Paris

Just got in from Paris. Major highlights of mine included the Pompidou Centre, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Jean Nouvell's new skyscraper project, Jean Nouvell's Seine park, and the urban fabric in general as related to Paris' metro system. The metro was fascinating to me and takes on the same image as Manhattan's old approach of suspending the rails above the streets, which I think lets the metro better interact with the fabric of the city below. I could have dealt without the way I was treated though, my attempts to communicate were done with respect but the people I interacted with spoke English and refused to speak it with me. 

Skateboarding in Paris is tough; I wasn't aware of all of the main areas for doing so and got a lot of bad looks from pedestrians as I was moving from one place to the next. Of all of the architecture I came into contact with, I found Paris' usage of the short stone public benches to be the main subject for skateboard-able architecture. I am in the process of dissecting the 500 photos I took and will post them for whoever follows this very soon.