We arrived in Arles late in the afternoon of June 30th, the day before the festival opened. With nothing much to do I decided to reconnoitre the area. Our hotel was out on the edge of town where there are a lot of shopping centers, closed on an early Sunday evening. It was like a vast liminal space, punctuated here and there by a shop people must drive to (see below – click an image to enlarge them).
This year I finally made it to Rencontre d’Arles, the photographers’ equivalent of the Cannes Film Festival, as some have called it. Unfortunately I was staying at a super-budget hotel on the outskirts of town, about a half hour walk (or 20 minute bus ride) from where the festival was occurring – hence the view. More to come from opening week in Arles.
A fitting close to our trip to Paris: a photo of bales of hay taken out the window of the EuroStar on the French side of the Channel.
We took a bus from the area of our hotel to the Gare du Nord to catch the EuroStar back to London. Click any of the images below to see them full-sized (you may need to click the post title first if you’re viewing this in an email or on social media).
After the Bois de Boulogne, we walked back to our hotel to get our bags. Our time in Paris was over.
From La Petite Ceinture we walked on to the Bois de Boulogne, a large park in Paris’ 16th arrondissement.
We also walked the length of La Petite Ceinture, a disused ancient railway line that has been transformed into a park. I had been hoping that it would be a little like the High Line in NY, affording me elevated views of the surrounding area but it was really the opposite, sunken and surrounded by tall trees, dark and lovely. Click any of the pictures below to enlarge them all.
Click any of the pictures below to see them full sized.
We went on from the Musée d’Orsay for a coffee and then the Musée Maillol which had a very comprehensive and nicely curated (and lighted!) retrospective of Elliot Erwitt, integrated loosely with some of the Maillol work. I’m not sure if it was an homage to Erwitt, but the path of the exhibition was directed with dog-paw prints throughout. The museum was not too crowded and everyone seemed to speak French, which was a relief. The audio guides were in French only, another positive, un-touristy sign. Click on the images below to see them enlarged.
When we finally emerged from the Musée d’Orsay, the crowd waiting to get in had swelled. And there was a queue snaking its way down the stairs and out to the street below. As much as I enjoyed it, it was a relief to leave the crowds of tourists behind.
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How we view art today – we photograph it with our phones. Click any picture below to see them larger.
Once again, I focused my lens more on the architecture, the geometry, the sub-text of this hallowed space. Click any of the pictures below to see them full-sized.
This was the queue we were asked to join for people who had tickets for the same time as our tickets. My tourist foreboding was rising. It was only about a 10-minute wait as they regulated how many people could squeeze through the revolving door at a time. Inside we started at the top with the ever popular Impressionists. It was wall to wall people and almost impossible to look at the paintings. One young woman had fainted and was lying on the floor with her family insisting she was fine. We quickly escaped to less crowded floors. Click any image below to see them bigger.
Our first full day we walked through the Tuileries Garden and over the Seine to the Musée d’Orsay which I had purchased timed tickets for a month in advance. Click any of the pictures below to see them all larger.
Our first day and half in Paris were pretty damp, but lovely all the same. Click any of the pictures below to see them bigger.
We left Paris on the EuroStar at a dusky late afternoon.
All around the Eiffel Tower, the Trocadero, the Champ de Mars, and elsewhere too, no doubt, merchants offer statuettes of the famous tower in different sizes and colors, some with twinkling lights.
