I love France, especially Paris. The world famous Musée du Louvre, the Louvre Museum, in Paris, France, home of the Mona Lisa with her mysterious smile, with it's mysterious pyramid structures made triply famous by the Dan Brown novel, The DaVinci Code. It is among the most photographed places in the world. It's a place where lots of people make a (French?) toast to the French Connection of arts and culture.

What is less common is this view which I captured from above and behind, looking outwards (through protected windows you can see reflected in the image) and down on the structures, from within a secluded corner of the museum.

It was coming up on a wonderful Christmas in Paris.

The impending sunset's bold light, casting wonderously rich golden hues on clouds to the left and made-made architectural wonders to the right. The sky displaying musuem quality colors with a combination of dramatic dark clouds and brilliant blues to the right. What a museum moment to muse on.

From this view the layout of the structures in the front pavilion, or courtyard, the artful art-filled Pyramid Scheme, so to speak, is more obvious and clearly visible than from the front, which most visitors see and photograph.

The Eiffel Tower, inviting lovers who are yet to meet, is not visible in this shot but is standing as a sentinel to the dreams of sentimental fools to the left, where the falling sunlight is coming from.

Artists and photographers like us will come and go, with some whose works, conceived with God-given talent, will grace these golden halls for ages to come.

For others, even among the latest model camera-toting shallow mortals, drawn among these heartless hinds* and artless minds, there will be those with a love-filled deep heart, lovers and art lovers, drawn to what was drawn, painted on canvas and painted on hearts, ages ago and for ages to come,........

For them, blessed creative souls, for us,........ "We'll always have Paris."

© 2006-201i IMRAN
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loc: 48.8601402, 2.336956

* A magnificent William Shakespeare multiple pun, from Romeo and Juliet. These few words have about half a dozen or more shades of meaning, talking about the pedestrian crowds, but also playing on cowardly (showing their behinds) servants of the great masters (Montagues/Capulets and in this case, Rembrandt, Renoir, Da Vinci), as well as hartless hinds (female deer without their companion male), and much more!

Note: I don't know how to make HDR photos, though this looks like it was done through extensive HDR work. It is a single shot, taken with my 4 year old pocket Nikon S6. This was enhanced in iPhoto (e.g. lightened the dark foreground tiled floor, increased contrast, reduced highlights), the saturation was then reduced in Photoshop and then framed.

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(Passionate Text Alert!)

The stunning From the From Top Of Paris' Eiffel, Eye Fell On Paris Below was captured with an exposure of 2 seconds from my pocket Nikon CoolPix S6. It lit up the scene as the emotional fires described on that page were set alight.

On the other side, also at the top of the Eiffel Tower, I soaked in this moody, dramatic, foreboding of tempestuous passions, night image at a mere 0.5556 seconds, f/3, ISO200.

Much that I loved the idea of greater risky exposure atop the lovers' paradise that is the Eiffel Tower and Paris, any more and more than an image would be captured! Overexposed, the well-lit architecture would have washed out too -- even more than the rain that was drizzling on the city of lights and love, passion and poetry, could have washed the city.

But, the unfallen rain, broodingly hanging in the air, like a lover on the brink at the brink of the Eiffel Tower's protective railing, threatening to go over the edge of condensation, and reason, and melting fall... Even if it crossed the threshold, dying a little death as vapor, reborn as airborne tiny drops of life... Even if it got heavier, it could not dampen the desire, the lusty hunger that a romantic dinner atop the Eiffel unleashes within passionate lovers' souls.

Yet, the wetness was all around.

You could feel it. You could touch it. You could taste it.

You were immersed in it. You were one with it.

You could, if you were lucky and near, in semi-dark, somewhat exposed, risky recesses and exposed crevices, see it shine and shimmer, clearly clear, contrasting, like the white and brown skin of lovers opposite in every way but completely one in erotic embrace, with the dripping rainy juices of emotion in the syrupy golden night.

It was 10 PM. Did you know where you and your lover are? Did you care? 10 PM. The end of the long day of cultural exploration... and just the start of a longer, drawn out, extended to the fullest, deep, velvety night of sensual exploration, spent up but never spent up, on satin sheets soaked in honey and dew, love and passion.... making love to the rhythm of the Paris rain.

Like the Paris Seine Scene Sin Seen In Paris above, we'll always have Paris, in passionate memories past and yet to be made, flowing, like the river Seine, and the river of Time.

Lovers come and go. I'll come again, with the one beloved for whom my love will be celebrated by the ages, through the ages, longer than the oldest icons ensconced in the halls of museums. I promise. I'll be back. Seine Time, Seine Chunnel.


© 2010 IMRAN
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PS Google shows no one's used the words "Seine Time, Seine Chunnel" before. I copyright and trademark the phrase July 16 2010 :-)

Tags:   Aerial Architecture Christmas Fall Framed France History IMRAN ImranAnwar Landmarks Landscapes Lifestyles Lovers Lust Night Nikon Outdoors Paris peaceful S6 Sky Square tranquility Travel Vacation Yellow

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In Explore June 11, 2010.

To be atop the Eiffel Tower in Paris for a romantic dinner at Christmas time is all you can imagine and more. I would have much preferred the amazing experience to be in stunningly clear rather than stormy weather.

Still, a line to get into the Eiffel Tower, and it's restaurants, snaked below it. Having made reservations through a reputable (though expensive) service meant we did not have to stand in line in the rain and were whisked to the elevators.

French cuisine, and the food in Paris in particular, are just magnificent experiences, subtle splendors of culinary delights. But the Eiffel Tower's two restaurants, which can be called fairly expensive and terribly expensive respectively, are nothing to write home about (or in modern times, to email or blog about). They are tourist traps and definitely not the finest that Paris offers. It's really about location-location-location! And, making the cash register, ring-ring-ring!

Though the restaurant had been filled to capacity, and there were people lounging about the top after dinner, the rain and stormy weather made it possible to take some unusual photos of the city of lights.

Having only the pocket Nikon S6, I could not do much except snap whatever I could in the terrible weather. Handheld shots were coming out boring or shaken/blurry most of that night. Even iPhoto enhancements recently did not do much to make up for the difficult photography day that was.

But the golden stormy sky through the metal mesh was captured by putting the camera down on metal supports and railings with the longest exposure I could get using the timer. The limited focus and non-existent metering options ensured the perfect overexposed sky of Gold through no talent of mine. Photoshop brightened and framed it today. Sadly I was also running out of battery - after a 12 hours day of sightseeing. So there are not too many photos of this dramatic trip...

A time of museum visits and stylish dinners, hectic days and sensual nights, dangerous liaisons and consummated fantasies, forced by forces of nature to take willing submissions, careless whispers and sweet surrenders, openly opening portals and secretly secreting dreams in spiral staircases making them stairways to heaven, living large with little deaths, explosive invasions and gentle withdrawals, passionate mergers and eventual tempestuous partings... marking the spots and leaving a mark, on the city, on the spot, on the soul.

Oui. Not like a Roman scent of power, it's the soul filling aroma of another sensual Evening In Paris. All and more than what this city of lovers has witnessed in its history-filled history, of loves and lovers, power lusts and lust's power, from the heights of it's story-filled storied multi-story tower to the singular depths of its passionate lover's soul.

© 2010 IMRAN
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loc: 48.8584752, 2.294697

Tags:   Architecture Christmas Clouds Framed France IMRAN ImranAnwar Landmarks Landscapes Night Nikon Outdoors Sky Square Travel Vacation Yellow

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Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world. I am heartbroken by the tragic events and dastardly terrorism that took place there almost 9 years after another of my memorable journeys there. This is a blurry handheld photo with a digital camera of that era, taken in rain, so the camera blur is visible. But the memories are sharp and vivid, of each moment. The long title of this photo is to mark an Urdu/Hindi movie of that name made when I was a little boy in Pakistan. The shorter title is to honor a fragrance that I recall seeing on my parents’ dresser, Evening In Paris, which came out around 1928 and was popular in the 1960s and 1970s I think. Love to the city of love and lights and all good people who live within it.

© 2006-2015 IMRAN™
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Tags:   Eiffel Tower Europe France Memories NIkon Paris Travel

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Enjoy this unique view of the Christmas Tree at Galleries Lafayette in one of my favorite cities in the world, Paris, France. Can you see what chanNel my copyright is in the picture? :-)

Though I am a Muslim born in Pakistan, December 25, Christmas Day was always a special day. It is a national holiday in Pakistan (birth date of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of the nation). Since I went to missionary (Catholic) schools for a great education in Pakistan, they also celebrated it as a Christmas break. And, on a more personal note, it was also the birthday of my beloved late Mother.

For Christmas Eve and this holiday season I think this is a perfect picture to wish all my friends lots of joys and treats having a ball under (or over) the towering tree(s). See it larger for more detail.

And compare to the Christmas Tree At Rockefeller Center, New York.

© IMRAN
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Galeries Lafayette Haussmann
40, Boulevard Haussmann,
75009 Paris, France

loc: 48.87276862591975, 2.332355493122009

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