It's hot. According to Le Parisien:
Canicule : il n'a jamais fait aussi chaud en juin depuis au moins 117 ans !
(Heatwave: it has never been this hot in June for at least 117 years!) Of course they only started recording temperatures in France in 1900, so it is possible that quite a few additional years could be added. Yep, it's hot. We stayed inside all day, closing the windows by 10 a.m., then the blinds, fans running nicely (air conditioning is rare in these buildings from the late 1800s). One reason this heatwave is so severe is because it comes when the nights are the shortest, so temperatures have less time to descend than they would in August.I see in today's Le Monde that in the north of France, where beer is the favoured beverage, even the national committee guarding against alcoholism says that 1.5 liters of beer is not a danger to your health (in the heatwave). Bring it on!
Yves said his farewells and headed back to Descartes, the small charming village to which he moved last year. We hope to visit them sometime. He said there is a rabbit farm nearby (yummy), local beef is less than half as expensive as in our markets, field-ripened veggies are everywhere, and he extols two of their five bakeries. Anyway, we'll see him again next summer.
Well, June 21st is special. Paris (and many cities in France) started celebrating this day by encouraging stores and municipalities to have live music on the sidewalks and concert halls, all for free. This brings people out for an evening of fun, parties, a bit of dancing (sorry, I never made it to the official dancing locations), music of all sorts (well, not much Renaissance choral music), and since the people are engrossed in each other and in the music, I get to shoot photos with a telephoto lens (135mm, f/2.0 for the fading light).
We ate a light supper here, and then headed to the métro by about 8 p.m. This meant that rush hour was over. But not the heat. I told Janice that after we had walked slowly for two blocks (in the shade), my armpits were already beginning to squeak. Bad sign, but we plodded on. As usual, once downtown, I had no idea where we were going, so we arbitrarily headed south, crossing the river several times to get to the Latin Quarter, which always has lots of activity.
I think I'll add short comments as we go along. There are 40-some shots of street photography, so get a nice Vodka ready and settle back (well, that's at least what Brother Bruce will wish he had done). In the middle of writing these comments, Janice asked that I make supper, so, wishing to be obedient to "for better or worse", I did. I even opened a lovely bottle of Alsatian bubbly from Kaysersberg, only to have it drench my last clean short-sleeved shirt. Initially it felt good. And I guess I could smell worse. But I digress . . . .
We got off at Hôtel de Ville and just started walking. I had my camera strapped to my right wrist (that way it can't be snatched off my shoulder in crowds), we left all but one credit/bank card home, had two bottles of cold water in my camera bag, and I started shooting. The light was coming in quite low, usually with a bit of a red glow as the sun goes through the pollution. I noticed that the majority of people out were young people (virtually none were in their mid-70s because most folks that old know better).
This fellow was singing Jamaican music, amplified, with irritating software that repeated his final notes like an ECHO, echo, echo. I liked the way the woman walked past him without so much as a nod. She was thirsty. He wasn't all that good, but hey, it's free and we kept on walking.
This photo gives a sense of it being quite warm. Shadows were lengthening, and I had just started shooting.
Notre Dame was closed for the evening, no energetic tourists peeking over the railing from the top tower. I can't remember if you folks climbed this tower. We did a number of years ago, and that will likely suffice.
This woman was paying close attention to the singing at another café. I knew none of the songs, but suspect that musicians were going back to some French favourites from 20-30-40 years ago. I often saw people mouthing the words.
"Man shall not live by" music alone, oh no. Young lovers were out in force, often enjoying the evening's anonymity. After all, who could possibly notice them? And Mom's surely nowhere in sight. They probably did not cool off just right away after going home.
Older people (with resources) were filling patios of staid establishments, some of which completely blocked sidewalks, and for this special evening, even spilled out onto some of the blocked roads. Business was booming. I don't know if people selected restaurants by the music offered or if the restaurants just knew what their patrons like.
Sandwiches were also available, and if fresh (made on request), they can be delicious. Sadly, his sandwich appears to be very plain indeed, with the traditional baguette.
Foreign tourists were everywhere, sometimes wearing the bleu-blanc-rouge (blue-white-red) colours of the French flag (not to be confused with red-white-and-blue).
I liked the way one of the songs took this lovely lady back in time. She just stood there and soaked up the words and music, all by herself.
Here is the same shot, original size. She is in her own little world, in the midst of trash cans, motorcycles, and 'bikes only' signs.
Three gents, three very different hair styles, out to enjoy the long evening together.
I have a series of photos of young women seated at patio tables at Parisian cafés and hope to add another shot to the black and whites in our dining room.
I want them to be smoking, and all looking in different directions, just like these gals. Strange series, I suppose, but very Parisian.
The two guys in the front row were really into the performance at this restaurant. This is showing them being calm, but I took other shots as well.
Of course, once you take a photo by phone, you need to send it immediately. Even if you have to squint to see those tiny keys.
This sandwich shop was going to stay open for a few more hours, with many baguettes at the ready. Each sandwich is usually 1/2 a 'tradition', a traditional baguette, which is loaded with seeds, a bit thinner, more whole wheat sometimes, and much more tasty.
The fellow in the hat is either a teacher or organizer. Young people with fancy cameras were gathering around, getting their instructions, and then they went off to start shooting. Either this was a Meet-Up group or one of the groups you can join for, say, €30 for the evening to be taken around to find things to photograph. I suspect the latter. Interestingly, they seemed to be following me. (His camera is the same model as mine, but he had the 35mm lens, which was a big mistake--a mild telephoto is obviously needed.) You can see the the awnings are just about ready to be set up for the next day's market.
Most of my shots have been closeups, so it's good to have the occasional overview. We are in the Latin Quarter, looking north, I believe toward Sainte Chappelle.
When I spotted these two lovers, I planted my feet and did some serious shooting. He seemed to need help keeping his balance?
Other couples could be a bit more distant, possibly bewildered as to where they are, where they should go next, how in the heck did they get here, where is north anyway?
She is into hugging, big time. The evening light, the spirit of the evening, it's magic.
The man with the mic is the professional singer. He did what everybody just dreads, picked out someone in the audience and had fun. Her date looked amused--but rather less so when the singer eventually kissed the victim on the cheek.
This couple was amused by the "victim's" predicament, he more so than she.
At the end, people clapped, including this chap, who figured out how to clap and hold his beer.
I moved on and was interested in this staid gentleman. His white hair stood out nicely against the dark pavement.
This couple couldn't help themselves. They first started swaying just a little bit, then slowly got into it, and finally decided to dance, what the heck. I was amused that the photography group's leader didn't see anything worth shooting.
I just missed getting a photo of this lady leaning out of her window. When I enlarged the photo, I could tell that her hair was wet (recent shower to cool off?) and her brush was at the ready. She will be hearing music for the next several hours, like it or not.
I watched this gal start to twitch with the music, then slowly gain confidence. I had to take quite a few photos until she actually looked like she was dancing.
This was taken at 9:37 p.m. The sun is still up, but rather red.
Young people gathered along the river for block after block. All the parties were well-behaved, even though quite well supplied. I counted at least 10 bottles of wine for this group of about 18, a few beers (a 12 pack ready for action) and lots of potato chips. The folks were seated on the warm cobble stones. No salad in sight.
These gals are not eating single-portion bags of chips, believe me.
Here is a closeup from the following photo. I had to wonder why the gal in shorts was bothering to drink a can with zero calories, when she will be eating roasted peanuts, Pringles, regular potato chips, and sugared nuts. The other gal is opening her second can of beer. They are seated on a table cloth from Province.
9:45 p.m., interesting sky and skyline.
These two fellows were good performers, doing songs recorded by Johnny Cash. Their sign reads: "Johnny Cash. We give you Johnny, you give us cash."
By now, we are on the Îsle St Louis, the island just east of the Îsle de France, which has Notre Dame. I believe this used to be two islands until they were joined together with fill. The island has some of the better hotels and people go there for ice cream in the warm weather.
This family was returning home. After all, it is a school night, with at twp more weeks of school to go.
I was struck by the sense of isolation of this young couple, all alone on an empty street, only each other, nothing to see really. I sensed that they were sad or worried, but couldn't be sure. And it was 10:08 with little light left.
We got seats on the hot métros going home, and took cooling showers. I really do enjoy this special festival of music and hope to be able to see it again next year. No two are the same.
Rains are hopefully coming, but one never knows. Anyway, they predict that tomorrow's high will go down to 30C, so that will be an improvement.
With love from us both,
Evan
No comments:
Post a Comment