically Parisian.  There are a few special ones, like Moulin Rouge or the tranquil Place des Vosges. 

The Moulin Rouge theatre, in the artsy Montmartre area. 

A bateau mouche, or tourist sightseeing boat, on the Seine.  As the river effectively bisects the center of Paris, you could see a lot of the major sights from the boats, I'd imagine.

Place de la Bastille.  This column marks the site where the French Revolution started in 1789, when the Bastille prison was stormed by an angry mob.  There's nothing left of the infamous prison, which was dismantled brick by brick by the angry townsfolk.  The Colonne de Juillet (July Column) was erected to honour the victims another revolution, in July 1830.  

Place des Vosges is considered one of the most beautiful squares in the world, and for good reason.  Even in dreary November, it is a tranquil island insulated from the bustle of the city by the perfectly symmetrical square of townhouses that surround the small park.  Victor Hugo (author or Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) lived here for much of his life, and the square has borne witness to many important events over the years, including a tournament in celebration of the marriage of Louis XIII in 1615.  Today it's arcades are home to antique shops and quiet cafés.  I can truly recommend it as a nice place to go for an hour, for a break from the noise and the crowds of the main tourist haunts.

Gate onto Place des Vosges from Rue de Birague.

Elegant townhouses in Place des Vosges.

"Creating is remembering"

The Marais area of the twenty-first century is a paradox of sorts: an up-and-coming fashion district, while at the same time the centre of Paris' Orthodox Jewish community.  It's come a long way from it's marshland origins (marais means "swamp"), and today you can find many fine 17th century houses and boutiques of emerging designers.  I had the most delicious cheese-and-apricot pastry on Rue des Rosiers, which is lined with kosher restaurants and family-run bakeries.  

 

 

Many of Paris' wide boulevards were created in a large re-design of the city a few centuries ago, that saw the replacement of the unsanitary, narrow medieval streets with much wider ones.  Here's a taste of Parisian architecture from the more recent period:

 There are lots of French flags in Paris, or "le tricouleur", as it's called.  Very patriotic!

 

Lots of these on public buildings (which there are a lot of in central Paris).

City Hall (l'Hôtel de Ville), for example.  You can see the bunches of Tricouleurs under the windows.  There are carousels like this everywhere in France.

The ubiquitous Metro sign.  You can get pretty much anywhere in Paris on the metro, even as far as Versailles (on the regional Île-de-France train system, but you can buy one ticket that's valid for both). 

This picture I took on the train on the way to Paris (1h50 minutes from Lyon by TGV).  Lots of beautiful farmland and rolling hills in central France.