Etudes

A major fun thing in Paris, assuming you're not trying to drive a car anywhere, is the natural, organic way the city propagated. It wasn't laid out by traffic engineers to maximize vehicular flow. It grew out from around the Seine into neighborhoods that were defined by churches, markets, housing and alleyways. Streets were fit in and paved with stones and later with concrete to accommodate 20th century demand for internal combustion vehicles. You see some pretty amazing juxtapositions of buildings. The angles, the turns, the spaces created are almost never equal. Even for peds this can be a problem because there's no guarantee walking in this town that you'll be able to arrive at your destination walking a relatively straight line. Dead ends abound where newer buildings have been erected in older neighborhoods. There's an area south of St. Merry's Cathedral a little over from Hotel DeVille where you can stand in the middle of several alleys and look in about eight or nine directions and see pathways into that many alleys. If you want to go exploring, you'll need lots of time because there are almost endless options available. A truly unique moment in time for me.
 
I like the shot that follows, as it looks up a typical miasma of street twists and turns. This is in the Oberkampf area.