Breathless in Paris, Part III: Shall We Steal a Cadillac?

Cinema Mac Mahon where Patricia escapes to, and from, still exists.

So, two days in Paris on my own. What to do, I wondered, before the trip. The list of must-sees is never-ending. Then I remembered how fun it was to spot filming locations in New York with Heidi. The movie, for me, in Paris, would of course be Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (À bout de souffle).

I used IMDb for spotting the filming locations. Unfortunately, I found www.movie-locations.com only after my trip. I decided to walk all the way from Montmartre to Montparnasse and back to the centre of Paris. In retrospect that was a good idea. Especially because I managed to take a wrong turn in Montmartre and ended up east to Gare du Nord, the Northern railway station of Paris.



A Finn always finds a sauna, I presume.



Grilling lambs' or goats' heads.

Mostly no-one cared when I photographed. The first inconvenient occasion was when I shot these heads being grilled on a shop window. I heard a loud voice saying: Monsieur! Monsieur! and I thought It must me, whos misbehaving! and looked up. I saw a gentleman in a white chef's coat wagging his index finger at me. The second one was I was walking towards Montparnasse carrying my camera in front of me and a I spotted a tall woman clad in black leather and wearing a military style peaked cap. She had seen me before I saw her and she was covering her face with her hand even though I had no intention to photograph her. It was a little disturbing.



If hadn't lost my way early on my photowalk, I would have probably missed Porte Saint-Denis, triumphal arc built to honour Louis XIV's victories on the Rhine and in Franche-Comté. The arc is arbuably more impressive than Arc de Triomphe, because the location is so confined if compared to Place Charles de Gaulle, where Arc de Triomphe stands.

It was quite an experience to arrive to the banks of River Seine. When I looked left I saw Île de la Cité and when I looked right I saw the distant Tour Eiffel. I headed for Notre Dame, because in one act Michel and Patricia drive by the cathedral.



I intended to climb to the South tower where the largest bell, Emanuel, is located and it's said that the view is spectacular. However, there were so many people even in October that I decided just walk around the Cathedral.



The Northern Facade.



The Southern Facade.



While I continued to the Left Bank over the River Seine I walked by many couples who were getting married. The cathedral is spectacular, so I was not surprised.



Les Rives de Notre Dame

The next location was to be the hotel where Patricia lived, Les Rives de Notre Dame, at 15 quai St Michel. In 1959 it was called Hôtel de Suede and it was also used as a studio for the most of the interiors of the movie. From the hotel I continued my stroll through the Latin Quarter to Jardin du Luxembourg, which was a nice side tour after the long streets of the city.



La Bocca della Verita, the Mouth of Truth

In the garden I spotted Jules Blanchard's work la Bocca della Verita, the mouth of truth.



A man reads in Jardin du Luxembourg.



This wall was damaged both in the Bombardment of Paris and in the Liberation of Paris. The lower flagstone is a memorial of a fallen soldier.



Memorial of Jean Revers.

Helsinki has it scars of war, but they are minor, escpecially if compared to the cities like Berlin or Tokyo which were largely moved down in the bombings of the Second World War. In a foreign city the damage screams horror stories at you.



Speed and rabbit as pizza toppings., was my instant thought, when I saw the name of the pizzeria.



Fontaine de l'Observatoire

Where Jardin du Luxemburg ends, Jardin des Grands Explorateurs starts. At the Southern tip of the latter I stumbled to Fontaine de l'Observatoire, which plays a role in television mini series Mistral's Daughter.



Here, where Rue Campagne Première meets Boulevard du Montparnasse, the movie ends.



La Rotonde can be seen clearly in the background of one of the nightly acts.

Please see the Wikipedia article on La Rotonde.



Le Select is another famous restaurant which can bee seen in the movie.

I quickly leafed through the English menu of le Select. It seemed interesting and the prices were not bad, either. I was hungry, but also dressed for a long street walk and in need of a shower, so I decided to skip eating in restaurants. Which is not bad, because the street food in Paris is also very good.



At one point in the movie Michel and Patricia drive the huge roundabout at Place de la Concorde.



I would have never found the statue of Winston Churchill unless I was a walker. United States and Europe are heading for deep, dark and muddy waters. Churchill was not a perfect man, but we should remember some things he represented and said.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. — Winston Churchill

The Dior shop at 30 Avenue Montaigne can also be seen in the movie.



There's not much to see at the former office of International Herald Tribune. I later learnt that there's a plate somewhere confirming the fact, but I did not notice it.



Michel can be seen near the entrance of George V metro station, just before he poses in front of Humphrey Bogart posters and photographs in front of Cinema Normandie



Arc de Triomphe



Cinema Mac-Mahon

I had photographed Cinema Mac-Mahon. So, the movie part of the walk was over. In retrospect, I should have splitted the walk in at least two sessions, preferably in three sessions, in order to get decent photographs. My feet were numb, but I had one more place to visit. I wanted to see Tour Eiffel and photograph it in dark.

Breathless in Paris, part II: The First Night

I arrived to Hotel Audran. Two stars, nothing fancy, but the location is very nice, it's affordable and clean. The staff is friendly and speaks English. Next morning the breakfast proved to be some baguette and a croissant, both very fresh, butter, jam, yoghurt, juice and coffee or tea.

I went to my room, unpacked and had a short nap. After that I dug my camera and a 35mm lens from the backpack I was ready for my first night in Paris.



Please note the legs hanging out of the mouth of the shark.

I wanted to photograph Moulin Rouge in the dark before the dinner, so I walked down the Butte via Rue Véron, where there is some fine wall art. My favourite is the one above.



I strolled around Montmartre, looking around and shooting some photos until I got hungry and started to climb up from Boulevard de Clichy which was quite crowdy for my taste.

I ended up eating in a small restaurant in the corner of Rue Audran and Rue Véron called Le Restaurant where I ate excellent croustillant de chèvre and pavé au saumon, which was also very good. I had expected that central Paris would be quite expensive, but with a glass of wine this simple dinner cost me less than 25 euros. The staff spoke fluent English, which nice, because I know only a few words of French. The Facebook page of Le Restaurant.

So, my first night in Paris was a success and was ready to be really breathless on the next day.

Read also part I.

Breathless in Paris, part I: Going There

I visited Paris briefly in the early October in order to attend the European Golang conference dotGo which was on Monday 10th of October, but I was able to leave on Friday. I had more than two days on my own in the Ville Lumiére. I was excited, but also a bit intimidated, because my French is limited to "pardon", "merci", "vin rouge" and some cuisine vocabulary. The icing on the cake is that my pronounciation is so horrible, that no-one understands me if I try to speak French. There was also a prejudice that the French don't want to speak English, even if they know it. My friends comforted me, that this is not the case, but I was a bit suspicious even after that.

The photographer in me was a bit nervous because France, though it's kind of home of photography and has produced such a fine photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, has a such a strict privacy laws. I had read things like the excellent piece by Oliver Laurent in the New York Times Protecting the Right to Photograph, or Not to Be Photographed.

So, I was excited and curious to see what Paris would be like.



I took a bus to the railway station of Malmi. Some people do not understand my choice of colour of my luggage. The reason is simple and practical: when there are dozens of pieces of luggage on the conveyor belt, it's really easy to spot mine.



A Pokémon at the station.




Fittingly, even the advertisement on the train was in French.



The relatively new train connection to the airport proved to be effortless again. I wouldn't trust it in case of a blizzard, though. Then I would rather use a bus or a taxi.



The second breakfast at O'Learys'.

I intended to eat my second breakfast at restaurant Fly Inn, but they were renovating, so I opted for O'Learys'. I enjoyed it, and the pint of beer and the robust meal would support me the long travel hours.



The joke is a tad worn out, but it made me smile.



The third breakfast. Visiting the Oak Barrel Irish Pub is the tradition at the Airport of Helsinki for me.



My extra battery died just before the trip, so I had to buy a new one. This model is waterproof and shockproof, which nice, to put it mildly. Note to self, again: when you buy stuff, invest in quality. I've been quite happy with this one.



AY875 from Helsinki to Paris.

I had the rare comfort of sitting alone on my row. At the Paris Aéroport I bought a Paris Visite card which enables unlimited use of public transport including the trip from the airport to the city center. If on budget, consider the alternative ways to use the public transport of Paris, there are several alternatives. But the Paris visite is the easy way, and one also gets discounts on several museums.

The easiest way to go to the city is taking RER B train to Gare du Nord. You know, the place where Manne and Veera met in the Worthless. Gare du Nord is huge by Finnish standards and if I hadn't ever visited big cities like New York or Tōkyō I would have been at a loss. My prejudicies had started to dissolve into nothingness at the airport, and the process continued in the train. I had just started to comprehend the map in the train, when a French lady helped me by advising me how to get from Gare du Nord to Montmartre. She also tried to correct me on the pronounciaton of Mortmartre, but I'm afraid whe was not very successful on that. The importart thing was that I felt I was welcomed to the city.



Barbès-Rochechouart metro station



The first time I really saw Paris was when I climbed out of the Blanche metro station. I had thought I would like to see Moulin Rouge, but I did not expect to see it as the first thing in Paris. It took me a while to locate me, and how to find my hotel, Audran. I started to climb the butte of Montmartre and it seemed, to a foodie, like a candy store. The cheese stores, the bakeries and the charcuteries, it was kind of streetwise Hakaniemen halli.

Eventually I found the small alley called Rue Audran, and my hotel.



Read also part II