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Back to the roots in Belleville

Belleville

I walked down the streets I used to walk everyday to go to school – Read “Il faut se mefier des mots” on the familiar building thinking – how many times before had I walked by these words and read them out loud in my head as a teenager? They made sense then, they make sense now, nothing has changed.
Stopped for lunch in Lao Siam for the usual coco rice noodles, boeuf séché and salads…nothing has changed.

Nothing lasts, there are no certainties, we grow to accept that but it is so refreshing when little details remain unchanged.

This picture below is a view of Belleville in 1740…Paris looked like a village then and Belleville pure countryside!

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It can be seen in Musée Carnavalet.

Paris mon amour…

I escaped a few days over the week-end to my home town Paris. I love this city and never spend long enough to my liking. The minute we get off the TGV everything turns into a carefully timed operation: so many places to be so many people to visit! Everything gets squeezed in, the long awaited noodle dish in my favorite Thai in Belleville, aperitifs and cafes left right and center, shopping, culture (well that did not really happen although there was a dancing show going on at some stage in Le Louvre and I did have the luxury to browse books for nearly 1 hour in Virgin)…it has to fit all in!!!

I came back Sunday, exhausted but bathing in a happy glow, my head full of these little glimpses of people I love to be with, tastes I can never forget and thrills that make life so precious.

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Le ballon rouge

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic8XzBJzsEE]

I have a special crush for this film.

I am 4 years old standing on the balcony of my parents flat in Belleville (Paris). Admiring my gigantic red balloon that my father gave me. ” attention qu’il ne s’envole pas…” were his words but it was too late, the balloon had gone. I remember the building opposite still under construction where it disappeared into, I was sobbing.

Watching this film brought it back to me and ironically it was filmed near Belleville…

The film director Albert Lamorisse, was also a photographer which explains why the graphics on this film are just timeless.

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