Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: Graffiti No.2

Image via Wikipedia

What do we see when we open our eyes and mind?

Last fall, when my Lone Wolf husband and I moved from the stunning Place des Victoires to the 20th Arrondissement of Paris, it took us some time to adjust. We had been surrounded by the fairy tale Paris--the Paris that catches your breath and doesn't give it back until you exhale her beauty back to her. Until you reckon your relationship with her on an intellectually substantial plane as well as the one of pure delight.

Our first six months in the 20th compelled us to dig deeper in our views of Paris--and to see our new neighborhood in a fresh way. The mix of some handsome old but many more ugly block-ish new buildings (than we'd had in the center of Paris) and the lack of iconic monuments created a gap in our experience that needed to be filled with urban landscape appreciation of an alternative sort. In my opinion, the way one sees and experiences any place the most thoroughly and best is to walk through it.

Within a few weeks, we'd taken a promenade that spit us out on rue de Ménilmontant ...

This was one of the first street scenes that not only got my attention but excited me. I later discovered it is the work of a famous Parisian street artist name Jerôme MESNAGER.

 

Letter From Paris: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

September is here, and Paris is cool in the mornings.  A change is in the air.  Fall, as in autumn cool with some people still wearing shorts while others are wearing sweaters and tall boots, which never go unworn in Paris no matter what the season.  Not everything is open again since the August holiday just ended--but almost.  The lines are longer in stores.  The streets don't feel as luxuriously empty.

A few days ago, the Lone Wolf and I were walking up a rue close to our apartment in the 20th Arrondissement, and we found this on the sidewalk.

The image and text on the black background were so striking.  I had to take some photos.

Letter From Paris: The Lady of The Dance and Other Images

The Lone Wolf and I like to walk over to the Parc de Belleville and look out across the horizon of Paris.  Just so you know:  I'm not sure I've ever seen the sky crystal clear.  There is a haze of smog that hangs over the City of Light, more or less muddying the air that used to seem cloudless and bright when I lived in the 2nd Arrondissement.  And, yes, it's Paris, after all.  Often, the sky is cloudy and harboring rain.

On this spin around our neighborhood, I found some new kids in town--new graffiti that had sprouted since I'd wandered over this way. 

Since I have lived in the 20th Arrondissement, I've taken photo after photo of smashing graffiti that I haven't published yet--though I will.  Instead, I'll start with the latest:

The Lady of The Dance