C
Christopher DeWolf
Guest
you last heard from me in june, when i was about to leave with my girlfriend, the indominatable mlle. laine, for europe. six weeks, seven destinations, eleven plane rides: we're back. it wasn't quite a whirlwind tour, since we had about a week to soak up each place, except for lisbon.
i am preparing ten threads that i will post in august and september. this is the second.
KILGORE IN EUROPE :: Photo Schedule
01 -- LONDON (Part One)
02 -- PARIS (Part One)
03 -- ROME
04 -- MADRID (Part One)
05 -- PARIS (Part Two)
06 -- LISBON
07 -- MADRID (Part Two)
09 -- PARIS (Part Three)
10 -- LONDON (Part Two
the photos in this series were taken by myself, except for those taken by mlle. laine, which are noted.
PARIS
part one
what to say about paris? after all, it's paris. few cities are seen by outsiders in such clear and unambiguous terms. paris is the city of light, the city of romance. recently its image in the north american media has been redrawn as a white, wealthy city surrounded by poor, unstable immigrant suburbs. in some small way, each stereotype is true -- but only to an extent. paris is complex. as a city, it is 28 square miles of the world's most seamlessly dense urban fabric. beyond its walls (or rather, the périphérique highway, which serves as a visual and psychological reminder that there is indeed a division between paris and its suburbs) sprawls an enormous metropolitan area that is even harder to pin down than paris itself.
despite its compactness and relative architectural homogeneity, paris manages to feel completely different depending on the neighbourhood in which you find yourself. the marais cannot be mistaken for chinatown, which in term is totally different than its sister chinese neighbourhood in belleville. the riotous, african goutte d'or is nothing at all like its bourgeois neighbour montmartre. in paris, three blocks can span continents. outsiders might hold a romantic amélie poulain vision of paris; more well-informed people might hold the popular black-beur-blanc notion of the city. but the reality is so much more complicated than that, and not just in terms of culture or ethnicity.
of all the cities we visited on this trip, only madrid was more enjoyable than paris. the culture of the flâneur is alive and well in paris. on hot summer evenings, cafes are full, people stroll in the streets and sit in squares and the banks of the seine fill up with colonies of picknickers, couples and bottles of wine. yes, this happens in many large cities -- but nowhere have i felt that people use and appreciate their city as well as in paris.
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7 - photo by laine tam
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26 - photo by laine tam
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46 - photo by laine tam
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72 - photo by laine tam
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i am preparing ten threads that i will post in august and september. this is the second.
KILGORE IN EUROPE :: Photo Schedule
01 -- LONDON (Part One)
02 -- PARIS (Part One)
03 -- ROME
04 -- MADRID (Part One)
05 -- PARIS (Part Two)
06 -- LISBON
07 -- MADRID (Part Two)
09 -- PARIS (Part Three)
10 -- LONDON (Part Two
the photos in this series were taken by myself, except for those taken by mlle. laine, which are noted.
PARIS
part one
what to say about paris? after all, it's paris. few cities are seen by outsiders in such clear and unambiguous terms. paris is the city of light, the city of romance. recently its image in the north american media has been redrawn as a white, wealthy city surrounded by poor, unstable immigrant suburbs. in some small way, each stereotype is true -- but only to an extent. paris is complex. as a city, it is 28 square miles of the world's most seamlessly dense urban fabric. beyond its walls (or rather, the périphérique highway, which serves as a visual and psychological reminder that there is indeed a division between paris and its suburbs) sprawls an enormous metropolitan area that is even harder to pin down than paris itself.
despite its compactness and relative architectural homogeneity, paris manages to feel completely different depending on the neighbourhood in which you find yourself. the marais cannot be mistaken for chinatown, which in term is totally different than its sister chinese neighbourhood in belleville. the riotous, african goutte d'or is nothing at all like its bourgeois neighbour montmartre. in paris, three blocks can span continents. outsiders might hold a romantic amélie poulain vision of paris; more well-informed people might hold the popular black-beur-blanc notion of the city. but the reality is so much more complicated than that, and not just in terms of culture or ethnicity.
of all the cities we visited on this trip, only madrid was more enjoyable than paris. the culture of the flâneur is alive and well in paris. on hot summer evenings, cafes are full, people stroll in the streets and sit in squares and the banks of the seine fill up with colonies of picknickers, couples and bottles of wine. yes, this happens in many large cities -- but nowhere have i felt that people use and appreciate their city as well as in paris.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7 - photo by laine tam
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9
10
11
12
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14
15
16
17
18
19
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21
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24
25
26 - photo by laine tam
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45
46 - photo by laine tam
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48 - photo by laine tam
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72 - photo by laine tam
73 - photo by laine tam
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