Most of this week’s photos were taken in Paris between Sunday and Wednesday. I was there for work, taking part in events at the OECD, but there was sufficient free time in the evenings to enjoy the city. And I must say that Paris is much more enjoyable now than it was 10-15 years ago, thanks to the expansion of parks and pedestrian infrastructure championed by mayor Anne Hidalgo.
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I had to be at the OECD on Monday morning, so I flew to Paris around lunchtime on Sunday. After checking in at my horribly overpriced 3-star hotel (chosen because it was walking distance to the OECD), I met up with my fellow Polish economist Piotr who is my main contact at the OECD. We went to a local bar to have a couple of beers, and along the way we came across a couple doing a wedding shoot on Pont de Bir-Hakeim:
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We crossed the Seine on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, and stopped to take in the classic view of the Eiffel tower and the Pont d’Iéna:
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Then we passed a site that holds great importance for my family. The memorial plaque marks the site of the indoor cycling stadium, Vel d’Hiv, where more than 13,000 Parisian Jews were held after the roundup in July 1942, including my uncle Joseph and his family. Most of them ended up in the gas chambers of Auschwitz:
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Finally we reached our destination, a nice neighbourhood bar where we enjoyed a couple of pints (French beer culture has markedly improved in the last couple of decades):
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After the bar visit, I said goodbye to Piotr (he had a dinner to attend), and went for a walk in Champ-de-Mars, a long park connecting the Eiffel tower and the École Militaire. Many people were out and about, enjoying the sunshine:
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There was lots of basketball being played:
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A marriage proposal which by the looks of it was accepted:
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A promenade along the Seine, seen from Pont d’Iéna. It used to be a busy riverside road:
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On the banks of the Seine:
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I walked on to the Trocadéro square where I was going to have dinner in one of the restaurants that line on side of it. I passed the Palais de Chaillot, which houses several museums:
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Another lovely scene, Trocadéro:
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When night falls, Trocadéro becomes the favourite vantage point to admire the tower:
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On Monday morning it was time to walk the 1.2 km from my hotel to the OECD and get to work. I spent most of the day in this meeting room, a plenary meeting of OECD’s Working Party on Countering Illicit Trade. The other people in the room were representatives of the OECD member countries, the European Commission, and Business at OECD, the private sector representatives:
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While the Working Party is co-chaired by representatives from the UK and the US, OECD’s senior economist Piotr played a major role in the proceedings:
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One of the reasons I like to visit the OECD is that there is usually some interesting art to look at. This time there was a big exhibition of paintings by Korean female painters, mounted on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and France, and the 30th anniversary of Korea’s adhesion to the OECD:
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I downloaded the exhibition catalogue using the QR code provided, and during the following couple of days I came back to look at the paintings several times:
The next several pictures show a selection of the paintings on display, with the information taken from the catalogue.
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Park Myung-soon, The Boy Playing the Flute:
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Choi Young-shin, Peaceful Time:
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Seo Cheong-hee, Silver Contemplation (top); Jung Tae-kyung, Jar (bottom):
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Omu, Blue Moon Whale (top); Lee Mi-ran, Joan of Arc (bottom):
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Jeon Da-un, Afterimage of Memory:
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Jang Su-jung, Connection (top); Lee Mi-young, My face like an apple (bottom):
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Lee Jong-eun, Layers of Feeling (top); Choi Young-shin, Beauty of the Left Behind Things (bottom):
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Seong Secilia, Self-portrait: Dreaming Tiger in Me:
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Park Kyung-ok, A Human Life:
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Jang Min-kyeong, Greed and Obsession:
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Kim Young-sook, Festival on a Rainy Day:
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I had Monday evening free, so I decided to visit the famous bookshop Shakespeare & Company. It is basically across the river from Notre Dame. It was great to see the beautiful old cathedral rebuilt after the devastating fire six years ago:
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A couple on the banks of the Seine, near Notre Dame:
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The famous bookshop. Shakespeare & Company has played a role in the development of 20th century literature comparable to City Lights in San Francisco. Today it is often overrun by tourists, most of whom do not buy anything–they come to take a selfie. So now photography inside the bookstore is banned, and at times the number of visitors is limited. I was lucky; that evening, the shop was not crowded, and I could browse at leisure. In a remarkable feat of self-restraint, I only bought 4 books:
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On Tuesday morning I was back at the OECD. While the meeting on Monday was closed, on Tuesday and Wednesday the OECD hosted a public event called the Forum on Illicit Trade. Between those present and the people attending online, there were several hundred attendees. Piotr’s colleague Leonor was the master of ceremonies:
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The deputy head of the agency where I work, Andrea Di Carlo, delivered one of the opening speeches:
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A third colleague from my office, Harrie, moderated a panel discussion:
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Andrea and I also had a couple of bilateral meetings with senior OECD people, and a group photo afterwards is standard practice. I had selected this spot, and the photo was taken with my camera–we simply grabbed a passer-by to take the picture:
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In April, my photo club in Brussels has the monthly theme “reflections”. So during the past few weeks I have tried to make some photos involving reflections that are not the standard reflections-of-buildings-in-a-body-of-water kind of stuff. While listening to a panel at the OECD, I experimented with another colleague of Piotr, Camila, who was sitting next to a shiny screen:
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Camila caught me in the act, but obviously she did not mind. Everybody knows that I am always there with my camera:
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Tuesday evening I met with my cousin Francis for dinner. He lives on the outskirts of Paris and had been on a business trip. So we met in a restaurant near the Gare du Nord train station where he arrived. I made an informal portrait of him:
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On Wednesday the Forum continued, with more panels and also one-on-one conversations called “fireplace chats”. Here, Piotr is conducting one such chat:
I flew home Wednesday evening, and on Thursday we had a brief lunchtime “picoteo” (basically, a lunch consisting of snacks and drinks) at the office.
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I have my own small meeting room next to my office, and that is where we held the picoteo:
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Camelia with Felicia, our German trainee:
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JuanMi (Juan Miguel, but in Spanish we abbreviate many composite names) makes a funny face:
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During a late evening walk with Mochi, I photographed a modern apartment building. There is an area near my house that is full of such buildings, all built in the bast 10 years:
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On Friday, I had one of my regular lunches with Eri, at a Moroccan restaurant in the centre:
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As usual, we had good food and good conversation. And as usual, I took several pictures of her:
