Look up!
Category: psychogeography
Testing Geotagging
I’ve always wanted to know exactly where a photograph was taken. I need to know where the rusty mailbox, the home-made number or other small detail is located. I have solved this with an iPhone app, PlaceTagger. I record my locations, while wandering around taking pictures. Then, on my MacBook Pro, I import my pictures into Aperture and use the PlaceTagger plugin to geotag them using the data recorded on the iPhone.
I recently discovered a WordPress plugin with which you can add geotagging to posts. There are three parts to this feature: built-in geotagging via the iPhone WordPress app, geotagging via the WordPress add/edit post page and geotagging display on the post itself. When using the iPhone WordPress app, you can automatically add your current location to the post. The add/edit post page allows you to geotag by entering an address – it appears you have to enter a complete address (address, city, country) for it to work. A geotagged page includes a hyperlink indicating the location chosen for the post – move the cursor over the hyperlink and a small map pops up showing the location, click on the map and a new Google Maps window opens where you can explore via Street View or by using other Google features. This further enhances the psychogeographic aspect of this blog.
Ça, c’était Paris!
Sadly, the trip is over, but I’ll post more photos soon.
Random Flâneur
2CV
Rue Debelleyme
Abandoned Velib’
Blue Window
The Seine, towards Pont Louis Philippe
Montmartre rooftops
Door-front
Sacré-Coeur Spire Top
Courtyard
Métro
Turning the past into the future (On Rue Saint-Sabin)
Waiting (on the Champs-Elysées)
The End is around the corner
Bistrot du Marais (Le Marché des Enfants Rouges)
A (Hipstamatic) Psychogeographical walk in Montmartre
La basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
Un verre de Viognier, Domaine des Salices, J&F Lurton.
Encre de Chine shop window
A window shutter hold-back (Exquisite design for something so simple)
Boîte aux lettres
Un verre de 14cl de Beaujolais-Villages (sans sulfite, non filtré) pour 3,60€ – A cheap and healthy alternative to daily supplements
Mesrine: Ennemi public no. 1.
The two-film story of Mesrine, starring Vincent Cassel , is quite violent – I’ve only seen the first part, and there’s a great Montréal connection.
The address of Le Lapin Agile (22 Rue Saules, 75018 Paris. 01 46 06 85 87)
Paris is expanding!
Where Amelie worked… (I miss her dearly)
A vine twisting around a metal fence-post
Le Lapin Agile: Veille?es vers 21 heures sauf le lundi
Late shows around 9pm except Mondays. (I saw a show here 20 years ago.)
Vintage sign
Elvis here is probably some French personality – he looks familiar.
Château Rouge, where I lived for 2 years, 20 years ago
I just can’t believe it has been 20 years.
After staying for a couple of months in a company-supplied apartment near the Château de Vincennes area (Southeast), I moved to 13, Rue de Suez near the Château Rouge métro (Northeast). It was, and is, an African and North African neighbourhood. People I worked with were relieved every day that I arrived (late) for work – they were worried I wouldn’t survive. While it was not what you think Paris is, it was a safe area – I never had any trouble and never saw a fight. The worst that happened, happened once: my roommate Yasmeen was whistled at.
I lived on the fifth floor – no elevator. I actually exercised for a bit (the Canadian Army 5BX method) and was so energetic that I ran up the stairs and sometimes found myself on the sixth floor!
I took a walk around the neighbourhood, and after 20 years, just like the rest of Paris, some things are the same and some things have changed. I’ve done this so you don’t have to.
There is a story about Oscar Wilde living (and dying, I think) in a hotel near here. I’ll have to do some research on this.
The entrance to métro Château Rouge, which I used every day for two years. There used to be a boulangerie here where I would buy two croissants every day for my journey to work. Because I was a regular customer, the croissant girl would slip an extra free croissant in the bag. When I said I didn’t need a third croissant, she would say to give it to the homeless – but I never found the homeless up at that hour!
The launderette I frequented is no more – it was very convenient, where I could have my clothes washed and folded for an unreasonable fee, though it seemed they beat the clothes to a pulp. It was the only launderette in which I saw someone reading the Holy Quran. Next to the launderette is this little resto, where one could find the cheapest couscous in the city.
The market street, Rue Dejean
13, Rue de Suez. Tug on my coat-sleeve and I’ll tell you about a fire that broke out in the apartment next to mine.
Navel is an Indian resto on Rue de Suez (I can’t believe it’s still here). I was so excited to find an Indian restaurant five steps from home, but soon found that the Marks & Spencer frozen Indian meals tasted better!
Shopfronts are quite different here (many are closed on Mondays).
Two things that have changed: every shop is either a hair extension place or a mobile phone store.
I must go into the blue light
29 seconds of Sunday traffic
You know where this is.
A lamp post on the Champs-Elysées
A rainy day in Paris
My walk today was mostly in the 11th and the 3rd and then I drifted into the 2nd
Is it real or is it fake?
Bouly-Grignon, a kitchen and bathroom renovation company
Tango dancing, near Rue de Bretagne
Umbrella repair – I can’t believe anyone does this anymore
On Rue Montorgueuil
Context
At the beginning of 1991 I began a two year work term in Paris. A few days after I arrived I participated in one of several anti-war rallies against the first American war in the Arabian Gulf (euphemistically called “The Gulf War”). The march took about three hours and while taking photographs and chanting some slogan or other, we passed monuments, famous buildings and streets – I saw Paris so differently than as a tourist.
It didn’t take me long to fall in love with everything about Paris – except the attitude. Twenty years (and a few months) later Paris is still Paris and the attitude has improved tremendously.
I thought I’d blog about my twentieth anniversary visit. It will be composed mainly of photographs with some nostalgic musings about places revisited and perhaps some new surprises.