Les Miserables

I wish it were the popular musical/novel to which I was referring to. What I actually mean though is the immensely lousy weather that seems to have descended upon France and decided to wreak havoc in our happily mundane lives. It has rained like there’s no tomorrow over the entire week. And by that I don’t mean a convincing downpour. I mean an annoying in-between thing which is halfway between a drizzle and a downpour. Something with wind and something with wrath. It has torn down 2 umbrellas of mine, has had me soaked on more than 2 occasions and returned my dreaded cold back to me -- something that prompted my first ever doctor visit in a foreign country (yes including my stay in the US). Add to that we had visitors over the last 4 days, who I am sure have not left with a happy impression of Paris, thanks to the soggy weather, the chilly winds and early darkness.

Add to that I was in Lille on Monday and yes I brought my readers on MindBlogging a soggy postcard from a rain-filled day. This is the main station at Lille.

Gare de Lille Flandres – Lille main train station.

Lille, which is predominantly a University town probably has less to offer in terms of sight-seeing and such. It only boasts of modest sights like a church and an opera, something you can find in most cities in France. Its popularity stems from its proximity to Belgium and the kinds of beers available there.

But every cloud has a silver lining, right? Ours is a long weekend that’s already begun. Bon weekend!

Kabootar ja ja ja

Iconically Plaça Catalunya, Barcelona.

Barça Barça

Ah so all of you’ve gathered from a couple of blog posts that I was indeed in Barcelona last week for a conference. And without dwelling too much on the actual purpose of visit (which went great by the way), I am going to talk about Barcelona. It’s easy to fall in love with the city, its sights, its restaurants, its architecture, its culture and its lifestyle. On the other hand I was forewarned big time by everyone about the theft scenario there. As in that the ratio of pickpocketing stories were abnormally higher than other European cities or at least what was the word on the street. But before I go further, here’s a quick look at the center of Barcelona – Plaça Catalunya.

 

Plaça Catalunya – center of Barcelona. Fountains, pigeons and wide open spaces make it festive and fun. BTW, call me vain but I love this picture. :)

 

Ok.. back to the pick-pocketing warnings. So my friend NN lost all her documents and stuff on the beach there and she wasn’t the only one. A lot of others reported similar things and it all had me pretty spooked. Spooked enough to take a taxi to the hotel first thing and dump all the valuables in the secure room safe. And even after, I hugged my bag for dear life in the metro, on the streets, and glanced suspiciously at everyone to identify the next thief. Constant Vigilance, as Moody (née Harry Potter) would say. And well, it worked. Thankfully I didn’t lose anything. But after my first day there, I realized something. By being extra-vigilant, I was actually losing out on the fun. And the other thing.. no one was going to punch the daylights out of me and make away with my belongings. It would only happen if I turned out to be careless (which on trips I usually am not – a kind of “foreign radar” kicks in and keeps me alert at non-hyper levels). And so after Day 1, I relaxed. I even allowed my bag to slide away to the seat next to me even though my arm was looped around it. And it was far more fun than always waiting for something happen. 

 

Anyhoo, so I got to see a lot of places, a lot of notable architecture by their modernist movement pioneer, Antoni Gaudi, whose masterpieces quite literally encompass a big majority of the Barcelona skyline. And it was all breathtaking. Right from the La Sagrada Familia, more popular as the iconic church of Barcelona to the loopy Parc Guell… a wonderful contribution to a beautiful city. And here’s another postcard from the Parc Guell. You can see the Sagrada Familia and what I call the “lipstick” building as the two tall structures on the landscape.

 

View of the city of Barcelona from Parc Guell.

 

That apart the culture was quite distinctly young and alive. The city seldom slept.. the shops were open all over up to 10pm and the restaurants well past midnight. And in the weekends the cranked it up a notch and went all out for all-nighters too. Specifically I have to mention La Rambla, the pivotal central street of Barcelona and indeed its No 1. sight. A mile-long road all the way from the beach to the city center, the road is filled with such a variety and extreme of things that are hard to imagine as co-existing. From street-side vendors to 5 star fares, from Le Meridien to hostels under 20€ a night, from street hawkers to bird-merchants, from fresh fruit to exotic food, from nudists to transvestites, its all there crammed into one never-sleeping, ever-crowded street. A sight that mere words can’t do any justice to. You’ve got to be there.

More later! Byee!

Experiments with the “analog” SLR

Remember I bought an “analog” SLR? You don’t?? Where’ve you been? Read that post here. So like I mentioned there, I fed a black and white film roll to go all pristine with the shooting. And for the first one, I went through it really quickly and at the same time, experimented a whole whole lot. And so, turns out, out of 36 photos, I got only about 20 not to shake and remotely in focus. Since while shooting, you can’t see any previews, I was still trying to get a hang of the controls and so I figure this percentage while not too great isn’t too bad either. Here are a couple of shots from that bunch. Not bad at all, huh?

The Eiffel Tower. This shot was multiple-exposed 5 times in one click. Pretty neat, huh? 

And then one more -

View across the Seine. Metro 6 is making it’s away across too. 

The above photo however has a white-washed sky (which couldn’t be saved digitally after scanning either). And that proves that the ISO is too high for the light that was available. Nonetheless, considering that this was the first experiment, I am going to consider it a moderate success.

Interesting fact: Did you know that B&W films need special technology to be developed? And that it can’t be done in India? And that it costs maybe 5 times as much to do it wherever it can be? Who knew, huh?

I <3 Panoramas

Oh the joy of stitching the panoramas! It all just feels right when they align and give you the wide-angle view of what the reality is when you don’t have the luxury of carrying your SLR, your wide-angle lens and the likes of it. And indeed, the point’n’shoot works well enough for this purpose. Here’s what I mean -

The Olympia Stadion at Berlin, Germany

Enjoy!

Ah Paris!

Some of the best things in life can be free. And the city of lights is an everyday example. Some of the best sights it has to offer are absolutely free. Like this one.

 La Tour Eiffel: The single most-visited paid monument in the world.

Ah Paris! How I love this city and how I love showing its jewels off. With the sudden onset of intensive heat, all the monuments are shining in their well-maintained splendour in the bright sunshine. And with my new-found black and white film SLR mania, this is the best place to be to try and capture some surreally brilliant shots while I’m at it. And yes, I am yet to develop the 2 rolls of B&W film that I’ve already exhausted. Needless to say, exceptional results will wind up here. Until then, vivre la Paris!

P’Arc de Triomphe: The urban jungle

You have to hand it over to the French. The most famous road in Paris, probably even the world, Champs Elysées, was turned into a garden. For 2 days. At a cost of 4.2 million euros. You can see the news item here. And it was a sight to behold -

The Arc de Triomphe at the head of the world-famous Avenue de Champs Elysées.

And boy, did the people turn out or what! I have never seen a rush like that in Paris. Sure, Champs Elysées is always crowded. But the crowd yesterday was such that if you happened to drop something, it would cascade through at least 10 people before it reached the ground and inevitably got stampeded. It was an exhibition by young French farmers, displaying everything from their crop to their domesticated animals. However, the “natural” greenery was far less obvious than the urban jungle on display. The people who thronged the place in millions in the sweltering heat braving it all just to witness the miracle of having paved away the traffic from this amazing street and fill it with mud and trees, flowers and animals. I’ll admit. All we saw was people. Joie de Vivre!

The urban jungle. The street was so crowded it was impossible to see the Louvre at the far end of Champs Elysées.

Postcard from Luxembourg

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg isn’t “Grand” in the French sense (meaning big) at all. Rather it’s small, sweet and not over imposing at all. Makes it a simple destination for a weekend getaway. And that was just what it was… Here’s a postcard from the Chateâu of Viaden which boasted fabulous views of the valley below. Enjoy!

Postcards from Prague

So here it is… 4 days , 1330+ pictures later, just 3 photos.. to represent the wholesome spirit of Prague. This first one says it all – a beautiful castle overlooking the entire city, a lovely river that separates the castle and the Old town and the medieval architecture if that wasn’t enough..

And then this one of the twilight. Twilight is brilliant in Prague, making the entire sky a beautiful inky blue. What better to see it against but the gothic church of Old Town? Here, decide for yourself..

And here’s one last picture.. this one for a quirky fact. The longest escalator in all of Europe in the Metro station of Namesti Miru.. At a whopping 88m high and an arduous 2 minutes 30 seconds long and over 400 steps, it’s one hell of a “ride”. What’s worse? The advertisements on the side walls are also posted at an angle. So, if you lean to read them, you may feel a slight spin of vertigo chugging along with you. And the worstest part? The escalators are at least twice as fast as anything normal you’ve gone on before. That means quick step-on and quick step-off. With no elevators in sight on most Metros and the extra'-tall, extra-long ride ahead, it’s an everyday amusement for the “fearless” and intimidating for the rest. Ok ok, I sense it’s enough build-up. Here’s a pic; And what you think is the top, is not. Go figure.

Dobry Den from Prague!!

Le Mont St Michel

This one was planned up in the skies alright... It rained for most part of the day as we got there to the Northwest tip of France. The skies were gloomy and the prospects of seeing the breathtaking Mont St Michel rise up into glorious skies seemed unlikely. But even as we parked our car, the skies parted and the sun peeked out. And this is what we saw -



It's little wonder that this is the second most visited place in France next to the Eiffel Tower. And even as we finished walking the length and breadth of the mountain and the abbey, the rain started once more. It was all timed to perfection. Lucky us.