The Petite Ceinture is a 17 mile railway circumscribing central Paris. It was built in 1852 to connect the Gares of Paris, became one of the world's first suburban transit systems, and fell into disuse during the 1930's as the Paris Metro succeeded it in efficiency. Today it is abandoned and little known, preserved by indecision over its future. It is a retreat from the city, and a home for underground culture. In places raised up, depressed or underground, it is an exceptional place to look back upon the city of Paris.
This is a rough journal of what I've found on the P.C. as well as during walks around Paris.

jeudi 12 juin 2008

Sunset from Montmartre

Jay, Makie and I headed to the top of Montmartre at 8:30 last night - it doesn't get fully dark until almost 11. It's a fifteen minute, 1/2 mile walk from the apartment. And the light was phenomenal. Here you can see the view from the apartment window looking towards the base of Montmartre...

And this is the view from the top (if you can open it in a separate window it's cooler)....




Paris almost seems small from this point. In the middle are the Pompidou Center and Notre Dame, with a line of Paris' rare few skyscrapers and the Pantheon in the background....




And this is top of the hill - Sacre Coeur (kinda ridiculous looking, and not very Parisian even though it's in the top three Parisian icons - one cool thing about it is that it's made of self cleaning stone, so it gets gradually whiter every year) - it's covered in tourists during the day, then replaced by drinkers, pot smokers and street performers at night. The steps are not self cleaning and smell awful. We saw french break dancing. It looks like American break dancing. And a flame person...pretty mesmerizing









And this was the Doge and I deciding to be 80's rockers in front of one of the Moulins.

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