Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: France

After changing trains via the London Underground widened lines from Paddington to St. Pancras, to took the Eurostar to Brussels-Midi. For several years, these were the fastest trains I had ever ridden, as they operate at 190 m.p.h. in Britain. I recently found out through research (not my stopwatch) that I broke my record several months after I took this video, as I had unknowingly ridden at 330 km/h, or 205 m.p.h., on the TGV Duplex between Strasbourg and Paris. I remember the ride was fast, but that's it. The train was very overcrowded, I didn't have a window seat, and ultimately I didn't take any photos or video, which is a shame.

I couldn't decide whether to post this shot. The Louvre, being the world's most famous art museum, and home to the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, seems to be a subject that everyone else has done already. In addition, my photo is far from original. Nevertheless, this is now my only photo of the Louvre on iPernity, so why not?

In the past two years, I've been busy with many things outside photography. In addition, iPernity's blocking over 3,200 of my photos with their new payment policy has left me unsure of what to do with this account. However, I decided this week to return with some more uploads, even if it will lead to some more older material being blocked. Maybe when I run into some more money I can get a paid account in the future, but for the moment this will have to be the way I do things. In any case, this is the Hotel du Louvre in Paris. I had a short vacation in Paris two summers ago, and shot some photos, although not a lot. My Nikon is currently only functional if it's held together with tape, so I took my Zeiss Contina LK and my cameraphone (a new one, actually), and some Tmax 400 film I had received as a gift. I didn't stay at the Hotel du Louvre, but it is actually a tourist attraction in and of itself, as it is billed as Paris's first luxury hotel, opened in the relatively late year of 1887. This surprises me, at least, since Paris has long been a luxury holiday desination, but Britain and the U.S. had luxury hotels far earlier.

This is the National Assembly, or parliament, of France. I don't remember the reason I shot this, but most likely I just wanted to photo of the parliament.

Unlike the photo buildings I photographed in Paris, this one was relatively mysterious to me. I like the way it looks like several buildings jumbled together (which, in fact, is probably what it is), giving a Frank Gehry sort of look. I know nothing about this building otherwise, however, and until I was going through my Paris photos today, I had forgotten I had shot this. Actually, I still don't remember shooting it, although the design of the building was probably why. If anyone has more information, it was be interesting to know.

Versailles is more than a palace, of course, being surrounded by gardens, plus this pond. This was another random shot that I took, which I though would look good in black and white. In the end, it came out so well (I think), that it is one of the few photos that I haven't post processed at all.

I shot this randomly walking in the neighborhood surrounding the Eiffel Tower, which you can see in the distance. The way the city is laid out around the tower is especially impressive, and this shot is unusual in that it appears messier than usual, which is part of the appeal, of course.

During my visit to Paris, I also took a day trip to Versailles, which was my first. The palace was very crowded on the day, and there were long lines in the hot sun, which you can't see here because most of the people were inside the fence. You can see that the lines have been backed out of the fence, though.

Here's another very common subject, in this case Notre Dame Cathedral. Actually, I've shot photos of Notre Dame before, but at night and in color.

Even today, a station is maintained at Calais. The last time I had ridden the Eurostar, I had noted a large amount of graffitti on the CTRL, which seemed completely unacceptable to me. It isn't just ugly, but on a high speed line, in the post-9/11, post-Madrid world (not to mention earlier attacks specifically on the LGV system), it indicates an unacceptably low level of security. I'm nowhere close to a security fanatic, but a high speed line, like an airport, must be secure. Apparently, the French government had noticed, too, and put soldiers on the ends of the platforms, complete with bullpup rifles of some kind (probably FAMAS rifles). It's surprising how much vandalism happens completely out in the open, with little sophistication. Often vandals damage stations right under the CCTV cameras, and get onto the lines not with wire cutters or any such commando-like tools or tactics, but simply walk off the ends of the platforms or through gaps in the sound walls. Speaking of that, I've never understood the point of building a wall or a fence if you're going to put gaps in it or make it low enough to step over. It seems like a tremendous waste of money. Ultimately, vandalism is much easier to deal with than we were lead to believe back in the 1980's. It just takes a will, as evidenced by the drastic cleanup of the New York City subway system in the 1990's.

This was another shot that I took of the A380 with the next roll of film. Unfortunately, I had to change rolls as it was taxiing towards us, but luckily, it was going very slow. This might be my best of the bunch.

This isn't the best photo that I got on the day I was in CDG, but it's the only one I have developed right now. This is the one and only Airbus A380 that Air France currently operates, which makes it the largest airliner in service in the world (unless some other airlines have received deliver of their A380's). This plane was significant enough so that the flight crew made an announcement on our A330 that it was coming, so I finished the roll of film with this shot. Once I develop the next roll, I'll have better shots.