Paris at the Center

 One of the interesting things about living in Paris is its characteristic that no city in the US has:  it is the center of almost every category of activity in the country.  It is France's Boston for education and medicine, France's NYC for fashion, art, and finance, its DC for government, its LA for film and TV, its Chicago for sports, its SF for restaurants and high-tech, and so on.  So we get glimpses into the French versions of all of these worlds in one place, Paris.  (I should say that, in contrast to New York and London, Paris does not feel to me like the center of something bigger than France, but it is definitely the center of France in almost all respects.)

For instance, we have recognized French celebrities walking the streets occasionally (but I'm sure there are many others that we pass without recognizing them).  It's not unusual to come across an haut couture fashion shoot on some picturesque street complete with outlandish clothes and pencil-thin models.  The traffic is often temporarily stopped to make way for some motorcade, complete with blue lights and sirens and black SUVs, presumably a high government official or visiting dignitary.  And recently, the space outside our building has been the setting for filming what we infer must be a couple of different movies or TV shows.  

They're usually not too disruptive, and we get a kick out of seeing how they "set the scene."  A week or so after we first arrived, we noticed a crepe stand going up very close to our building.  This would be great, I thought--anytime I didn't feel like cooking, a freshly-made crepe oeuf fromage was just a minute away!  I walked by a couple of times to check on the progress of the construction and noticed that it was going up very quickly, and, almost immediately upon completion, was outfitted with jars, bottles, hanging plants, hand-lettered signage, etc., like it had been there forever.  It seemed a little strange, but still I was eagerly anticipating its opening.  But it never opened.  It turns out that it was a prop constructed for a movie scene filmed there and then taken down immediately!  I wish I had gotten a photo.  (Kate was the one who figured it out.  I might still be puzzled about its disappearance otherwise.). 

Today, returning home from work, I noticed a lot of activity outside our building.  I stopped to take a look and got these photos of crews setting up for a film shoot.  I have no idea what type of movie or TV show this will be, but it looks like they doctored up a nearby building facade with some vintage-y touches and are laying train tracks through the Petite Jardin right in front of us.  We suppose the tracks are for their photographic equipment, so they could take a panning shot smoothly. 

And, finally, below is a picture of preparations for filming a stationary street scene, I suppose.  The picture quality is not so great--taken with my phone from our 6th floor apartment--but you can see a big screen to diffuse light, some camera and lighting equipment, a big fuzzy microphone, and a make-up artist touching up one of the actors.