Paris Photos of the Week

I’ve been taking a ton of Instagram photos of the city during my morning runs. Because I’m an incorrigible multi-tasker. If you’re interested in seeing them “live” as posted, check out my Instagram page or Twitter feed (both are under the name ParisHeather). Here are my favorites from the past few weeks…

A grafitti’d wall of Les Frigos, a former artists squat in the 13th near the Pont de Tolbiac and the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand. It’s the only bit of wild-ness in an area completely built up over the past 15 years with spanking new buildings.

If you look closely, the building in the middle with the striped tower is Les Frigos. The Bibliothèque Mitterrand is behind it (one of the four towers).

This is what most of the neighborhood, which was an industrial wasteland only 20 years ago, looks like now. It’s home to the University of Paris – Diderot campus.

This airvent street art was still a “work in progress” when I ran past. An elderly couple were working on it, but stepped away when I took the photo.

This is the wonderful tower of the Sacré Coeur de Gentilly, as seen from the Cité Universitaire on the edge of the 14th. It’s right at the start of the Autoroute du Soleil, the highway leaving Paris for the South of France. Most people see it driving into Paris from Orly Airport.

These are the famous steps from “Midnight in Paris” where Gil meets the car that takes him back in time. It’s the side of the church at the foot of the Panthéon, St Etienne du Mont.

I visited later with a friend to take a photo of the church’s famous carved stone rood screen, the only one left in Paris (most were removed in the 17th century).

This is one of the Art Deco artworks decorating the Square René Le Gall, behind the Manufacture des Gobelins (where they’ve been making tapestries since the 17th century). This is the closest park to my apartment, so I run in here when I’m too tired to deal with traffic and pedestrians.

An iris blooming in the gardens surrounding the Arènes de Lutèce, in the 5th.

If you’ve visited Montmartre, you probably recall this statue of “The Man Who Could Pass Through Walls” (a character of local surrealist Marcel Aymé). The butt is a cheeky new addition, pun intended. Okay, I’ll admit it’s juvenile, but I’d totally moon someone if I could do it through the walls.

This is one of the roads running along the south end of the city known as Les Maréchaux, where the Tram 3 is being extended. Looks rather dreary and industrial to most people (this is an oddly flattering angle, actually, with the new cobblestones and leafy trees). But as I was running, a small passage on my left looked intriguing, and here’s what I found:

Yes, it’s the cutest little house in town. When that tram is done, these people can sell up and move to Tahiti.

I finished one of my longer training runs (16k) on the Ile des Cygnes, in the 16th, with a dramatic view of the Statue of Liberty. This is the one that the American expats in Paris paid for after the original was sent to America. It’s 1/5 the size (still enormous, as you can see), and has the dates of the American and French revolutions on her tablet.

This is the view from my window (looking over the Place d’Italie towards Chinatown) taken one early evening when it *finally* stopped raining. I was in my running gear and out the door less than 60 seconds later. 🙂