France
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The Eiffel Tower at Night
I decided to venture out late one night from my hotel in Paris....no particular destination...just walking. About 20 minutes, a couple of Nutella crepes, and an espresso later, I ended up here. I know there is not shortage of Eiffel Tower photos in the world, but I could resist adding another. And it helped calm down my midnight sugar and caffeine high :-).
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Reflections of Lyon
Across the river from Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) - There is so much cool stuff to say about this city that I wouldn't even know where to start. I spent most of my 2 days there just wandering around the old section, eating way too many pastries, and talking with chefs pâtissiers about the goodies that they were selling. It's only a few hundred miles from Paris but it totally worth the trip on the TGV to get there. Heck, at 200 mph, the TGV ride alone is worth the journey. Just make sure you get a window seat.
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Conciergerie
I guess if you are going to be in prison, it might as well look like this. This is the Conciergerie, an underground prison in Paris, which used to be part of the Royal Palace, along with Sainte-Chapelle and the Palace of Justice. They use to keep prisoners here during the French Revolution. In fact, Marie Antoinette had a brief stay here before she met her untimely end at the guillotine.
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Basilique de Fourvière
So, check this place out. The Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière in Lyon, France. It's kind of like the unknown sister church of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris It sits way up on this hill so you can pretty much see it from anywhere in the city. And the nice thing is that is takes a pretty good hike to get to (well, you could also take a tram) so it isn't mobbed with tourists. I stayed in here for almost 2 hours taking photos....even with my tripod. At one point, the priest and I even struck up a conversation. Well, maybe it wasn't actually a conversation. I just nodded my head and smiled.....like I understood what he was saying.
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CDG Airport
The Metro entrance to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. You get off the Metro, go up the escalator, through this cool room and through the double doors.....and you enter the airport..........and that's where is all goes to crap........signs that lead nowhere, lines all over the place, multiple checkpoints. I just walk around with my passport in my hand until someone tells me where to go.
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Gallery of Evolution
This place is so cool. Its the Gallery of Evolution in the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Make sure you click in and see all the cool detail that they built into this room. I got my usual French smackdown for carrying a tripod.....but I can set that thing up pretty quick by now......so my run-ins are becoming much less.
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Sacre Couer
There is this cool little artsy section of Paris called Montmartre. It's kind of like their version of Greenwich Village in NYC. Ask any local how to get there, and you get this sort of disappointed shrug.....they'll tell you how the place in now all touristy and just "isn't the same". It's essentially a big hill. and the Basilica de Sacre-Couer sits on top. Behind the Basilica is a labyrinth of cobblestone streets and little shops, where you can eat a bunch of great pastries and crepes, buy $12 dollar keychains ....or get suckered into letting some dude do a sketch of you for like $30. And then at the bottom of the hill, you can find find Moulin Rouge and a whole host of other similar shops that you can walk past and pretend to not look in. At least that's what I did.
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Heading Home
An old man heads home after a long day of work in Lyon..........OK, actually it 's not an old man.....it's me. And I wasn't heading home from work, but just wanted someone in the picture. But the old man thing sounded much better, right??
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Arts et Metiers
The Arts et Métiers station along the Paris Metro.........I stumbled across this place completely by accident. I cant remember where I was going, but it wasn't here. Anyway, so this place was designed by some Belgian comic artist.......in kind of a steampunk style. I think there is actually another Metro station with the same kind of design.....but I'll wait until the next time I am lost to see that one.
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Vieux Lyon
The last night I was in Lyon, I took a walk through an area called Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon)…. It’s this kind of timeless section of the city, where you feel like you’ve just stepped back about 200 years. It was still early in the year, and the cold weather had most of the locals indoors, so I had the night to myself….just me (and Billy Joel keeping me company on my iPhone).
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The Windows of St. Chappelle
The famous stained glass windows of Sainte Chappelle in Paris. This is a few blocks from Notre Dame on that little island (Île de la Cité) in the middle of the city. The lines to get in here are long, so grab an espresso and a baguette to keep you company. But, once you do get in, wow! It was originally built in 1239 to house the relics of the crucifixion of Christ and, from what I understand, it looks pretty much the same today as it did then. The most famous part are these huge stained glass windows than adorn the walls of the upper chapel. It’s hard to get a sense of scale from this picture, but those windows are about 45 feet tall. One of the caretakers there told me that the designers intended to minimize the visible stonework so that the ceiling would look like it was just floating above the windows. He actually said about 80% of that in French (of which i only understand food talk) but a kind grandmotherly-type French lady was nice enough to translate it for me. Oh, and and you would expect….no tripods….so I shot this handheld………a feat made ever more complicated by the 2 double espressos I had just had for lunch.
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The Louvre
I was in Paris for a couple of days early last year…………during fashion week. How’s that for amusing…….Mr. Jersey boy walking around in a city full of the finest dressed people in the western world. Since I didn’t want to stand out too much, I wore the best T-shirt and jeans that I had with me. And the fact that I had forgotten to bring a shaving razor worked to my advantage. I found out that walking around with a big camera during that particular week turns you into an instant target for the countless models that are parading through the city, hoping for that opportunity to be discovered. I was approached by 2 young ladies as I set up to take this photo. They asked me, in somewhat broken english, If I was there shooting for fashion week. My response was “No, I am from Georgia and am……..”, and they turned and walked off. No goodbye, no “nice to meet you”, no hug, just a quick about-face, a look of complete uninterestedness, and they were gone. After picking up the shattered remains of my ego, I realized that “Marc from Georgia” wasn’t going to cut it, and I needed a more interesting persona………Giancarlo Corleone, fashion photographer from Italy…….that sounded cool………in Paris shooting for an Italian Fashion magazine…..and doesn’t have time for annoying French models. It was a pretty impressive setup if you ask me.Unfortunately, though, I wasn’t approached again…..the sun eventually set, the crowds dispersed…..and my Italian alter-ego was relegated to just a cool thought in my head. I did, however, end up with a pretty cool shot of the Louvre…..and I know that Giancarlo would have been happy about that.
Evening in Montmartre
This little place is located right in the Artist’s Square in Montmartre… just down the street from the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur, in the northern part of Paris. If you want to catch up on your people watching, this is the place to do it. You have two things here: artists and restaurants. Its pretty awesome to think that artists like Salvador Dali, Monet, Picasso and Van Gogh all had studios or worked here. And that feeling is still alive. Just off to my left were 2 or 3 artists painting this same street image. In fact, right at that first table you can see one of the local artists doing a sketch for the folks sitting there. Is it a tourist trap?Yeah….but its still cool…..getting a little sketch done on a spring evening in Paris, while you sip some wine……not a bad night at all.
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Notre Dame of Lyon
I've only been to Lyon once, for about 48 hours......and I think I visited this church 3 times. One of the shop owners told me it's the sister church to the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. It seemed totally different, though, smaller, more ornate, way less touristy…and no angry Frenchmen yelling about my tripod. It’s a pretty good hike to get up here, but so worth it. I took this late in the afternoon, just before they closed…..when the only light inside was from the glow of the candles and a few altar lights….very cool.
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A Hallowed Hall
A late afternoon tour of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon, France. I always make it a point to visit at least 1 or 2 churches when I am in a new city. This one is certainly the most beatufiul that I have seen. It s it high on a hilltop and can be seen through out the city. Its a bit of a hike to get there, but there are plenty of places to stop along the way.......and the destination is certainly worth the journey.
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Alone in the French Pavilion
We had a pretty late night the other day in Epcot. It was about an hour past Illuminations so most of the crowds had left. Some folks were in front of the French Pavilion taking pics by the Beauty and the Beast flower statues but, back here….nobody but us. Epcot at night is so amazingly peaceful. Well, I mean it usually is….but we had a stroller, a bunch of kids and a lot of empty space….so you can probably figure out the rest. Oh, by the way, the tires on the Disney strollers aren’t really meant to support the weight of an adult…just sayin.
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From DisneyWorld
