Metro Monday

 

 

Paris through two lenses: a camera's and an artist's.

 

Four-minute Friday

 

 Next metro: 4 minutes.

 Paris, where four minutes is never just four minutes.

*** 

 A lot can happen in four minutes, the time it takes to soft boil an egg. As the metro clock counts down, outside, just above, much is going on:

- A man has lost his phone (and lifeline) in one swift scooter-by grab. He runs after the perpetrator, returns breathless, plops on the nearest bench, and tries to figure out what to do next.

- A woman on a café terrace, watching her husband discreetly ogle yet another fausse blonde for the last time, has decided to leave him, and spends her four minutes rehearsing in her head what she’ll tell the kids.

- A man seated on a fountain ledge has hit the perfect rhythm to down his sandwich baguette-jambon-beurre: bite, chew, wipe mouth, finishing in just four minutes. A true artiste.

- In a doorway a teenage girl lights her first cigarette ever and, coughing dramatically trying to pretend she’s done this forever, her friend films the occasion for her social media.

- A man in a suit has been mouthing his resignation speech to himself while staring at his reflection in a pharmacy window repeating, “Ce n’est pas vous, c’est moi!” over and over. Then walks away.

- In a dreary hospice room, alone, a man who lost a leg has just said his confession and received The Last Rites when a call comes in. It's his estranged sister, from far away. In four minutes he pours his heart into hers, and tells her that he always loved her. 

- Someone is sprinting full-speed toward the bus stop, one shoe in hand, shouting “Attendez!” but the bus driver closes the doors and drives off with zero remorse. The next bus is in four minutes. 

- At the same time a tiny dog being walked in a tiny raincoat is refusing to continue because the pavement is “too wet,” and sits in defiant protest while its owner pulls and tugs, surprised at the strength and resolve in such a small body.

All in four minutes. And here comes my train. - BPJ 

***

Yesterday, as every third Thursday in November, Paris and all of France cheered the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau.

 🍷🍷🍷 

December newsletter 

  

Metro

 Metro station entrance at the Paris Bourse.

 

 

Reflective

Woman seated on the métro.

Autumn on its way

October light sifts through branches behind this métro station.

[Solférino station was opened November 5, 1910. Originally part of the Nord-Sud Company's Line A it became Line 12 on March 27, 1931]

Girl with a burger

 

From a photo shoot for an ad campaign.

Amber

A church, buildings en face and a paris métro sign glow amber in the early evening.

Waiting Wednesday

 

Perfect posture.

Action...!

 

Graffiti, bicycles, café, kiosk and an art nouveau métro entrance make this corner look like a movie set.

Corridor

  A long empty corridor inside the Paris underground métro system leads to Line 11.