Picturing Paris

09/01/201616/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / 3 Comments

View from under the Bir Hikeim Bridge

The Statue of Liberty replica on ile des cygnes

The columns of Bir Hakeim bridge

La Tour Eiffel seen from Bir Hakeim bridge

Train running along the banks of la Seine

Metro on the move

La Seine and la Tour Eiffel seen the ile des cygnes

A seat along la Seine
All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

PARIS IN PICTURES

22/12/201522/12/2015 / deuxiemepeau / 2 Comments

Starting at top left with a Jeu de Paume exhibition advertised at Cite Metro station on Ile de la Cite, La Tour Eiffel seen from Le Mur pour la Paix (The Wall of Peace), a bench in Jardin du Luxembourg, the back roof of the Saint Sulpice church in the 6th arrondissement, Notre Dame seen from the terrace of Institut du Monde Arabe on Quai Saint Bernard.

Autumn revealing its colour on the hills of Parc de Belleville in the 20th, looking at reflections on a glass wall of the George Hermant swimming pool in the 19th, plant pots on Rue Mabillon in the 6th, La Tour Eiffel and the champ du Mars, graffiti on columns in the Maison du l’Air in Belleville, mosaic panelling inside the Institut du Monde Arab.

A man sitting in the Jardin des Tuileries, a winding side street in the 6th, metro line at Pasteur in the 15th, a bridge in the Parc Bercy in the 12th, trees along the road side in Neuilly Sur Seine, a house in Parc Bercy.

A black and white shot of the Nassim de Camondo Museum in the 8th, the bridge again (I like it), a tree yellowing at Parc Montsouris in the 14th by Cite Universitaire, polar ice melting at the Pantheon in the 5th for the Climate Change conference, a chandelier in a glass ball on a lake in the Jardin des Tuileries and a deserted railway line in the 14th.

Boat houses opposite Ile de la Grande Jatte in Neuilly Sur Seine, the Louis Vuitton Foundation museum in the Bois de Boulogne, the entrance to Parc Monceau in the 8th and finally a leafy lane in Parc Bercy.

The featured photograph is a hot air balloon (Ballon GENERALI de Paris) hovering over Parc Andre Citreon in the 15th arrondissement.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

SHADES OF METROS MOVING

09/12/201516/08/2021 / deuxiemepeau / Leave a comment

I take the metro and tour the world
on one single line, in one single hour,
I am south and white, not so south
that I am ghetto, but I’m still south
so I start in paler shades, fragile skin,
freckled skin, skin burnt by sunlight
and I travel central to chicer centres,
to tote bags, Chanel bags, Prada bags,
bags so cool they don’t have names
carried with character and sun glasses
worn indoors over eyes, on the head,
and all through life, I cross the Seine
and the current now changes to casual
as the youth descend from Les Halles;
the track suits and highheels, gay boys
with toned tops, crew cuts in J crew’s,
chiseled cheek bones and trendy setters
with Asian angles, before I move north
again, further up the line and I darken,
in one stop; I am urban now, ethnic and
eager with attitude, edgy, and on I go
until I’m swayed, suddenly, in shawls
and in wraps and in colours so bright,
I am now a kaleidoscope of carriages
going north, tearing up into the ghetto,
of the greatness, of the gangs, the guts,
I am metro madness in one line of life.