Monday, July 28, 2008

Views of the Tower: Paris Post #1

From the edge of the Champs du Mar

A common bus advertisement

The Tower from the Plaza across the Street

On the far right horizon from the Montmartre steps at sunset

From below the tower mid-sunburst

Chocolate Display in one of Paris's most famous Bakeries

View from a bridge across the Seine

Through a photography display outside Unesco Headquarters

A heart shaped view

She seems to direct the eye to the Tower

The most amazing thing about the Eiffel Tower is not the way it looks when you stand next to it. Though that is pretty amazing, not least because of the thousand or so people surrounding you. But what really bowled me over was the way it popped up unexpectedly, in a shaped brioche in a Boulangerie window, an advertisement on a bus, a view from the steps of Sacre Coeur, a gap between buildings or trees. It floated over the river in the view from every bridge in West Paris, appearing to grow out of statues, apartments, or museums. It splashed through the gaps between branches and dominated the narrow alleys in its vicinity.

Its lofty metal glory binds the city together, accenting every arrondisement (neighborhood) somehow, whether in a view, a postcard stand, or a shop window.

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