One Great Minute, Louis-Delluc & Barry Lyndon

Each time I get off the number 86 bus coming from the Bastille, I get to experience one great minute. This minute comes when, while walking from the bus stop on rue des Ecoles to my apartment, I get a whiff of two moment-changing smells … freshly-cut wood and freshly-baked bread. On a small street called rue des Bernardins there is a little lumber store where workers are constantly cutting planks of wood for their customers. My route home from the bus stop takes me past the store’s side entrance which is invariably covered with wood shavings. And just when I pass the side door, I take in the smell of the recently-cut pine, ash, cedar and whatever else they’re working on. It’s a real treat considering what types of smells I usually get to experience of the streets of Paris.

But the fun doesn’t end there. I turn the corner onto rue Monge and pass not one but two boulangeries, one of them (Eric Keyser) being among the best in Paris. With two boulangeries on the same block there is always at least one of them in the process of baking something so as I head for home, after just getting over my experience with the lumber store, I’m treated to the smell of whatever fairy dust the French put into their baguettes to make them taste so good.

I don’t mind taking bus number 86.


Not so much exciting on the photo front this week. I photographed an award presentation called the Prix Louis-Delluc, which is given to the best French film of the year. It was held at the fancy Fouquet’s restaurant along the Champs-Elysees. I also shot a re-release of the Stanley Kubrick film “Barry Lyndon”. One of the stars of the film, Marisa Berenson attended the small premiere.

Some photos of the week:

Clothing store on rue des Rosiers
Sunday morning along the Champs-Elysees
Figurine store near my apartment
Lake in the Paris suburb of Orsay
Female sphinx at the Hotel de Sully