So I'm searching for what this small passage, Passage de Haute Formes, looked like in the 1950's in Paris. Here's what I found.
Atmospheric, old soot stained Paris. It was a street of rag and bone sellers, 'junk men' and a Gitane or two. You can see how it still held traces of the village on the outskirts of Paris it had been.
Here's what it looks like today.
Different, eh? This is in the 13th arrondissement where huge swathes of what were villages were built up with highrises in the 60's and 70's.
To me, it's unappealing but then again, living in a tiny house with a coal stove, no running water might have been unappealing to those who had the luxury of choice to move into a 'modern' high-rise when they were built.
Here, a few blocks away, bits of the village remain in the Butte aux Cailles.
The streets are cobbled and it's kept it's charm.
Cara - Tuesday
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Oh Cara, how I prefer those charming bits of the past. I've lived in eight different places in my adult life, only one of them was a modern high rise--the first. Charm beats out sterile modernity for me every time. As long as there is indoor plumbing and a water heater, of course.
ReplyDeleteAhh, the change tugs at my longing for those quiet little places now gone forever (except perhaps in Disneyland villages), yet I only wish more classic cities could have preserved themselves as well as Paris. Thanks for the memories, Cara.
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