Paris is not quaint or bucolic. I've known people who expected it to be like that before they visited the place for the first time. They were surprised to find themselves in a crowded, bustling, modern city. Here are some architectural signs of that reality. (As always, you can click or tap on the images to see them at a larger size.)
President Georges Pompidou, who succeeded Charles de Gaulle as president of the French republic and then died in 1974, had the building (above) now known as the Centre Pompidou built 40 years ago. It's in the Beaubourg neighborhood on the Right Bank, right next to the old neighborhood called Le Marais (the swamp). The Pompidou Center opened in 1977 and houses a library, médiathèque, and modern art museum. Some people affectionately refer to the building as « la raffinerie ».
The complex of buildings above has been called la TGB — la très grande bibliothèque — just as the French high-speed train (le train à grande vitesse) is called le TGV. It's a library — it's the new national library or Bibliothèque Nationale and is also referred to as the François Mitterrand library. Mitterrand was president from 1981 until 1995 and sponsored the building of this library, the Louvre pyramid, and a new opera house at the Bastille. The library is supposed to look like four open books standing vertically together, I think.
This last photo shows the 13e arrondissement (district) of Paris, a city which is divided into 20 arrondissements. As you can see, it's almost all modern, with a lot of high-rise buildings. It's in the southeast corner of the city on the Left Bank and is home to a large population of Asian immigrants, meaning it has a lot of Asian groceries and restaurants. It borders on the 5e arrondissement, which is the Latin Quarter.
I wrote this before seeing today's post:
ReplyDeleteOn yesterday's second photo [it is slightly clearer than the first], I spotted the small spire of the Sainte-Chapelle. On the extreme upper left corner, you can see the Raffinerie a.k.a. Centre Pompidou. Right on front of it stands Tour Saint-Jacques, and just below it, slightly on the right, you can spot the spire of Sainte-Chapelle just across the street from the dome of Tribunal de Commerce.
On the right of today's first photo, a fine close-up of my comment above, the only thing missing is the Tribunal de Commerce. Here, between the spire of Sainte Chapelle and tour Saint-Jacques stands théâtre du Châtelet.
Beautiful photos! Portes ouvertes, again!
Pour les curieux, c'est l'église Saint-Merri qui se trouve derrière la Tour Saint-Jacques.
DeleteYes, I see the spire of Sainte-Chapelle to the right.
DeleteI'm probably in the minority on this, but I rather like Centre Pompidou...and this pic has a great view of the color-coded mechanical systems on the roof, as well as les escaliers mécaniques. The square in front is always lively too.
Not the picture postcard Paris, is it. I really wish skyscrapers had been kept out of the centre of Australian cities like they have generally in Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and London, to name a few.
ReplyDeleteDon't you live in one of those skyscrapers? Why do you live in one?
DeleteBecause if he is livng in it he doesn't have to look at it?
DeleteI very much like living in a skyscraper and I will be the first to admit that this building is a visual disgrace and should have never been built. It is only 22 storeys though. There is a bit of what Joan says below too. I was actually referring to our city centre and that of other large Australian cities. We are about 2 km away from the city. Nevertheless, we live on a recognised boulevard that was once lined with Victorian period mansions and bar a very few, most were destroyed, with what replaced them, 'temporary' buildings, some of which have already reached the end of their lives, and are being replaced.
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