From Paris - Notre Dame 04

This is a picture that certainly has been taken at least a million times, except that I used the distortion control to round it out, and took the trouble to remove color from all but the center.

From Paris - Notre Dame 03

Turns out that not only do we have a functioning church here, we arrived just as service was starting! I just could not believe our luck.

The parishioners were seated by the time my son and I got to the front along the right side, and the service had begun. Naturally I stayed put and went crazy snapping non-flash pictures. The blue guy on the left was singing the most beautiful song, and the incense (or whatever it was that was burning in the pot) added an interesting visual element. Now I'm not a Catholic, and do not subscribe to a lot of what they believe, but will say that they know how to put on a beautiful service that gets the emotions stirring. It was a powerful moment.

My son, however, did not share those sentiments. After waiting with me a bit, he moved along with the line that led behind the sanctuary. Satisfied that one or two "keepers" had been captured, I followed suit.

From Paris - Notre Dame 02

Due to the lines going in and out of the cathedral, as well as the swarms taking pictures outside, it was easy to view Notre Dame as a mere tourist attraction, and not a functioning church. My perception quickly changed, however, after seeing what was going on inside.

One fascinating thing to me about the Catholic church is the manner in which the offering is done. Each of these candles was paid for by individuals to the tune of five euros. What the significance of the candles is I'm not sure, but they were purchased, lit and placed with great solemnity.

From Paris - Notre Dame 01

After a while we finally arrived at the Notre Dame. Among all of the ornate edifices in the area, this one was immediately recognizable due to its tall spire and elaborately carved turrets along the roofline. Not that I ever studied up on that sort of thing...the cartoon "Hunchback of Notre Dame" taught me everything I know. Still, being there, so close to such an awesome and famous structure, was a thrill.

Our initial plan was to just hang around ouside; the line of folks going into the church was pretty long. After observing how quickly it moved, however, we decided to go in.

From Paris - Church Spire

This is something we passed on the way as we neared the river. Amazing that these types of things are peppered all over the city...

From Paris - Glass Cubes

After leaving the Pompidou Museum, on we walked toward the Notre Dame. This is a bit of architecture that was captured along the way...

From Paris - DeGaulle 02

Taken from the back of the crowd, our Mr. DeGaulle strikes a pensive pose...

From Paris - DeGualle 01

This fellow was across the alleyway from the juggler, standing on a little platform. Like the Egyptian person sitting on the bench, he remained stock-still until someone put a contribution in his basket. Then he would very, very slowly bring his right hand up into a salute, then lower it just as slowly. Really mesmerizing to watch.

Unlike the Egyptian, this guy had a personality. You could see his eyes shifting, working the crowd. At one point he spied a little tourist girl of about eight years of age. With his trademark slowness, he extended his hand in her direction...the movement was so slow it took a while for her to catch on to what he was doing. Then, when she was hooked in, she just as slowly and, very trepidatiously in front of all the people, approached and extended her own hand. After a full minute their hands clasped, and at that moment a magic happened and the crowd burst into applause. Then, still very slowly, he withdrew his hand. The man's expression remained as you see it here the entire time.

I didn't even know until returning to Houston that he was supposed to look like Charles DeGaulle.

From Paris - Museum Juggler 02

A little later this same guy did a routine with crystal balls. This was the concluding bow of his act...

From Paris - Museum Juggler 01

As stated a couple of postings ago, what was going on outside the museum was far more interesting than the exhibits within. There were a number of individual acts that drew crowds large and small. The biggest thing going on while we were there was a comedian that did a show using audience participation. The guy was really good...even though we didn't know French it was easy to follow and genuinely funny.

The picture that you see here was one of the sideline acts that drew a distractible smattering from the larger audience. When viewed close up the performer's expression is spooky since he's looking so far to the left, at the orange. To fix that, I pasted an iris/pupil right in the center of each eye, but that looked even more spooky, so this is the original...

From Paris - Rainy Patio

It was cool and rainy just about all day when we took that walk. This is from within the building, looking out at a restaurant patio that is normally filled with customers; the grainy appearance is due to the raindrops. The roses, looking forlorn and lonely out in the cold, fortunately were all cut the same length.

From Paris - Modern Museum

One day we walked from the hotel toward the Notre Dame Cathedral, with a stop at the museum that you see here, called the Pompidou. I will remember forever the impression that it left, as it is the first "modern" museum for me personally. While some of the items were best ignored, other exhibits were very interesting. Equally as interesting, however, if not more so, was what was taking place outside of the building.

From Paris - Pharaoh Beggar

Fortunately it is cool in Paris most of the time, or one could not make a living wearing this outfit. Whenever a passer-by would put money in the basket, this individual would ceremoni- ously bow, then return to this stock-still position.

If you'll notice, the two trees in the background with the patch of grass are identical. There was an overflowing trash can where the left one is, which had to be removed.

From Paris - Flower Park

As stated earlier, since the boys were on their own somewhere else I was free to roam at will, stopping any place and taking as much time as needed to snap pictures.

This was captured when I wandered away from the main road leading from the Louvre back to the Arc. Don't know what kind these are, but felt that the blue carpet of flowers in the background would make a good backdrop against the deep purple, almost black flowers that serve as our subject here.

From Paris - Fountain Dove

This was captured on the way back from the Louvre. For the first time I used the full-version Photoshop CS3 to adjust highlights and midtone contrast, which brought out the details on the fountain much better.
_____________________

A friend last night showed me some portraits taken with his Nikon D200. I finally decided to take the plunge and get one next month, now that the prices are down so much since the -300 and -700 showed up on the market. Well, came to discover that they are no longer being sold new! Don't mind waiting for something better down the road a piece...

From Paris - Mona Lisa

The place is so vast that it took forever to find the Mona Lisa. Not that I'm interested, but if you go to the Louvre you have to check out the Mona Lisa. Much more interesting to me was the behavior of the crowds surrounding the painting.

From Paris - Louvre 05

Little more than a zoomed-in shot from the posting of August 12, this is included due to popularity among friends and family.

From Paris - Louvre 04

This is a typical postcard-type picture, which from this elevated view gives perspective on the scale of things.

From Paris - Louvre 03

Another juxtaposition, taken from inside the opposite wing through a window...

From Paris - Louvre 02

This is another one that shows the new (built in 1988) against a backdrop of the old (built in 1874), framed by an archway.

From Paris - Louvre 01

Besides the general grandeur of the buildings surrounding a visitor in this part of town, the thing that grabs one's attention the most is this shocking pyramid right in the middle of the museum complex at Louvre. I was told that it generated quite a controversy when built, and, though not unattractive, it's easy to see why.

Regardless of the history, for the photographer it provides a bonanza of an opportunity to juxtapose the old with the new, the antique with the modern. The more I traveled the city, the more I came to admire the French for their sheer audacity.

Of the dozens of pictures taken here, it was difficult to cull down to just a few favorites. This one was chosen first to demonstrate the magnitude of the pyramid, as can be seen by the people milling around at the bottom.

From Paris - Approaching Louvre

The statuary, structures, and picture-taking opportunities increased in general as I neared the Louvre. This was taken across the street and adjacent to the museum.

As can be seen, there was a mixture of clouds and sun on that day, which made for some heavy post-capture editing after arriving home. On almost all of these pictures the buildings were underexposed...noticeably dull and drab. I used the magic selection tool, then adjusted levels and colors on just those structures after refining the selection. This made them really pop out in comparison to what is seen in the original photo. The technique was used in most of the following pictures connected with the Louvre...

From Paris - Basilisk

This is the basilisk itself. Just a little Photoshop work was done to take care of damage on the bottom portion of the shaft.

From Paris - Eiffel from Basilisk

After finishing at the Arc the three of us started the two-mile walk to the Louvre. I lost track of the kids very shortly after departing, so was left by myself to take it easy and stop for pictures whenever something caught my interest.

About halfway to the Louvre there was a huge basilisk surrounded by a fence. Using the technique I'd stumbled upon in Colorado, this picture was taken using the spikes on top of that fence.

From Paris - Subway Panhandler

As described in an earlier posting, the panhandlers and beggars in Europe operate under a completely different culture, percolated through centuries of refinement. I even read in college once that their craft is considered a profession of some distinction, regulated by a union to handle disputes involving overlapping sales jurisdictions (i.e. street corners).

But even in Europe they take a break once in a while. Here a gypsy woman inspects an acquisition on the subway steps...

From Paris - Downtown Panorama

This is a cropped-in portion of a two-picture panorama of downtown Paris. I would have made it bigger but discovered a few postings ago that resizing via html edit causes a loss in sharpness and quality. Nevertheless, this turned out well because, thanks to the magic of Photoshop, it is impossible (for me) to tell where one picture begins and the other ends.

The giant hollowed out building is conspicuous here. One gets a perspective of the size of this thing by looking at the white canopy that runs along the bottom, which is used to provide shade and a little protection from the wind for those walking around on what would be the first floor. It is big enough to hold a concert or other special event. The dark line seen going up through the entire height of the structure is the cable complex that serves as a naked elevator shaft. Really a fascinating piece of work. I'd never even heard of this building until our visit this summer.

From Paris - City Wedge

One of the neat things about the Arc was that the city seemed to spoke out from its traffic circle; wedges like this surrounded the structure.

It was from the top of the Arc that I noticed for the first time that Paris actually has a downtown with modern buildings, which can be seen in the upper-left corner. It's a good thing that those are concentrated off to the side, with very few exceptions (such as the one in the middle here).

If you'll look to the very far left, exactly at the end of the tree-lined street, there is a building that looks like a big box. Well, that's exactly what it is...a huge box with a big hole running through. It does my heart good to see that, even at that level, the creative spirit is allowed to soar, thumbing it's nose at convention. The French are amazing people.

A much closer view will be seen in tomorrow's posting, as for this blog I created a special two-picture panoramic of the downtown area.

From Paris - Eiffel from the Arc

The sun was not in a very good spot that day to capture the Eiffel from the Arc, but the sheer size can be seen here. In spite of the immensity, it somehow does not appear obnoxious.

From Paris - Eiffel Silhouette #1

By the time you get to the section of the city where the Arc is located, the Eiffel Tower begins to dominate the skyline. It is such an imposing and recognizable structure, jutting up out of the city with no competition from anything else close by. Though we've all seen thousands of pictures, there is nothing that compares with seeing it in person, even from a distance.

From Paris - Arc Stairs

These are the stairs leading up to the top of the Arc...had to lean way over a rail to get the shot.

From Paris - The Tomb

Had to get on my hands and knees for this one. The orange that you see in the background is the flame on the tomb of the unknown soldier.

From Paris - Arc Statue

Whenever someone looks at this picture they instinctively want to lay it down into landscape mode. Is this thing right-side-up?

Yes it is. This is a statue that pokes out of the side of the Arc de Triumph, showing its incredible relief and detail to a bustling populace whizzing around the traffic circle that surrounds the structure. I'd heard of the Arc, but had no idea of the significance or beauty before this visit. The thing is just awe-inspiring.

And huge. What a culture it is that produces not just a few, but a city full of these types of things! You've seen the architecture already of an every-day structure such as the apartment house in the previous posting. Add historical structures such as this peppered throughout, plus a great concentration in the swath of city between the Arc and the Louvre, and it staggers the imagination.

I sure didn't expect this, but Paris quickly became a favorite vacation city, a sentiment that has not diminished in the time since returning.