TABLE OF CONTENTS TO OUR ART TOUR OF PARIS FOR CITY PLANNERS AND PAINTERS...ORIGINAL GRAPHICS, P.O.R. .

• Bonjour and a MAP, of course.  Also a subway map.

• MONTMARTE;

• MUSEUMS;

• PARKS.

• SOME HISTORY;  here is a link to some French planning maps - as in the U.S.A., government regional planning funds go mostly to transit, so it seems!

• THE BANKS OF THE SEINE AND TWO ISLANDS:

Seat of some functions of government and more history;

Churches including you know who;

Vitrail -  Stained glass  on the Île de la Cité;

The residential island.  Very interesting history from a planner's point of view!  See map here:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Map_of_%C3%8Ele_Saint-Louis_-_OpenStreetMap_2015.svg

• Is Paris the "Hub" of the European economy?  La Défense:  Although there is some housing here, most of what appears to have been built is commercial .

• And the "left bank" for artists...and did we mention all the bridges?

• And a tip of the cap to work of a major architect and thinker as well as designer of new towns...

• CHARTRES

   

GET IN THE MOOD...

UNE VUE SUPERBE
Look to the right, look to the left.  Paris is inspiring in all directions!   Out the front door, gardens, sculpture... and  streets align geometrically, it is said, as military strategy.  Seat of governmental... in the 8th.

SOME HISTORY
The "old world" or Europe, isn't called that for nothing!  Much of pre-American history began here and explains in some ways why we are as free as we are.


          

Hôtel de Sens
Among the oldest buildings in Paris, on the left...in the 4th Arrondissement - a religious institution and another!  As well as a vacant building in Le Marais.

 

             

  

MSW 

(Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume ).

             
MY HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED...
As you may be aware, there is placed in front of the Louvre, a

Gardens.  Trocadéro, at the site of the  Palais de Chaillot, 16th arrondissement;  Champs de Mars, 7th arrondissement, at the end of which is the Eiffel Tower...
Paris is a riot of color, which is perhaps why it has been home to artists?   And did we mention the light?  If color provides the excitement, the piercing light of Paris adds drama!!!

             

JARDIN DES TUILERIES  AND SCULPTURE

             

THE RAPE OF PARIS?  WELL, NOT EXACTLY..."THE NIGHT" ONE MAILLOT THAT TRANSCENDED THE GARDENS THEMSELVES, IMHO.
Perhaps the most spectacular sculpture garden ever, thought I the first day in Paris!  And more sculpture indoors and out emerged... did we mention that the Tuileries actually is a garden that became a routine to visit?

A MAJOR FEATURE OF PARIS IS THAT A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT.  TWO ISLANDS SIT IN ITS MIDDLE...

Île Saint-Louis
 
The Seine makes its way languidly across France...the courts and the police in Paris are on an island.   Bridges get you to various and significant  historical tombs as well.

                

BASTILLE DAY JULY 14th
"Conciergerie" (framed in red) for those awaiting the guillotine...in the First Arrondissement.

"Printmaking" conveys yet even more emotion, n'est-ce pas?


                 

Perhaps the favorite church for painters to paint.  And graphic art in which to revel?  Who can forget great literary usage of its design, either...movies, black and white?

               

From close by the eastern end, a graphic...

     

Now try adding color...

            

BELOW
And at the western end, is a little bridge to Île de la Cité (not shown) - and in the distance, perhaps, we see the tower of the

...

          

Île Saint-Louis
RESIDENTIAL ONLY - BUT WITH SHOPPING AND DINING ON ITS MAIN STREET

Chopin stayed here.

(If memory serves, we strolled around this smaller island and were reminded of, for example, Riverside Drive in Manhattan - and found the place we'd move to in a nano-second!)


Nous ne sommes pas peur
Well, we may be unafraid, but the air quality in the video link below is reminiscent of New York in the late 1960's.  Truly, the colors and gorgeous clouds in 1971 REALLY were as I've drawn all these years later!
Since my method required looking carefully at what is on the original material - my own slides turned into jpeg's - I am distilling what "was there" and creating a new work of my own art.  And yes, more than anything, the sky and clouds were the most special part of my trip to Paris.  Would I go back?  Not so sure as so many "planning improvements" have despoiled its classic look and feel...

NOTE:  At 2:35 into the video below is information I had not known about this, my very favorite place in Paris!

Perhaps a place to rent?  Here is one video tour - not ours:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpOtKAjgX0


FOR PLANNERS ONLY
And if you are interested, here is how the environment is discussed in France: http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/REE2014-EN.pdf




Napoleon's Tomb (Pont Alexandre)

 

         

ALSO LEFT BANK...ACROSS THE PONT DES ARTS...
It was an unexpected pleasure coming upon the École des Beaux-Arts...perhaps the history of Paris for me is about art!


                  

MODERN ARCHITECTURE PERHAPS INTRUDES?  OR NOT?

           

      

EXISTING OUTSIDE THE HISTORIC AREAS AND BEYOND THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE IN GREEN ABOVE...METRO STOP BELOW...


              

LANDSCAPE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT
Nice subway station.  But then everything in Paris is beautiful.  Even construction cranes. dotted across the sky - it was a magnificent day for landscape painting!


     

  
La Défense
According to online sources, has 38 million square feet of office space (plus shopping mall, residences, etc.) on @400 acres.  Artistic license department.
Construction shown above from our visit.  In the 16th arrondissement, La Défense as shown here is before centerpiece rather squat "arch."

We note the superior concept and design of an earlier "arch" designed post-WWII by famous architect for St. Louis, Missouri, US.A..  St.. Louis's is cool, classic and  soars as a visual message, bien sûr.

CHARTRES
And for a rare treat - train trip to see Chartres.  Please note that Chartres was built and rebuilt several times - there were previous Romanesque as well as Gothic versions


        

THE COLOR OF LIGHT... AND DARKS
Historic and national treasure.  Windows (one example, "West Window" below) beyond capabilitiy of About Weston to describe...

        

 

      
It doesn't matter how you transform it - Chartres is awesome!