Pont-à-Mousson...(7/1)

Here I was, this time by chance, on the road of regression, and I located the bridge. It used to be conventional, and cars just passed through... There was no noise, while the town was so calm. Calm as it was the river, the Moselle enjoyed its belief of quietism, at least at the moment. People were only creatures of scattered pastel on this oil on canvas. The image looked silky, while beauty diluted into a multi-focused distance of glittering beams. It was there, as of it were. Fascinated by its existence along my arbitrary direction of way and ways, it has been a destination where I would like to visit and understand. Since the 19th century, the town has taken advantage of its origin as a cast iron and steel supplying base and accommodated the PAM s.a. being a major supplier of the manhole cover in France apart from its other drainage and construction businesses. The manhole cover design is nice in France and other countries in Europe. I collect the design and some of them are kept at http://zirhc.blogspot.com/2005/08/did-you-bid-lid-id58.html. Apart from the regional design with specific design, emblem, slogan or abbreviation on the manhole cover, those of PAM simply mark with the name of the town – Pont-à-Mousson (or better say the name of the company), but it is this little bridge across the Moselle that links up the many missing puzzles on the roads in France. Before further determining what is below the cover, the cast iron logo gives you already a source of inspiration...monsoon? deconstruction? doxa or para-doxa?

Ponts de Paris...(19/7)

We have 37 connections since last week. They all serve as a link for the leftists and the rightists...
- Pont Amont
- Pont Aval
- Pont d'Issy
- Pont de Garigliano
- Pont Mirabeau
- Pont de Grenelle
- Pont Rouelle
- Pont de Bir-Hakeim
- Pont d'Inea
- Passerelle Debilly
- Pont de l'Alma
- Pont des Invalides
- Pont Alexandre III
- Pont de la Concorde
- Passerelle Solferino
- Pont Royal
- Pont du Carrousel
- Pont des Arts
- Pont Neuf
- Pont au Change
- Pont Notre Dame
- Pont d'Arcole
- Petit-Pont
- Pont Louis-Philippe
- Pont de l'Archevêché
- Pont au Double
- Pont de la Tournelle
- Pont Marie
- Pont de Sully
- Pont d'Austeritz
- Pont Charles-de-Gaulle
- Pont de Bercy
- Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir
- Pont de Tolbiac
- Pont National
- Pont N. Mandela
- Pont de Charenton

Die Eroberung Der Strasse...(1/7)

During my last visit to Germany, I visited the exhibition at Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt...From a German perspective, the exhibition compared the capital of Berlin with the metropolitan of Europe, Paris. Both cities carried a symbolic role in the European history, and the essence of the show is how the reform of the two cities can be resembled to each other. My bias prevails an urban modelling of European metropolitans should be chaired by Paris, especially when we reviewed the reconstruction in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibition focused the mission of Haussmann in the late 19th century in Paris, and has chosen important landmarks including:
- Gare Saint Lazare, the oldest station in Paris;
- Place de l'Opera, the centre of theatre and arts;
- Rue de Rivoli, the widen and elongated road at the heart of the centre;
- Place d'Etoile, the milestone of Paris la grand ville with the star-like intersections extending into the edges of the city, an extension of the centralised-philosophy of Paris in France or Europe in the Belle Epoque;
- Gare d'Orsay, the first station of electric train, and a symbol of the debut 20th century architecture in Paris (see my earlier blog on the architect Victor Laloux);
- Bois de Boulogne, a redesign of the city park by Jean Charles Alphand and a remodelling of the Parisian lifestyle to 'parking' and 'pique-nique';
- Hotel de Ville, all about facade and the beauty of decorative facade, a reconstruction of the municipal structure in 1882 by Theodore Ballu & Jacques Boucher des Perthes.

The exhibition provided an alternative perspective to me about the 1900 World Expo in Paris. I was looking for information about the event for months, and surprisingly some displays and maps showcasing in the exhibition enabled me to have more idea about the preparation and the layout of the Expo. The Expo created not only a full demonstration about the power of nations in debut 1900, but its governmental influence on architecture and infrastructure in Paris formulated a 'new' Paris. Skylines including Tour Effiel, Pont Alexandre, Petit et Grand Palais, Gare d'Orsay, Gare de Lyon etc. recorded a new chapter of the history of the city which can last long.
The exhibition did not really compare in details the urban planning and development of Paris and Berlin, but intentionally putting together the development of landscape and city infrastructure like the drainage system, the public transport system and landmarks, the exhibition is interesting to visitors. There were also advertising posters and drawings of the two city landscapes under impressionists in the old days. I do not know when the above-mentioned city buildings and features became the subjects of painters and artists, but they were right, they captured the spirit of the city, or I should better say, the city in the past. Their works differentiate from the tourist-favourites scenery selling now on Rue Rivoli.