On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
On the Road: Week of January 18 (5 am)
Albatrossity – Winter in Flyover Country #1
ChasM – Beginning at the Beginning – Rustic Canyon 1980
?BillinGlendaleCA – Inauguration Day
Steve from Mendocino – Rorschach
Lapassionara – Paris, ParisOn the Road: After Dark: Week of January 18 (10 pm)
Looks like we will be treated to an interesting series next week, with Mike in Oly.
? And now, back to Steve from Mendocino, thank you for taking us back to Paris!
Steve from Mendocino
So long and thanks for all the fish!
Once again, I have a photo of a building I can’t identify. It was taken 45 years ago at a time that I relied on Anne-Marie to know the wheres and whats relating to my pictures. I’m pretty sure I took this on my way to lunch with a friend who worked in the financial district, but I have no idea what that building is.
Place Vendome, location of the big jewelry stores like Van Cleef & Arpels, Dior, etc., as well as the Ritz hotel. Fun to window shop, but the idea of real jewelry seems daffy to me.
More narrow street with lots of cars.
A shopping arcade 50 years ago. I look at this and wonder what it must have been like 100 years ago.
Paris bistro interior. There are many many like this in Paris, and they are frequently very pleasant spots to rest one’s legs and get a little something to eat or drink while soaking up the neighborhood activity.
Anne-Marie’s aunt and uncle’s restaurant had a ladder behind the bar that dropped down to this cellar where supplies were stored – sausages brought in from Burgundy, barrels of wine from Morgon, Beaujolais and from Cotes du Rhone, and other goodies. Shipments came in through a door accessible from a back courtyard, but during service, the aunt would occasionally climb down the ladder to get some supplies.
On Sundays, the uncle would sit down there refilling bottles from the barrels. The floor was dirt. The whole operation was an eye opener to me in 1968. Glasses at the bar were “cleaned” after use by dipping them in cold water and wiping them thoroughly with a dish towel. Nobody ever got sick to my knowledge, but those practices were unheard of in the U.S. at that time.
There was a premium horse meat store across the street from the restaurant, and for lunch one day the uncle prepared a pepper steak for me substituting horse without telling me until afterward. That sort of thing doesn’t freak me out. The meat was very similar to beef, indistinguishable if you’re not expecting it. For me it struck me as “why bother”. I suspect it was cheaper, and a hold over from the hardships of the war. I’m sure those shops are now long gone.
Your befuddled tour guide struggling with the Paris street guide, trying to find a recommended falafel restaurant in the warren of short, tiny streets in the Marais. My daughter took this.
My other sunset photo marks the end of my Paris. I hope it provided some of you with entertainment. I’ll see you all again in some other place in France or in Mendocino or someplace else I dig out of my archives.
Thanks for joining me.
Steve
Open Thread: How Was Your Day?
Lapassionara
Thank you again. Your first photo looks like the Pantheon. I wonder why it is supposed to be in the financial district?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Looks like the Panthéon?
zhena gogolia
@Lapassionara:
My husband says it’s Le Panthéon, originally the church of Ste. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris.
Steve from Mendocino
@Lapassionara: It’s in the financial district because my initial memory of it was vague and decades have passed since then. For me it exists now as an interesting photo in a city I love. Thank you for identifying it for me. I’ve wondered for years.
Lapassionara
@zhena gogolia: so, I think so too. I don’t think there is any other building in Paris with that facade and the round colonnaded dome.
Thanks, Steve in Mendocino.
Lapassionara
@Steve from Mendocino: if it is the Pantheon, it is near the Sorbonne. You have a great eye for perspective and texture.
JanieM
I laughed out loud at this. I wouldn’t have thought of saying “daffy” — but I know what you mean. Jewelry doesn’t move me at all, except possibly something like a simple sapphire earring. The only real luxury category of objects I have any emotional reaction to is Oriental rugs.
This set of pics — surprise, my fave is the narrow street with lots of cars. Just like last night. But they’re all great, and the stories are wonderful, especially the one about the restaurant, the ladder, and the dish towel. Reminds me of things I wondered about when I traveled in China — the standards for safety and cleanliness were so obviously not what I was used to. But I never got sick
ETA: right-click “search for image on Google” gave the same result for that building that everyone else has given. That’s a new toy for me — amazing, but kind of creepy, too.
TS (the original)
The shopping arcade 50 years ago would be c. 1970 and in my part of the world people were still doing major shopping in city centres. Suburban shopping was just beginning. I wonder what it is like today & would hazard a guess it would be less crowded.
Enjoying the pictures and memories – thanks
Steve from Mendocino
@TS (the original): Actually, I meant 50 years before the photo was taken, which would mean sometime around 1920
Auntie Anne
Thank you so much for this series, Steve. I’ve loved seeing them every night.
JanieM
Afterthought — the sunset picture is beautiful. Trying to figure out why it seems so haunting, I realized that it reminds me of Stonehenge. If that’s weird, sorry, but it’s like a dream scene, and anything goes in dreams, right?
captnkurt
I’m a bit surprised you have not used the services of this young upstart <checks notes>, Goolgol? No, that’s not quite it. Anyway, here’s a reasonable location recreation (hey that rhymes!)
scav
Best I can tell, that’s the Passage Choiseul, so here are some links: somebody’s blog with photos that seem to match & wiki & shopping heavy link
Why yes, I do have a thing for passages. Thanks!
Comrade Colette
I think that “mall” is the Passage de Choiseul. Here’s what it looks like now – less neon, less character. This page features a fantastic antique photo of it; the caption claims erroneously it’s 1829, but from the clothing I would guess 1889.
Damn, I miss Paris. Thanks for the memories, Steve.
Lapassionara
@captnkurt: oh my, that is fantastic. Thanks.
devore
http://www.labeillefrancaise.net/sublime-beauty-paris-pantheon-1/
It’s the pantheon
TomatoQueen
Pantheon. Genuine Paris bistro chairs go for nearly $200 a pop and all my life I’ve wanted two, sigh. And you, Mr Paris Guide, bear more than a passing resemblance to the late and most beloved Oliver Sacks, M.D.
Princess
It’s really nice for me to see these. I am going to be in Paris in January 2022 if all goes well and looking at maps fo the city today, I realize that the Paris I got to know in the 80s and 80s has vanished. There is sort of a blandification of major cities all over the world that I suppose has good qualities, but which makes me a bit sad.
pacem appellant
In 2005, I found the falafel restaurant in the Marais. I got there at 11:50am, and it was deserted, but the staff said they were open and sat me. Food was great! At 12:00pm on the dot, the restaurant filled to the gunwales with business men and women on their lunch hour. The punctual nature of the French work day was exciting to see first hand.
TKH
While hiking the Pyrenees mountain range on the border of France and Spain a few years ago I saw many horses, the breeds with the substantial legs that used to pull a plough or wagon when I was a kid, not the riding/show jumping kind. I wondered then what they were raised for until a Frenchman set me straight: they were raised for meat to be sold in France. I am sure the horse charcuterie in Paris is gone, but the habit of eating horse meat is not, at least in France.
J R in WV
Great photos of the City of Light — I will book our passage as soon, the very moment the world returns to normal for us.
Paris to start, then all around France with a rental Citroën, then Switzerland and the Alps, as soon as possible
ETA: Did I mention how your photos inspire me to book a continental trip? So inspiring for me — thanks so much for taking the time to share this with us!
Daney Dawson
Hi Steve from Mendocino, this is Daney from Mendocino. I really enjoyed your photos and narrative of Paris. Other than Mendocino, where I’ve lived for 45 years, France is my favorite place. I spent about four years in Europe in the 70’s, most of it in France, living in a small town near Paris. I spent probably a total of several months in Paris, and my first child was born there (married a francais).
Vive la France! Vive Paris! (yes, it was heartbreaking when Notre Dame burned)_.
BigJimSlade
I love that a restaurant would have their own barrels of wine. Thanks Steve from Mendocino!
jpm
@captnkurt: Nice find! I tried backing up that street a bit and found this spot.
It seems that the pic was taken with a long lens from behind the fountain in the traffic circle. It’s blurred, but you can see the fountain itself at the lower right side of the original image.
Steve from Mendocino
@Daney Dawson: Hi Daney, Mrs. Steve here (a.k.a. Ashley). Fun to find you on BJ! Steve said to tell you he’s got several posts featuring Mendocino in the pipeline. Miss running into you around town these days. Vive la musique!