For The Record: I Am Not Old Enough To Have Taken These Photos

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:16:18 +0000

I’m in the process of weeding things from my surroundings as our family gets ready to pack up the last 12 years of our life and come July, all splitting off in different directions as we go through a monumental shift in how and where we live our lives. As a result, I have been going through things and of course, get caught up and side-tracked in old photographs, magazines, the dilemmas of, “Do I keep this Mother’s Day card from 1987 and where do I pack it if I do?” All things that take me totally off track from what I am supposed to be doing–downsizing!

Anyway, I am a lover of many things but antiques are right up there for me. During a phase when I had a small business, I was constantly at auctions digging around for that great find (many of which I kept for my self…..that’s allowed). Often times, I would buy something that ended up being auctioned off along with a box full of junk which I would then get to search through and hopefully find the elusive pot of gold. Here are two items that although, will not get me millions at Sotheby’s, make me happy just the same.

This is a postcard of the Champs Elysées, looking towards the Arc de Triompe from Place de la Concord–that’s quite a mouthful. Check out the horse in the center. How crazy is that?

Here is the Opéra Garnier as it looked at the turn of the 20th century. This building is the piece de resistance in Baron Haussman’s urban planning crusade of Paris. Designed by Charles Garnier, a young, unknown architect at the time, Mr. Garnier beat out over 170 of his contemporaries in winning the right to design this opulent, over the top structure. It is magnificent and deserves a trip inside–a tour would be nice, but to experience a performance here is a different memory to take home with you altogether.

Photo Credits: Personal collection

Post from: The Paris Traveler

Street Facts

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 07:43:48 +0000

With all the streets that I mentioned in my last post, I thought it would be fun to give you a few facts about some of them. For example the distinction between streets, boulevards, and avenues in Paris is that streets don’t have trees whereas boulevards and avenues do. There are, however, a few exceptions where some streets do have trees, such as the Rue d’Alésia, Rue de Tolbiac, and the Rue de la Convention.

The only avenue that doesn’t have trees is the Avenue de l’Opéra. The reason for this obviously was not to obstruct the view of the famous Opéra house by Charles Garnier. Too bad, I think trees would have added to the beauty of the avenue.
The longest street in Paris is the Rue de Vaugirard which goes from the 6e to the 15e and is 4.360 m (2.7 miles).

The shortest street is Rue des Degrés in the 2e arrond. which runs only 5,75 m (almost 19 feet).
The widest avenue in Paris is the Avenue Foch in the 16e which is 120 m (131 yards).
The shortest is the Avenue de Selves in the 8e which is 110 m (120 yards).
The steepest street is the Rue Gasnier-Guy in the 20e with an inclination of 17%.
The narrowest street is disputed (by whoever disputes these things!) between the Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche in the 5e where the narrowest point is only 1,80 m (5′9″), the Sentier des Merisiers in the 12e which is a little under 1 m (3′3″), and last, but not least…well actually yes, the least (!) the Passage de la Duée in the 20e, with it’s narrowest point only 80 cm (2′6″), but some say it doesn’t count because the passage has been boarded and fenced.

If anyone has more street facts to add, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Photo Credits: Flickr

Post from: The Paris Traveler

The Paris Traveler » Charles-Garnier

For The Record: I Am Not Old Enough To Have Taken These Photos

Street Facts