One of the most underrated walks in Paris

Sitting outside on a crisp, Saturday afternoon on Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6e. Sketching and lingering over a few verres de vin rouge. I have nowhere to go and no place I need to be.
Life is good.

Location of the comfortable and convenient Sydney Opera Hotel

Standing on the corner of the rue de Morengo looking southeast towards the Église Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Sacre-Coeur Railing
(Click on image to enlarge)

"Time is the architect, the people are the builder." — Victor Hugo

These adorn the pilings on the approaches to Pont Notre-Dame
"Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou be gracious and merciful "

I had first seen a version of this field kit being used by a woman working in the Jardin de Luxemborg one afternoon. I promptly appropriated the idea and constructed one of my own. Compared to the plastic ones that proliferate the market, this one is virtually indestructable. Born from a salvaged Altoids tin with the exterior sprayed in flat black enamel and a semi-gloss white enamel sprayed to the guts. It holds ten half-pans that are held in place with a thin strip of double stick tape, as well as a collapseble brush. Great at setting off the x-ray machine at aiports as well.

It was here on a bone chilling afternoon that I realized that I did not possess the mystical scarf-tying gene. Architect: Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart

Cour-du-Commerce st.-Andre

(Click on image to enlarge)

La France de Louis XIV

from the Quai D'Orsay

Architects: Joseph Cassien-Bernard & Gaston Cousin

Architect: Charles Garnier

The Rotunda, or folly at the Parc Monceau
Architect: Claude Nicolas Ledoux

My version of the lay of the land

Lost at sea.

I like this one because it was done in a fairly steady rain and ended up actually worth saving.

with Sainte Chapelle behind
Architects: Joseph L. Duc & Honoré Daumet

La Colonne Vendôme
Modeled after Trajans Column to honor Napoleon.

Assemble-National

One of my favorite spots.
The view from the top of the steps of the Eglise de la Madeleine at twilight. I would often sit here to take in the view looking down the Rue Royale, past the obelisk at the Place de la Concorde and all the way to the Asemblie Nacional across the Seine .

An icon nestled in a perilously small niche on the rue du Mont Cenis, caught my eye one day in Montmartré. It was a figure holding a child (Mary and the Christ child? St. Christopher?) and it reminded me of how much I missed my own kids.

The obelisk (Cleopatra's needle)
Egyptian: 1450 BC
Aswan granite This once stood at Luxor

The world's most visited cell tower.

. Lots of rain this year so the locals tell me.

A wicked head cold is responsible for keeping me from finishing this on the Avenue de Villars in the 7e, just off the Boulevard Invalides.

The skies threatened and then opened during one early Sunday morning sojourn to the butte.

A study of light as much as it is of detail

"Life is on the bridges"
- anonymous graffitti

The view from my vantage point and clear evidence of a fudged perspective. I probably spend more time on and under the bridges than anywhere else.

A French architect told me that rioting Huguenots defaced these figures in the 16th century, considering them idolatrous. The originals are over in the 5e at the Musee de Cluny. Right jamb, from L-R: John the Baptist, Saint Stephen, Saint Genevieve, and Saint Sylvester (PS- The same architect e-mailed me and pointed out that I had this misidentified as The Portal of Saint Anne.)

Raining again

neoclassical roman details at the Arc de Triomphe
Architect- Jean Chalgrin

Pyramides du Louvre. Architect: I.M.Pei

My Paris Soundtrack:
Buskers at the Jardin de Luxembourg.
Sax version of the Acker Bilt classic "Strangers on the Shore."

descending into the abyss

Perhahs the second most visited arch in the city. I prefer the other one.

Architect: Johann Otto van Spreckelsen

Sometimes a quick thumbnail helps to loosen up a bit. On the other hand, trying to sketch from the middle of the street can also almost get you killed.

72 rue Dauphine

This is the dome under which Nap is napping.

Boulevard d' Inkermann, Neuilly-sur-Seine

Architect: J. Hardouin Mansart

A ghost of Far Rockaway from the summer of '75 finds me again. on the southbound #13 line

So many faces...so little time