Chilly Night in the City of Light

In the northeast corner of Paris is La Villette, former home of slaughterhouses and the national livestock market. Now it’s an urban park of 55 hectares (136 acres) with performing arts facilities, exhibition space, an Imax theater, playgrounds, and the Cité des Sciences, a huge science museum.

On the western edge of the park is the Canal de l’Ourcq, still in use for pleasure and industry, stretching for many miles down the east side of the metropolitan area.

Recovering from jet lag on one of the first cold nights of the season, I strolled across the street from my hotel to the banks of the canal, where I looked across at the Parc La Villette with its cubic red “follies” and the xenon lights of one of the park's promenades along the water. Behind the trees to the left was the blue glow of the Cité des Sciences, and still further left a lock, quiet for the moment. Traffic on the Quai de la Gironde was light, and steam from manholes wafted up into the crisp night air, caught by the headlights of the few passing cars.

It was a wonderful way to clear out the head, but just plain cold for my California bones.

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Europe / France

Lat: 48° 53' 33" N
Long: 2° 23' 8" E

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Unknown / Undeclared.

Nikon D50, Sigma 8mm fisheye; homemade pano head on cheap tripod. Four portrait images, 1/10 sec at f.4.5, stitched in PTMac; tweaked in Photoshop CS2 with Noise Ninja, and made into movie with Cubic Converter.