We started talking in recent comments about high-rise buildings in Paris. That made me look back through my April 2002 photos from the top of the Tour Montparnasse (which qualifies as a skyscraper). I wanted to see if I had usable shots of the area along the Seine just downstream from the Eiffel Tower, in the 15th arrondissement, that is called le Front de Seine It's made up of 20 or so buildings that are about 100 meters tall. Here's what I found — four images that Photoshop turned into a nice panorama. You can enlarge it.
2002
You can see the Front de Seine on the left side of the old photo below, just down the river from the Eiffel Tower. By the way, if you want to see high-rise buildings, don't forget La Défense, just on the western edge of the city. It's made up of both office towers and apartment buildings.
2000
Meanwhile, in the 13th arrondissement which is the southeastern sector of the city,
there are also a lot of high-rise buildings. Here's a photo from 2002.
there are also a lot of high-rise buildings. Here's a photo from 2002.
2002
And here's a photo that I took of the same neighborhoods
that I took from the top of the Tour Montparnasse in August 2015...
that I took from the top of the Tour Montparnasse in August 2015...
2015
...plus a close-up of what I believe is the same area in the 13th arrondissement.
2015
I took the 2015 photos using a Canon SX700 HD compact digital camera.
The 2002 photos are ones I took with an older Canon Pro90 IS digital camera.
In 2000, digital photography was fairly new and I was using an old Kodak.
By the way, according to some American definitions, a high-rise building is one that has seven floors or more. By that standard, many of the older buildings in Paris qualify as high-rises because they have more than six floors.
The 2002 photos are ones I took with an older Canon Pro90 IS digital camera.
In 2000, digital photography was fairly new and I was using an old Kodak.
By the way, according to some American definitions, a high-rise building is one that has seven floors or more. By that standard, many of the older buildings in Paris qualify as high-rises because they have more than six floors.
It is fascinating to try to find landmarks on "aerial" photos of Paris. On the bottom left of the third photo, you can see the Paris Observatory, which predates Greenwich by a few years. If you had binoculars, you could see the Observatory from the Palais du Luxembourg through the avenue de l'Observatoire.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the towers of the Bibliothèque François Mitterand (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) can be seen on the left corner of the fourth photo, just below le bois de Vincennes (?) and just above that black cube.
You can see the Observatoire in the 3rd and in the 4th photo. And that is definitely the TGB (très grande bibliothèque) in the upper left corner of the 4th photo. I'm not sure what the black cube is, but I see it there.
DeleteKen, what is the long, treen-lined, curved street, on the left in the second to last photo?
ReplyDeleteI don't know.
DeleteI have always appreciated the "human scale" of Paris sans high rises......that along with the added bonus of green spaces makes walking there so lovely
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing, Judy and since I’m a crazy map person, I looked at my Le Petit Parisien, 3 plans par arrondissement. I think it’s blvd de Port Royal which is an extension of blvd du Montparnasse. Hoping Ken will let us know.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to tell for sure. It is probably, as you said a bit of Montparnasse, and Port-Royal.
DeleteI'm not at all sure, but it might be the Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui, going toward the Place d'Italie.
DeleteThe blvds Auguste-Blanqui and Saint-Jacques are on the right of the Observatoire, not on the left. And anyway, the metro there is aérien elevated on these two boulevards, so we should see the tracks if the boulevards on the left were Blanqui and Saint-Jacques. I stick to Momtparnasse and Port-Royal.
DeleteFurtherore, if you notice the direction the curb is going it means that further up there will be blvds Saint-Marcel, and de l'Hôpital that ends up at the Austerlitz Ststion on the left of the LGB.
QED - CQFD ?
Saint-Jacques and Blanqui might be that curving line of trees below the curving block of "small" highrises on the last photo?
BettyAnn, i wish I knew. That's not a part of Paris I've ever spent a lot of time in.
DeleteThanks CHM. Your experience of Paris goes back nearly a century. Has the city changed much over the decades?
DeleteOf course, parts of the city have changed a lot, and some other none at all. But the street system is mostly the same. Some streets' names have been changed, sometimes not for the best. Who knows that la Place de l'Étoile is the place de Gaulle? Some landmarks are still there (except for Gambetta!). Some quartiers which had no character of their own have been remodelled, like La Défense or the front de Seine which replaced the Citroën auomobile plant. Some monuments, like the Trocadéro, where I saw the movie Michel Strogof in the early thirties. Has been demolished and replaced by the Palais de Chaillot. The 15th arrondissement, where thrived many small artisans in low rise (?) buildings and ateliers, was slowly remodelled after urban sprawl push those small workshops or busineses away, eg Le Gallion, across the street from me.
DeleteMichel Strogoff (1926), with Ivan Mosjoukine, was the first movie I ever saw. My mother took me there. I was five or six years old, which means in the late twenties, or nine decades ago. Wow!
DeleteParis "new and improved"! Ouch. The neighborhood I lived in for three years, rue Montorgueil in the 2nd arrondissement, is completely different now from when I spent so much time there in 1979-82. Not for the better, in my opinion.
DeleteSeeing these photos brings back good memories from atop the Montparnasse tower with you. It was a clear day. I didn't know about the Observatory.
ReplyDeleteIt was a nice afternoon, and I have good memories of it. I wonder if I'll ever get to go up there again.
DeleteThis post certainly changed my understanding of the city. I had no idea there were any high rises other than in La Défense. Those in le Front de Seine are all approximately the same size/height, which is attractive.
ReplyDelete