Where are we? Rue Castagnary in Paris’s 15th arrondissement, by the train tracks of the Montparnasse Station that serves western France.

This lighthouse is nothing but an advertisement for a fish market. But I dream of going inside and opening a window so as to greet Bretons in their trains arriving in Paris.

A 6 heures du matin, il fait déjà grand jour en ce moment. Dans un ciel annonçant enfin une belle journée de juin, se dresse un phare. Mais les seuls bruits qu’on entend ici ne sont ni les cris des mouettes, ni le reflux des vagues… mais celui des voitures et des trains !

Où sommes-nous? Rue Castagnary dans le 15e arrondissement de Paris, le long des voies de la gare Montparnasse qui dessert l’Ouest de la France.

Ce phare n’est qu’une publicité pour une halle aux poissons. Mais je rêve d’y entrer, d’ouvrir une fenêtre pour saluer dans leur train les Bretons qui arrivent à Paris.

Photo and text © 2014, Va-nu-pieds.

More of Va-nu-pieds’ work can be seen here on France Revisited and here on the photographer’s own site.

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Wishing you a bright and joyful holiday season.

Enjoy the ride as the new year comes ’round again.

The post Season’s Greetings from the City of Light appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

There’s a certain kind of cyclist who thinks of himself as such an independent urbanite that he doesn’t have to pay attention to traffic regulations. He breezes through red lights with a ting-ting of his bell to let pedestrians know that he’s too free, too green and too self-sufficient to have to have to stop for them.

And the haphazard way in which he locks up his two-wheels to posts and fences is reminiscent of how car owners parked on the sidewalk before the crackdown (and posts) circa 1990. Except that the car owners would eventually move their rusting vehicles, whereas cyclists will leave their bikes agonizing on the street for all to see. Admittedly, some of those bikes have been vandalized—their seat or a wheel stolen, their wheel run over by a car or twisted by intentional fate, etc.—and are then abandoned by their owners.

Still, fed up with the sight of bicycles that no longer roam, that agonize before our eyes, that clutter the sidewalks, Va-nu-pieds says: “Ras le bol de ces vélos qui ne roulent pas, qui expirent sous nos yeux, qui encombrent tout….” as he lifts his camera and his foot to rant.

All photos © 2013, Va-nu-pieds

Also see The Cranky Parent, The Cranky Host, The Cranky Urbanist and The Cranky Foreign Resident.

The post The Cranky Pedestrian: The Barefoot Photographer Rants Against Bicycle Cadavers appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Never mind.

He went window shopping instead.

Imagine his surprise when he came upon a shop that sold leather accessories for the feet.

What an odd concept he thought, and he took a picture.

If he were to accessorize at all he might shop at this digit decorating shop:

But they wouldn’t allow him inside either.

So he stepped into a world where shoes weren’t required,

and from there he sent us these photographs with best wishes for merry trekking and travels in the coming year.

The post Va-nu-pieds, the Barefoot Photographer, Goes Christmas Shoe Shopping in Paris appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

Is that student the last to leave the classroom during an exam? Is he being kept back for extra study? Has he fallen asleep? Is he secretly texting? Sexting? Has he solicited his teacher’s assistance only to find himself given a problem to solve while his teacher photographs his foot?

Whatever’s going on here, un grand merci to Va-nu-pieds for getting us back in the saddle of the classroom as the new school year gets underway.

If interested in the big picture of how the education system operates in France, a round-up in English from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs explaining the 60 billion euro system can be found here.

The post Va-nu-pieds: Barefoot in the Classroom appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

About 100 feet in front of the cathedral there’s an octagonal plaque engraved with a compass and surrounded by four stones engraved with the words POINT ZÉRO DES ROUTES DE FRANCE. Even when the crowds arrive few will notice this bronze plaque indicating the point from which all roads from the capital are measured. Perhaps one hasn’t truly been to the center of Paris if one hasn’t put a foot—barefoot, shoed, sneakered or sandaled—on Point Zero, a.k.a. Kilometer Zero. It’s a kind of “You are here”—“Vous êtes ici.”

Va-nu-pieds was there. Pausing to reflect on what direction he’ll go in for his summer travels, the Barefoot Photographer steps up to the plate.

Photos © 2012, Va-nu-pieds.
Text by Gary Lee Kraut.

More of Va-nu-pieds’ work can be seen here on France Revisited and here on the photographer’s own site.

The post Va-nu-pieds: Notre-Dame, Early Morning and Point Zero, Early Summer appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

“From the deep, narrow creeks (calanques) of Marseille to Saint Tropez,” VNP writes, “the Riviera is magical for me. The light of September, the colors, the smell of pine and eucalyptus, the ground of the coast and of the beaches.”

Des calanques de Marseille à Saint Tropez, la côte d’Azur est pour moi un enchantement. La lumière de septembre, les couleurs, les odeurs de pin et d’eucalyptus, les sols de la côte et des plages.

Sun/Soleil

“Shooting pictures in the south of France in black-and-white is a challenge when everything here is golden, blue and green, reflection and transparency…”

C’est une gageure de photographier le Midi en noir et blanc quand ici tout est doré, bleu et vert, de reflets et de transparences…

Rocks/Rochers

.

.

Water/Eau

.

– Photos and text (c) VNP, September 2011

For more of Va-nu-pieds’ photographs on France Revisited click here.
For Va-nu-pieds’ photographs on his own blog click here.

The post Barefoot by the Mediterranean: Sun, Rocks, Water appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

The seasons in the city. Along with the change of light and length of day comes the change in urban vegetation. For France Revisited I’ve been watching the seasons in Paris by keeping an eye on the Virginia creeper that hangs along the full side wall of a building in my neighborhood.

Les saisons en ville. Ce qui change, c’est la lumière et la durée du jour bien sûr et aussi la végétation urbaine. Pour France Revisited, j’ai guetté les saisons à Paris grâce à une vigne vierge qui s’accroche sur tout un pignon d’immeuble près de chez moi.

The entire wall turns:
Le mur devient entièrement:

dazzling green in summer,
vert éclatant l’été

dark red in autumn just before the rain causes all of the leaves to fall in the space of a few days,
rouge sombre en automne juste avant la pluie qui fera tomber toutes feuilles en quelques jours,

the wall and the branches appear nude in winter,
le mur et les branches apparaissent nus l’hiver,

then little by little they get dressed in green again in spring.
puis se rhabillent progressivement de vert au printemps.

There’s nothing artificial in the four photos presented here. These are truly the four seasons of my street in Paris! And a splendid start to spring it is!
Rien d’artificiel dans les quatre photos présentées ici, ce sont bien les vraies saisons de ma rue parisienne ! Et c’est un splendide début de printemps !

Text and photos by Va-nu-pieds. Translation by GLK.

The post Va-nu-pieds’ Wall for All Seasons appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.

* * *

Paris’s annual Motor Show, Le Mondial de l’Automobile, opens on October 2.

Like many Parisians I don’t own a car. The city offers many alternate means of transportation (metro, bus, Vélib bikes) and getting around on two wheels is definitely the most effective over short distances in this fairly compact capital.

My foreign friends often tell me how surprised they are to see cars parked so tightly along the street. They attribute Paris drivers with uncanny virtuosity when it comes to parking in tight spaces.

The red Citroën 2 CV (called the “deux-chevaux” in French, meaning two-horse) is the first to have caught my eye a few streets from my apartment. When I returned the following day to photograph it, several neighborhood residents came up to me and said “She’s a beauty, huh?, and she starts right up.” Several days later, also in my neighborhood, the sight of a Diane blue Citroën gave me the idea to create a blue-white-red automobile, colors of the French flag, on the occasion of the Motor Show. I found the white one outside of Paris.

Le 2 octobre s’ouvre comme chaque année à Paris le Mondial de l’Automobile.

Comme de nombreux parisiens, je ne possède pas de voiture. La ville me propose toutes sortes de moyens de transports alternatifs (métro, bus, Vélib) et le déplacement en deux-roues est incontestablement le plus efficace sur les petites distances… et comme Paris est une capitale peu étendue…

Mes amis étrangers se disent souvent surpris de voir les voitures garées le long des rues, très serrées. Ils attribuent donc spontanément au conducteur parisien une virtuosité hors pair pour se garer dans un mouchoir de poche.

C’est la 2CV (on dit deux chevaux) Citroën rouge qui a la première retenu mon regard à quelques rues de chez moi. Quand je suis revenu le lendemain la photographier, des riverains se sont approchés : « Elle est belle, hein ? et elle démarre au quart de tour ! ». Quelques jours plus tard, toujours dans mon quartier, c’est une Diane bleue Citroën qui m’a donné l’idée de construire un bleu-blanc-rouge automobile à l’occasion du Mondial. Mais c’est hors de Paris que j’ai trouvé cette 2 chevaux blanche.

– Photos and French text VNP. English translation GLK.

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* * *

The weather has been gloomy in Paris this summer, the sun unpredictable. No sooner are you ready to go out when the sky changes.
Le temps est bien maussade à Paris cet été, le soleil imprévisible. Le temps de se mettre en route et le ciel change.

Still, the desire to be outside and the need for nature are irrepressible. Returning to Parc de Sceaux, I continue my photographic experiments: alone against a tree,
Pourtant l’envie du dehors, le besoin de nature est irrépressible. De retour au Parc de Sceaux, je continue mes expériences : seul contre un arbre,

toes fanning out (a French expression meaning total inactivity),
les doigts de pied en éventail (une expression française qui dit la totale inactivité),

involving a couple of kind tourists with their feet in the water,
impliquant un couple de gentils touristes les pieds dans l’eau,

or playing between shadows and light.
ou jouant entre ombres et lumières.

And this is Paris’s emptiest week of the year: I’ll be here to take advantage of it!
Et c’est ce week end que Paris sera le plus vide de l’année : je serai là pour en profiter!

Photos and text: Va-nu-pieds

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