July 27, 2007

Around Place de la Bastille


Place de la Bastille is of course a historical place, but there is nothing left of the Bastille. In the centre of the place, you have column celebrating, not the destruction of this famous prison in 1789, but the 1830 “July revolution” (yes, France has had a number of revolutions) which took place three hot (!) summer days July 27-29 (“Les Trois Glorieuses”), exactly 177 years ago, forcing one king (Charles X) to abdicate in favour of another one (Louis Philippe). Behind the column you can see the new Bastille Opera house, opened in 1989. The place is still often used for different political or popular manifestations.

Around la Bastille, you have an area which used to be where you bought your furniture (before Ikea), Faubourg-Saint-Antoine. Since centuries this was an area where you could find hundreds of workshops making furniture and shops selling them. There are a few left, but even if it seems to have been decided that the area shall not be demolished, many of the buildings in the large number of small side streets are now progressively occupied by more fashionable offices, art galleries and shops and they are to a large extent also transformed into lofts for living.

This is also an area for an active nightlife with a lot of cosy restaurants, clubs, discotheques… Rue de la Lappe has a long tradition in this respect; this is where the “bals-musette” and the “apaches” were “invented”. One famous “bal” is still left, the Balajo (Bal à Jo). Today you can go there for salsa, techno, retro… depending on the day and the hour.
Some of the photos I took for the Fête de la Musique were taken around la Bastille and rue de la Lappe.
The original photos can be found on my other blog "Peter - photos".

23 comments:

Shionge said...

Peter I have always been amazed and intrigue by your photos around Paris...tell me, in a normal typical day do you spend your time walking around the city and capture shots?

How long do you stay out? What would you normally do besides pictures? Drinking coffee having cheese cake along the River Seine?

Keshi said...

its the place to be ha!

Keshi.

Kate said...

Another wonderful montage, Peter. I especially like the top photo.

Cuckoo said...

I ask the same question as Shionge. So many photos daily ?

My favourite is the 1st one. Feel like going there.

Peter said...

Shionge and Cuckoo:
As you ask. No, I don't spend hours every day on taking photos, but when I walk around I take a lot. When the camera can accept 1000 photos, it's so easy to click. The problem is then to select and that's where I have a problem, so I show (too) many! I believe I'm not a candidate for the "daily photo" or I have to learn!

Olivier said...

j'ai vecu une petite partie de ma vie dans ce quartier, tres vivant et superbe. Maintenant j'aime bien venir me promener dans les jardins du port de la Bastille. bon Weekend

SusuPetal said...

What? So there has been a time before Ikea...:)

I must see Paris, I'm dying to walk around and take photos, too. I must.

I was in Paris about 16 years ago, but did I have a digital camera back then? No! And even then I managed to take about 200 pics in one week...

Peter said...

oliver:
Je vais essayer de parler du port un autre jour!

suspetal:
Hard to remember to before-Ikea times, but when I moved to Paris, Ikea was still absent. Now I believe they have six installations around the city and most people seem to have as first reaction to go there. As a Swede I should somehow feel happy about this (and I also go there), but we of course all end up having the same home decoration.

16 ears ago and no digital camera! Time to come back! Hope that we can meet!

di.di said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
di.di said...

picture perfect! the pictures are gorgeous and your storytelling is so interesting! I wish to be there now :P

hpy said...

Isn't that the place where we used to go for dinner with several of our friends? I remember one when you where placed with the name "oh le son du canon". Those were the days my friend... you may write the following words!

Peter said...

hpy:
Yes, La Galoche d'Auvergne, which you can see on one of the photos, was a then by the "team" frequently visited restaurant! We never left hungry - or thirsty!

Anonymous said...

Your photos and story are very nice and interesting to read. I saw why one of those revolutions happened. The people were starving and demanded food. It had to do with the Little Ice Age.

Chuckeroon said...

Fine street scenes Peter. In your explanantions I think that you gallantly left out the time you spend sorting, archiving your own stuff AND THEN....so graceously commenting in a kind way to so many others. That's a long task. Well done

lorenzothellama said...

Love all your photos! Love Paris too!
Spent a very happy three days there in May. Travelled by Eurostar. That was a first and I must say it was wonderful. Only 20 minutes in the tunnel!
Cheers, Lorenzo.

Neva said...

The little side streets made Paris very interesting for me when I was there a few years ago...this is a nice view down one of them....wow, 1000 pics....you are a busy man sorting and saving! I am impresses....still!

Ash said...

Thanks for showing us around...really enjoyed these images!

black feline said...

Peter..have u done a posting on Avenue Victor Hugo? I will love to see some photos...

Anonymous said...

Thank you for visiting and I fixed the link. Or just click on this one to read my story about the dog tags and see the photos too. When you get there, you will find a link there to go to the place where the tags are available.

About Dog Tags

sonia a. mascaro said...

Love all photos and your interesting reportage! Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed to see Paris!

Have a lovely weekend!
Desejo a você um agradável final de semana!

Peter said...

neva:
Of course I don't take 1000 pics per post, but I can store some 1000 pics, which means that I can cover for several posts when I walk around in a specific area.

black feline:
OK. One of these days. (I used to live in the area.)

Everybody:
Thanks for all nice words - and nice weekend!

Cergie said...

Cela fait tout à fait village, c'est un quartier de paris où j'aimerais bien avoir un petit 2 pièces (on a failli d'ailleurs, mais on a laissé passer l'occasion)

Nathalie H.D. said...

Peter, tes rues pavées, vertes, ensoleillées et fraiches, sont un délice! Merci pour cette superbe ballade !

Tu as raison, l'exercice d'une (seule) photo par jour est effroyable, il faut une discipline de fer pour s'y tenir dans une ville aussi stimulante que Paris.