Living within sight of an airport may seem undesirable today, but there was a time when such locations were considered glamorous. Although the areas surrounding the Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports are today dominated by warehouses, motorways and modern box hotels, a glimpse of this previous era can still be seen opposite Paris's Le Bourget airport.
Situated to the north-east of Paris and surrounded by the kinds of towns where nobody chooses to live, Le Bourget struggles to retain any glamour today. Nevertheless, it is still one of Europe's leading airports for private jets, and can also now boast an exclusive Gogasian art gallery in one of its old hangers.
Wednesday 26 June 2013
Tuesday 4 June 2013
A Pigeon's Eye View of Paris
Patrice Rambaud aka 'L'œil du pigeon' is a trained architect and talented urban illustrator with a fantastic eye for Paris. He has already self-published an atmospheric and offbeat look at the city's 20th arrondissement - but he needs your help to complete the other 19 districts!
Saturday 1 June 2013
I Remember When This Will All Be Trees
A visit to what will become, in 2014, the city's first forest.
You need a lot of imagination to visualise a forest in this location. It looks more like an oversight or a service road, squeezed between what was until recently a wasteland and the city's périphérique motorway. The wasteland - or friche - has given way to a strip of modern office blocks and a new multi-screen cinema that will open in a couple of months time, but the motorway still announces its presence with a continuous rumble.
You need a lot of imagination to visualise a forest in this location. It looks more like an oversight or a service road, squeezed between what was until recently a wasteland and the city's périphérique motorway. The wasteland - or friche - has given way to a strip of modern office blocks and a new multi-screen cinema that will open in a couple of months time, but the motorway still announces its presence with a continuous rumble.