Week 32.1: In Paris, in August

Paris in August is special. France is famed for its long vacations, and the period from the 14th of July to 15th of August is traditionally the quietest time in the capital. This year was particularly tranquil: after the events of the last twelve months, there do seem to be less people visiting. But even in a normal year, the city is practically empty at the end of July and beginning of August. However, I actually like the feeling in the city during the summer months. Everyone is more relaxed, people smile more in shops in restaurants and there is still plenty to do (although many of the exhibitions are a bit stale by now, as traditionally nothing new comes along during the summer months).

I’m not at work, and we hadn’t planned to leave town in August this year, so I had a lot of time for photography. So this week I went for a few long walks around the city, taking my camera and a 50mm lens. By the weekend I had shot three rolls of HP5+  as well as yet another test film in the Rolleiflex which I will talk about in  another post. Here are a small selection of images from the three rolls.

I tend to spend a lot of time in the three parks near where we live. This year, there are a lot of people playing pokemon go especially in Montsouris. But not too many people playing table-tennis:

 

There is also Paris Plage  : for a month each summer, part of the rive droite are blocked to traffic and filled with sand and places to dance or have a drink or even read a book. When the weather is nice, it really is pleasant, especially on warm summer evenings.

At Paris Plage #1

At Paris Plage #2

At Paris Plage #3

 

Despite Paris Plage, Paris remains far from the sea, and when it is very hot it can be hard to cool down. The fellow on the right is at the Louvre:

 

There are always people visiting Paris. It’s fun to take pictures of the groups that one can find:

 

And of course sometimes you just see great things like this, which is one of of the reasons why I like walking around town.

A telephone call from Istanbul?

 

That’s it for this week ! Next week – more walking around town.

Here are my previous posts on 52rolls.

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Technical notes: all photographs, except where noted, are taken with a Leica M6 with a Summicron-M 50mm. Film is HP5+ developed in HC110 dil. B @ 5 mins.