Paris and old photographs. When I was going through my archives the other day, searching for some pictures, I found an old file; with black and white photographs probably about 10 years old?
The two pictures among others which brought back some special memories. I took them in Paris, more precisely, the first from Place St. Sulpice, at the “Café de la Mairie”. There’s a certain retro feeling to them both, the first one of the two ladies wearing hats, the place was one of my favourite places when I was a student and I still enjoy an occasional coffee there whenever I’m in Paris. It was a café for intellectuals and artists and everybody who wanted to just watch the crowd of fancy people and to perhaps to be seen as well… I don’t know if this is still the case? to be honest I don’t think so.
The other one, is this small alley in the neighbourhood of Montparnasse, “Passage d’Enfer”. The place looks like it hasn’t changed over the time, it’s still during World War II or even earlier…? The physical aspect of Paris doesn’t change that much. Of course things change, new shops and new restaurants and cafés. But when I compare to Asia and specifically Bangkok, it’s like time literally stood still in Paris. There aren’t new modern buildings growing up like mushrooms everywhere, changing the landscape of a city in a blink of an eye.
