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The Class Does Paris
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
On Wednesday, April 21, the next to last day of our course, the entire group, with a couple exceptions, piled into a bus and headed for downtown Paris. For several members of the group, it was a first look at the city.
We rolled out of the bus on the Avenue de l'Opera (1) and I herded the group into a semblance of order for this shot, some protesting that they wouldn't stand for too much of this posing thing (actually, it was just Steve, as I recall).
We decided we'd hit two main spots: the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. But along the way, we passed through the grounds of the Musee du Louvre (2), perhaps Paris' most famous museum.
As the group strode through the grounds, I dashed ahead so I could get this low-level shot, prompting a bunch of grins, and the question they kept asking all day, as my shutter snapped constantly: "Are you going to take a picture of everything in Paris?" All day, these guys gave me grief.
The Louvre's striking main entry point is under this pyramid, designed by architect I.M. Pei. Talk about a contrast between old world and new!
Our stroll took us through the Jardin des Tulieries to the Place de la Concorde (3), which was anything but a place of concord back in the French revolution. It was the location where many people lost their heads, literally, courtesy of the guillotine. Now, and obelisk stands in the square and traffic swirls around it.
Now we entered the Champs Elysees, one of the world's most famous avenues, with our first target, the Arc de Triomphe, in sight. As you can see, not every pedestrian subscribes to the concept of using the zebra crossing.
After all that walking (it wasn't a mere hundred yards, I can assure you) we decided to take a breather on the Champs Elysees, so we stopped at a local establishment, where I inquired as to what available to quench a six foot four inch thirst. Gabriele, Tino and Steve listened with interest. I didn't get an answer I cared for, so I eventually just broke out the bottle of water in my back pack and inhaled that.
While the waiter went off to fetch libations for everyone, it was camera time. It was really funny watching people take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other. Steve even tried to coordinate it with a countdown (or up, I can't remember). The shooters were yours truly, Tino, Steve and Darwin.
On the opposite side, Ewa had sheathed her camera, but Angel was snapping away. The guy in the extreme right seemed to be enjoying our antics. Hmmm... Maybe we could turn it into a stage act???
Meanwhile, the libations had arrived, and while Lucas, Olga, Jean-Pierre, Ewa and Angel snorfled down their favorite beverage, I was soaking up history courtesy of info from Jean-Pierre, and drinking Evian.
Cosmin, Lucas and Olga shared some light moments. By the way, the green bottle is actually aluminum, FYI.
Finally, we resumed our trek, and I took my life in my hands to grab this image of the Arc from the avenue. Not really. The cars wee stopped for pedestrians, but it sure sounded more exciting the other way, didn't it?
As you can see, we were far from alone in our journey to the Arc.
Finally, we were there, at the Arc de Triomphe.
Davide is pointing out...
And then came the decision. To climb it or not to climb? A word of advice for you when you visit Paris: bring comfortable shoes for the ascent of the Arc, which requires you to climb a circular staircase with something between 200 and 300 steps. Your thighs will ache, and you'll probably stop a few times on the way up. At least that's what I did. Maybe you have a stair-climber exercise machine. If you do, you might handle this well.
At the top, on the inside, there's a small museum, including this declaration that the monument is in honor of the armies of France.
A few more steps took us up to the roof, where a vista of all Paris greeted us. This shot looks back down the Champs Elysees that we'd just traversed.
Lucas got in a carefully-framed shot, while Cosmin looked a little doubtful as to the outcome. What did he shoot? I dunno.
Back at ground level, we witnessed a ceremony that has been repeated every day for decades at the Arc: honoring France's war dead at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
An eternal flame burns at the site, and fresh flowers adorn the unknown soldier's resting place every day.
This lady was a veteran who regaled us with stories of the exploits of her unit during the war. Olga, Davide and Steve seemed to particularly enjoy her tales, which Jean-Pierre (just out of sight to the right in this shot) translated for us.
On we went, down the Avenue Kleber, and as we walked we noticed that we were salivating, the way people do when they smell good food. We soon discovered why; we were passing a Ferrari dealership, and all the guys halted with mouths agape.
Gabriele immortalized this red convertible with his digital, so he can replay the image at his leisure.
Finally, we got to the Trocadero, where we decided to have dinner before hitting the tower. A shower of rain forced the party inside. The mirror here in Darwin Leung's carefully crafted shot reveals half the group...
...while the other half (except for Darwin himself) show up here. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food ( I had a large salad of vegetables and fruit) and there were smiles all around. But they were out of crepes, and for this, along with some other customer service issues that I won't go into here, they didn't get my vote for the best cafe in Paris. Let's just leave it at that.
Now it was Eiffel time, and we posed for photo after photo patiently taken by Olga, who deftly handled one camera after another, and took this group shot with Davide's camera.
Because I had been to Eiffel the previous Friday, I decided not to continue with the rest of the group, but head back to the Opera to catch the 10:30 bus back to the hotel. Ewa and Angel decided to do the same, so we trooped off to the Metro, while the others took one beautiful night time shot after another of the famous tower.
It seems almost like it's made of lace, doesn't it? Hard to imagine that something mad up of so many tons of steel could look so delicate.
Gabriele captured this beautiful image of the city and the Seine from the tip of the tower. I still don't know what that blue beam is.
Once again, from Gabriele's camera, his unusual image of the tower with a blue night sky. As you can probably make out, there's a rotating beacon on the top of the tower, and he managed to capture it at a strategic moment.
And finally, my own shot of the tower. Well, partly of the tower. I just wanted a reminder that I had been there, at night, and the closest photographer happened to be right at hand (get it? RIGHT at HAND?). Yeah, I know, go ahead and groan, then get over it.
Well, this entry was long in coming, but I hope it was worth it. If you missed any of the other parts of the adventure, see the archives on the left.
TTYL.
We rolled out of the bus on the Avenue de l'Opera (1) and I herded the group into a semblance of order for this shot, some protesting that they wouldn't stand for too much of this posing thing (actually, it was just Steve, as I recall).
We decided we'd hit two main spots: the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. But along the way, we passed through the grounds of the Musee du Louvre (2), perhaps Paris' most famous museum.
As the group strode through the grounds, I dashed ahead so I could get this low-level shot, prompting a bunch of grins, and the question they kept asking all day, as my shutter snapped constantly: "Are you going to take a picture of everything in Paris?" All day, these guys gave me grief.
The Louvre's striking main entry point is under this pyramid, designed by architect I.M. Pei. Talk about a contrast between old world and new!
Our stroll took us through the Jardin des Tulieries to the Place de la Concorde (3), which was anything but a place of concord back in the French revolution. It was the location where many people lost their heads, literally, courtesy of the guillotine. Now, and obelisk stands in the square and traffic swirls around it.
Now we entered the Champs Elysees, one of the world's most famous avenues, with our first target, the Arc de Triomphe, in sight. As you can see, not every pedestrian subscribes to the concept of using the zebra crossing.
After all that walking (it wasn't a mere hundred yards, I can assure you) we decided to take a breather on the Champs Elysees, so we stopped at a local establishment, where I inquired as to what available to quench a six foot four inch thirst. Gabriele, Tino and Steve listened with interest. I didn't get an answer I cared for, so I eventually just broke out the bottle of water in my back pack and inhaled that.
While the waiter went off to fetch libations for everyone, it was camera time. It was really funny watching people take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other. Steve even tried to coordinate it with a countdown (or up, I can't remember). The shooters were yours truly, Tino, Steve and Darwin.
On the opposite side, Ewa had sheathed her camera, but Angel was snapping away. The guy in the extreme right seemed to be enjoying our antics. Hmmm... Maybe we could turn it into a stage act???
Meanwhile, the libations had arrived, and while Lucas, Olga, Jean-Pierre, Ewa and Angel snorfled down their favorite beverage, I was soaking up history courtesy of info from Jean-Pierre, and drinking Evian.
Cosmin, Lucas and Olga shared some light moments. By the way, the green bottle is actually aluminum, FYI.
Finally, we resumed our trek, and I took my life in my hands to grab this image of the Arc from the avenue. Not really. The cars wee stopped for pedestrians, but it sure sounded more exciting the other way, didn't it?
As you can see, we were far from alone in our journey to the Arc.
Finally, we were there, at the Arc de Triomphe.
Davide is pointing out...
And then came the decision. To climb it or not to climb? A word of advice for you when you visit Paris: bring comfortable shoes for the ascent of the Arc, which requires you to climb a circular staircase with something between 200 and 300 steps. Your thighs will ache, and you'll probably stop a few times on the way up. At least that's what I did. Maybe you have a stair-climber exercise machine. If you do, you might handle this well.
At the top, on the inside, there's a small museum, including this declaration that the monument is in honor of the armies of France.
A few more steps took us up to the roof, where a vista of all Paris greeted us. This shot looks back down the Champs Elysees that we'd just traversed.
Lucas got in a carefully-framed shot, while Cosmin looked a little doubtful as to the outcome. What did he shoot? I dunno.
Back at ground level, we witnessed a ceremony that has been repeated every day for decades at the Arc: honoring France's war dead at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
An eternal flame burns at the site, and fresh flowers adorn the unknown soldier's resting place every day.
This lady was a veteran who regaled us with stories of the exploits of her unit during the war. Olga, Davide and Steve seemed to particularly enjoy her tales, which Jean-Pierre (just out of sight to the right in this shot) translated for us.
On we went, down the Avenue Kleber, and as we walked we noticed that we were salivating, the way people do when they smell good food. We soon discovered why; we were passing a Ferrari dealership, and all the guys halted with mouths agape.
Gabriele immortalized this red convertible with his digital, so he can replay the image at his leisure.
Finally, we got to the Trocadero, where we decided to have dinner before hitting the tower. A shower of rain forced the party inside. The mirror here in Darwin Leung's carefully crafted shot reveals half the group...
...while the other half (except for Darwin himself) show up here. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food ( I had a large salad of vegetables and fruit) and there were smiles all around. But they were out of crepes, and for this, along with some other customer service issues that I won't go into here, they didn't get my vote for the best cafe in Paris. Let's just leave it at that.
Now it was Eiffel time, and we posed for photo after photo patiently taken by Olga, who deftly handled one camera after another, and took this group shot with Davide's camera.
Because I had been to Eiffel the previous Friday, I decided not to continue with the rest of the group, but head back to the Opera to catch the 10:30 bus back to the hotel. Ewa and Angel decided to do the same, so we trooped off to the Metro, while the others took one beautiful night time shot after another of the famous tower.
It seems almost like it's made of lace, doesn't it? Hard to imagine that something mad up of so many tons of steel could look so delicate.
Gabriele captured this beautiful image of the city and the Seine from the tip of the tower. I still don't know what that blue beam is.
Once again, from Gabriele's camera, his unusual image of the tower with a blue night sky. As you can probably make out, there's a rotating beacon on the top of the tower, and he managed to capture it at a strategic moment.
And finally, my own shot of the tower. Well, partly of the tower. I just wanted a reminder that I had been there, at night, and the closest photographer happened to be right at hand (get it? RIGHT at HAND?). Yeah, I know, go ahead and groan, then get over it.
Well, this entry was long in coming, but I hope it was worth it. If you missed any of the other parts of the adventure, see the archives on the left.
TTYL.
