From the Paris Opera I had wandered straight into the Louvre, but as there wasn’t enough time to see the Louvre I ended up wandering through Paris again. I ran into Joan of Arc and then the church of Saint Roch, which was unfortunately closed. Still, it was interesting just to walk across a building in an architectural style that I don’t usually see everyday. I do wonder if people in Europe feel the same way about historical or traditional European architecture as I feel about traditional Korean architecture; familiar, beautiful but not particularly something that would be amazing to see randomly in the middle of the city.
The thing about taking photos while traveling, is that one shot may not tell the whole story. People like to throw around the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, but there are so many times where I feel that some of the pictures I take fail to say even a few hundred. Taking photographs while traveling can reveal quite a lot about your photography, especially any limitations. This was the extent of how much I could capture of the church with the bundle lens I had on my mirrorless camera. How I wished I had a wide-angle lens to fit more into my frame! I could of course have taken a portrait length photo, but then I wouldn’t have been able to fit in the interesting way the building curved out to the sides. I don’t remember exactly, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to fit the whole front of the church in a portrait frame from directly across from the church anyway. There wasn’t exactly a wide open space in front of the church, so there was a limit to how far I could back up to take a photo.
In a sense, my limitations pushed me to find an alternative solution to my problem. I was happy with how this photo turned out as it gives a feeling of height and framed the columns in a nice way.
My wanderings led me to the Tuileries Garden. It was more of a park really and I think I only saw a very small portion of it. If I were to live in Paris, the first thing I would buy would be a bike. I wanted to keep out of the underground as much as possible, and in the process I found Paris to have seemingly endless roads wherever I went. I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if I was only traveling for 2-3 days, but I was on a 2 week trip through Europe and walking from morning to dusk was starting to take a toll on my feet. I was surprised to find that my legs didn’t ache as much as I’d anticipated. When I had traveled to Japan my legs had been dreadfully tired from walking for three days, but my legs must have grown stronger from my daily commute to Seoul for about a year before my trip.
One thing I noticed at the Tuileries Garden were the many statues throughout the park. It wasn’t just an occasional statue or a memorial in the center of the park; they were everywhere.
This statue looks like it has suffered some damage but I actually feel that the damage has added to the piece. Look at the emotion in the in the expressions. If I remember correctly, we read emotion through a persons eyes and eyebrows. There are plenty of references to seeing and reading emotions through someones eyes, but not as many that describe the eyebrows. If you try covering the eyebrows of the child in this statue, you may find that you completely lose the emotion coming through the eyebrows.
I think it’s always nice to find a lush spot of green in the midst of a busy city. When I was growing up I was forever running and rolling around in the soft green grass, turning cartwheels and looking for lucky four-leaf clovers. It’s one of the things I miss most while living in Korea. For whatever reason the grass here is never soft, it’s sort of a prickly scratchy type of grass that’s not very enjoyable to sit on. Usually people want you to stay off the grass in Korea as well. I wondered if that was the case in Paris as the grass was roped off.
My time in Paris had a rough start and I wasn’t exactly in good company, but there were moments of beauty here and there. I feel as though I never fully understood Paris to be honest. I don’t know the language, know little about the people, and my memory of Paris feels a lot more disjointed than my memory of London. It is interesting going back through my photos of my travels. It reminds me of things I have forgotten, and delights me when I see something I remember. I think in times when we are unable to travel, photos and videos are of great comfort.
Do you ever go through old photos to travel back to those places in your memory?
