Ah, Royalty.47
City Views.246
Place de la République gained its current name in 1879, nine years into the third French republic. The 3rd republic, in case you want to keep track, replaced the Second Empire, which had been founded by a descendant of Napoleon. Boney had himself launched the first empire when he decided he was emperor after all and all this “republic” business was too much of an impediment to his ambitions. But back to the square you see above: It gained its current form as a lovely pedestrian zone after a promise made during the mayoral campaign of 2008. Indeed, Paris has become far more bike and pedestrian friendly than it was when I spent more time there between 2005 and 2008.
Hence my walk noted in the previous post: all the photos I’m showing you in this post are from that walk. The column you see in the gallery below is on the Place de la Bastille. The place (square) is named after that infamous prison whose storming began the real (first) French revolution. But the column actually commemorates the July (second) Revolution in 1830. That revolution’s outcome was that an unpopular Bourbon King was removed from office with head still on neck, and sent over to England for a merry golden parachute retirement. He was then replaced by a cousin from the non-patrilineal Orleans rather than Bourbon branch. Said cousin and his branch of royals seemed more popular at the time. They ruled in this second iteration of “constitutional monarchy” – often called the July Monarchy, it seems – until they grew unpopular enough to spark the 1848 (third) revolution, which ushered in the second republic. (The first republic was most of the 15 years from the storming of the Bastille and arrest + beheading of the King & Queen and very, very many more, until Boney declared himself emperor in 1804.)
Keeping up with it all, so far? (They’re currently on the fifth, just to be clear. Governance has never been easy, anywhere, let’s be realistic about this fact even if politicians often aren’t…)
Urban Entrances.146
Small Wonders.255
Was delighted to see camellias blooming on that first morning walk in Paris’s Parc de Bercy last month 🙂
Ah, Royalty.45
Bridges.3
Bridges.1
I decided while in Paris that this’ll be my first new series in a while: Bridges. Appropriate, for Paris — but there’s a backstory. These images were all taken my first morning in Paris nearly two weeks ago, when I realized upon waking up that I’d need to get out in order to have tea (no kettle in the room grrr nor even anything available at the hotel at all double grr). Checking my handy Paris guide and my map, I realized there was a well-respected park nearby that I’d never yet been too called Parc de Bercy, so I grabbed my handy go mug and headed out for tea and a stroll (and, of course, a croissant, pain au chocolat and I think even something else…).
Unfortunately I made the wrong turn when I got there, so ended up royally annoyed at the pedestrian-unfriendly entrance and signage b/c I was walking around a big stadium or big walls, looking for an entrance to a park but instead I was on a narrow side walk next to noisy morning traffic on a major artery. When at long last I found my way into the park, I found it as delightful as suggested, and I even found the foot bridge across the Seine – named after Simone de Beauvoir – that you see above. These photos are all taken in the park, from the Passerelle Simon de Beuavoir, or of foot bridges that connected the two parts of the park to each other, over those busy streets.
I’m also happy to highlight infrastructure built for pedestrians first and foremost – usually an afterthought in too many places I’ve lived, and nice to see here, though they could improve their pedestrian-oriented signage up by that major commercial auditorium for us visitors 😊.
(so much world, so little time....) 