paris on fire

Nuit Blanche 2009. James just arrived and we went out to check out some of the exhibitions that are scattered outdoors around Paris for the night. We were confronted by an unusually large crowd on the northern tip of Ile Saint-Louis. I thought it was for some exhibition but it turned out to be an apartment fire. Ile Saint-Louis is the smaller of the two islands on the Seine in the middle of Paris. It's more residential than the other Ile de La Cité. Needless to say, a fire like this is quite scary given how tightly the buildings are laid out. We came back around 15 minutes later and the firemen had already put it out. Hopefully no one was hurt.

bugatti veyron

Apologies to those of you who aren't interested in cars. I spotted this during a walk in the 16th. This is one of those crazy super cars - it costs about $1.5 million. It's more exotic than most Ferrari's or Lamborghini's. It boasts 1000 horsepower from an 8L, 16 cylinder engine in a W configuration (W16). I think it's a Volkswagen design (VW owns Bugatti). It's got 4 turbochargers, is mid-engine, and has 4 wheel drive. Full throttle will bring the car over 250 mph, and James May said on Top Gear that "the tires will only last for about fifteen minutes, but it's okay because the fuel runs out in twelve minutes". Read more about it on the wikipedia entry.

place des vosges

The light is getting really nice here. The last time I posted a photo from here was in March (the actual photo was taken in January) when I was notified that my file had been sent to the consulate and that I'd get my visa shortly. On Monday I finally picked up my residency card.

I started a series of photos on La Promenade Plantée. I started the post and then realized while reading more about it that it continued quite a bit further than I thought. So I put the post on hold until I could photograph the other section. After having done that, I want to redo many of the original shots in better light. I've put that series on hold for now. You'll see it eventually but for now I'll just try to focus on posting more frequently.

trocadéro

Was by Trocadéro and discovered these inline skaters doing jumps off of a makeshift ramp. I expected someone to stop them at some point but several police came and went without any drama. They gathered a decent crowd as the raised the "bar" and tried for higher and higher jumps.

cognac

A couple of weeks ago, my parents came to visit. I have a cousin in Cognac, and we paid her a visit. Her husband works for Martell, so we took a tour of the grounds:





The smell of the cognac was strong in most of the rooms. We learned that the cognac we drink is a blend from different barrels and ages. Mainly Ugni Blanc grapes, a white grape, are used, one of the three that are required by French law to be called "Cognac". French law also says that it must be aged at least two years in oak barrels.

What is also interesting is that there's a certain type of bacteria that thrives on something that is given off in the manufacturing process, and this affects the town. My cousin told me that when they moved into their house, they power-washed the outer walls to reveal the light-yellow stone from under the dark colored bacteria.



River Charente.



Hennessey castle thing - I guess they make cognac there too :-p.



An abandoned abbey.

tour de france 2009

Waiting on the steps of la bibliothèque nationale...



I have no idea who's who...




Click through any of the photos to view the gallery with a couple more of the same type of photos.

a dreaded sunny day

I went to Père Lachaise recently. I picked up a map at the entrance that has all the famous people marked. It's not hard to find the bigger names, since there's likely to be people already at the grave or a fairly elaborate set of flowers. (or in Wilde's case, lipstick). I did have trouble finding some of the lesser known graves, since the markings on the map aren't so precise.

Here are some of the interesting things I found:







The crematorium:



There are a number of commemorating stones for Nazi victims:





I left out from this post all the famous graves - hopefully you'll want to see them in person. If you really want to see the photos you can click through any of the photos here and browse along. The official Père Lachaise website actually has a great virtual tour too.