I apologize for the randomness again. It kind of reflects my own state of mind at the moment anyway. But here’s a few more scenes from the Ile de la Cité.
The Sainte Chapelle is inside the compound of the Conciergerie (the prison where Marie Antoinette and Louis were held prior to their execution) and the modern day Palais de Justice. Here you can see the Sainte Chapelle from outside the gates of the Palais de Justice. The spire is a later 19th century re-creation of the original which was torn down during the French Revolution.
Sainte Chapelle Exterior
I don’t know the source of my fascination with safety bollards as photographic subjects. Maybe its because they’re such ordinary things with a very important purpose that we tend to ignore. I guess I empathize with the bollards.
Bollard, Palais De Justice
The gates to the Palais de Justice. When I was there, unfortunately, the Conciergerie museum was closed for renovations. This seemed to be an unfortunately frequent occurrence in Paris – a number of museums were closed for renovation work: the Conciergerie, the Musee Chatelet, and the Picasso, to name the most notable.
Gates, Palais De Justice
Here are the photos I mentioned a couple posts ago when talking about the Metro stop for Ile de la Cité. There’s a little open-air market they have set up right across from the exit where they sell pet supplies, flowers, and other various and sundry items. Here are two little dogs out for a walk in the pets section who were straining to take a look at one another.
Parisian Puppy Confrontation
And last but not least, I just loved the way the light was making the goldfish in the tanks glow.
Ok, it’s far from a comprehensive survey of the city by night, but whaddya want, I only had a single night for night shooting, so I confined myself to where I could walk to from my apartment.
One of the great things about where we (my father and I) stayed was the fact we were in walking distance of just about everything, from the subway to all the historical buildings and neighborhoods. Notre Dame was a stone’s throw away, across the bridge. Here is the rear view from the approach I took over the Pont St. Louis.
Notre Dame, Rear View, Night
The front facade is fully illuminated at night, and they have built a set of large risers in the plaza in front that if nothing else serve as a great camera platform for photographing the towers. The night I was out shooting was the night of the full moon, so I got lucky and was able to get this shot of the tower and the moon.
Notre Dame, Tower, Full Moon
Another view of the towers, from a side street. It had been raining that evening, so the streets were wet giving them that Hollywood movie look.
Notre Dame, Side Street, Night
Another shot of the full moon, over a grand Hotel (Hotel in the Parisian sense of grand city residence/townhouse as opposed to place-where-you-rent-a-room-by-the-night) on the Ile de la Cite.
Full Moon Over Hotel, Ile de la Cite
The Pont St. Louis, slick with rain. This is the bridge that connects the Ile St. Louis with the Ile de la Cite.
Pont St. Louis, Night
A view of the Hotel de Ville (Paris’ City Hall) from across the Seine. The white line at the river level is created by the lights of a passing river tour boat that has flood lights on the roof to illuminate the buildings on the quays as it passes. I don’t envy the people whose apartments face the river because of that, even if the boat tours do stop sometime between 9 and 10 pm.
Hotel de Ville, Seine, Night
Another view of the bridges across the Seine. In the background on the left you can see a rather castle-like building which is La Monnaie, the old French Mint where they used to make coins.
Seine Bridges, La Monnaie, Night
The last bridge of today’s program is the Pont Louis Phillippe, which connects the end of the Ile St. Louis to the north bank of the Seine. The bridge I used every day to get to and from the subway was the Pont Marie, which abuts the middle of the Ile St. Louis. I wanted to get a view of the bridges from water level, so I went down a set of steps on the quayside of the Ile de la Cite and set up my tripod at the very bottom – you can see from the facing set of steps they descend all the way into the water (I did not test how far down they go, as I had no desire to get wet, especially at this time of year).
Pont Louis Phillippe, Steps, Night
The St. Regis cafe has a view of the Pont St. Louis. Notre Dame itself is hidden by the buildings across the bridge. On my excursion, I saw people sitting outside the cafe all evening – I returned home at nearly midnight and there were people still outside the cafe as it was closing up.
St. Regis Cafe, Night
Here’s a look into the courtyard of one of the hotels on the Rue St. Louis en l’Ile, at number 51. I looked through the doorway, which had always been closed when I walked by in the daytime, and saw the light on in the library window on the second floor, and I just had to take that picture. I love libraries (I’m sitting in one as I type this, my modest personal library of 2000 or so books), so seeing in to one had a rather Proustian effect on me.
Hotel Courtyard, 51 Rue St. Louis en L’Ile, Night
I shot all these on Kodak Portra 160 because I like how it responds to nighttime color better than Ektar. It has a less contrasty look which is good for night because night scenes are inherently contrastier than daytime scenes, and it handles overexposure better than Ektar.
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