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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road After Dark – BigJimSlade – Paris, 1989

On The Road After Dark – BigJimSlade – Paris, 1989

by WaterGirl|  September 10, 202010:00 pm| 20 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, On The Road After Dark, Paris After Dark, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

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We are taking a trip in the wayback machine tonight!  I feel certain that BigJimSlade doesn’t look a day older than he did in 1989, wouldn’t you agree?  I have to say, the statue with the guy holding his own head wasn’t quite as charming as the kings from Omnes last night, but it does make a statement! For some reason, I feel like I should post a link to a Jim Morrison song, though I don’t know which one.  ~WaterGirl

BigJimSlade

After 4 years of college, I was one class shy of graduating. Most of my friends were on the 5 year plan, so I decided to take the fall semester off and go to Europe (and graduate at the same time as my friends), sporting a 110 Vivitar pocket camera. At least I think that’s what it was.

I was just thinking back to what I ate… I had a pear from a market while walking from a train station to the youth hostel – it as the best pear ever! Breakfast was some bread, jam and cheese at the hostel, plus a quick stop at a market for a yogurt and some chocolate, which I used as the spoon for the yogurt, or maybe a pain au chocolat. Lunch was what ever I could find while out in the city. Dinner was bread, sardines, cheese and a bottle of wine back at the hostel. I was on a $25/day budget (though I probably spent $5 – 10 more a day in Paris), so no bistros for me in 1989.

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989 6
Paris

I accidentally timed my trip with the centennial of the Eiffel Tower! (“100 ans” on the side of the tower translates to 100 years)

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989 5
Roof of Notre Dame, Paris

Even before Instagram there were famous shots that you had to take, if you can believe it!

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989 4
Roof of Notre Dame, Paris

In college, everyone’s your buddy, even, or especially, gargoyles and the like. I didn’t shave the entire trip (this is about 4 weeks into a 6 week trip). It was one less thing to pack and one less thing to do in the morning before you go out and see the sights. Since then I’ve stuck with shaving.

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989 3
Notre Dame, Paris

This guy holding his head, a martyr, I assume, caught my eye in one of the doorways of the Notre Dame.

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989 2
Notre Dame, Paris

Inside I was trying to capture the light and the colors – it’s hard! Especially with a point-and-shoot from the 80s. Anyway, the Notre Dame may be my favorite building in the world. Really, really, rully, hope they can restore it properly.

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989 1
Ste. Chapelle, Paris

Google for beautiful pictures of this little jewel’s inside. This is the far end of it.

On The Road - BigJimSlade - Paris, 1989
Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Paris

Hey, I was in college and I wasn’t too far from Jim Morrison’s grave…

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Reader Interactions

20Comments

  1. 1.

    Lapassionara

    September 10, 2020 at 10:04 pm

    These are wonderful, and since they were taken before the digital era, I am especially impressed that you were able to send them to WG for us to see. Thank you.

  2. 2.

    pacem appellant

    September 10, 2020 at 10:14 pm

    C’est chouette!

  3. 3.

    Tenar Arha

    September 10, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    Memories! I have almost that shot of that gargoyle ~ 4 years before yours. (I wonder where I put it?)

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 10, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    This guy holding his head, a martyr, I assume, caught my eye in one of the doorways of the Notre Dame.

    St Denis, I believe the first of the half dozen or so patron saints of the city. They lopped his head off on Montmartre (Mount of the Martyr), and he picked it up and started walking, preaching the good news from that head until he fell down a couple miles north.

  5. 5.

    Lapassionara

    September 10, 2020 at 10:25 pm

    I’m thinking the saint with the head in his hands is St Denys, one of the patron saints of Paris. For some reason, I think Ste. Genevieve is also one of the patron saints of Paris. So maybe there are two, one male and one female. An appropriate outcome.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s not spooky at all. //

  7. 7.

    Lapassionara

    September 10, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Half dozen? That sounds promising. Can you tell me more?

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Lapassionara:

    Saint Denis, the patron saint of France, has a very colorful and interesting history and story. There’s the cathedral that bears his name. We first visited the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis a number of years ago, that wonderful Gothic construction where many of France’s royalty were crowned and buried.

    As most visitors to Paris probably know, on the front of the Cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, to the left of the main door, stands the statue of a man holding his own severed head. It is Saint Denis. Why is the saint usually portrayed decapitated and what is the link to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Denis?

    The story goes that Saint Denis was decapitated, then walked 4 miles holding his head, which delivered a sermon, before finally collapsing and dying. Evidence is flimsy but there are enough details to the story to suggest it is based on some sort of facts.

  9. 9.

    Wag

    September 10, 2020 at 10:33 pm

    Doors? Why yes!
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=agwMwbmMNbk

  10. 10.

    Wag

    September 10, 2020 at 10:33 pm

    Great photos!

  11. 11.

    J R in WV

    September 10, 2020 at 10:39 pm

    Thanks for this, great pictures of a great story of Paris.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 10, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    @Lapassionara: I was snarking, mostly, thinking of Denis, Genevieve and Germain, and all the saints around town

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    September 10, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    @J R in WV: You’re here early tonight!  Often, yours is the last comment on Paris After Dar, and it’s in the morning.

  14. 14.

    randy khan

    September 10, 2020 at 11:14 pm

    My first trip to Paris was 1990.  But I haven’t the slightest idea where the photos are.  This made me think back on how wondrous it was.  (I do at least remember one photo I took – when I went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa (my then-girlfriend, now-wife abstaining from that particular room because she didn’t need to see it again) I took a photo of the crowd around it instead of the painting itself.)

  15. 15.

    Doug

    September 11, 2020 at 3:36 am

    @Tenar Arha: Judging by the photos other people have made, you left it there.

  16. 16.

    There go two miscreants

    September 11, 2020 at 7:42 am

    @WaterGirl: Evidence is flimsy…

    LOL

    Tangentially: My brain consistently refuses to process dates such as “1989” as being so ancient, but the reference to the 110 film camera did the trick!

  17. 17.

    BigJimSlade

    September 11, 2020 at 11:08 am

    @Lapassionara: Thanks – I digitized the old pictures by… taking pictures of them with my current camera (and trying to clean them up a bit in Lightroom).

  18. 18.

    BigJimSlade

    September 11, 2020 at 11:10 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks – I don’t think I ever looked into it, I just remember noticing it and going, “whoa! that guys is holding his head! In the doorway to a church!”

  19. 19.

    BigJimSlade

    September 11, 2020 at 11:13 am

    @J R in WV: Thanks, it was a lot of fun going over them and remembering, um, most of it. I found some pictures of people and thought, hmm, vaguely familiar, but don’t really remember what we may have talked about – what the interaction was like.

  20. 20.

    BigJimSlade

    September 11, 2020 at 11:22 am

    @WaterGirl: When I saw the doorway picture (of the kings) from Omnes the night before, I thought, wait until you see tomorrow’s!

    Regarding my aging looks, I’ve aged at least several months (cough, cough), but I must have Dorian Gray’s knees, or something, because they’ve aged a century

    And thanks again for all the work you do for On The Road!!!

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